Direct sale as a means for promoting the sustainable use of plant genetic resources: The case of the Tuscany Region

Similarly to other Northern countries, Italy has witnessed a growth in recent years of forms of direct sale of agri-food products. These so-called short supply chains often open new opportunities for the development and conservation of rural areas which are not merely economic in nature. The case study described here presents the results of a survey conducted in the Tuscany Region the purpose of which was to understand if and how direct sale has a part to play in promoting more diversified agricultural systems and in increasing or maintaining agrobiodiversity. The support that the institutions provide for direct sale in this context can be considered as a form of implementation of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) that Italy has ratified and which obliges its contracting parties to promote a sustainable use of plant genetic resources

The role of root and tuber crops in strengthening agri‐food system resilience in Asia. A literature review and selective stakeholder assessment.

This publication begins with a review of the literature on resilience, noting the wide diversity of perspectives on the term and the range of disciplines that have employed the concept. From its use to describe engineering systems that are close to equilibrium, the concept of resilience has evolved to characterize non‐linear systems far from equilibrium in ecology and later, in social‐ecological systems where resilience derives from the complex interactions of ecosystems and social systems. It then looks in some detail at the way the term resilience has been used more recently in relation to recovery from disaster and in assuring food and nutrition security. Drawing on this literature, and also on earlier food security work by the Food Security Through Asian Root and Tuber Crops project (FoodSTART), a provisional conceptual framework was proposed to help understand the relationship between shocks and stressors and the social‐ecological system. For this review the latter is characterized as the agri‐food system made up of interacting households with their food access, assets, knowledge and social capital and more or less diverse and robust agro‐ecologies. Shocks and stresses can directly affect food security outcomes, such as through the destruction of crops. But responses coming from the agency of individuals, households and communities in the form of preparedness, coping, adaptation and transformation, can mitigate the negative food security outcomes. In the light of the theoretical background and the proposed agri‐food system resilience framework, the paper goes on to review literature on different agri‐food systems in the Asian region. It identifies the key characteristics and vulnerabilities of these systems and the important functions of roots and tubers within them. The ubiquity of root and tuber crops (RTCs) among ethnic minorities practicing shifting agriculture throughout the tropical and sub‐tropical hill areas of Asia because they are robust, can be continuously harvested and can be depended upon to contribute to household food and nutritional security. Roots and tubers, especially cassava and potato, also have played significant roles in the widespread transformation of shifting systems into more commercial, permanent field agriculture. Roots and tubers are also important rotation and relay crops in lowland agri‐food systems in Asia, including in coastal areas, where they have been shown to have a role as ‘secondary’ relay crops with primary food and resilience‐related functions. The planting of RTCs in these systems gives rise to their reputation as emergency food. They contribute to increased productivity of the systems through use of marginal spaces and reduced risk through their capacity to withstand weather extremes. Finally, RTCs play a key role in rural and urban homegardens, a distinct agri‐food system that is widespread in the region. This literature, which was analyzed through the lens of the agri‐food system resilience framework, also provided evidence of the important contribution of roots and tubers to mitigating the effects of different kinds of climate change‐related stressors and shocks and contributing to system adaptation. The paper also presents and discusses the specific characteristics and traits that make these crops particularly tolerant or resistant to shocks and stressors (especially abiotic stressors like heat, drought, soil salinity and water‐logging and shocks like typhoons/cyclones) and important contributors to post‐disaster recovery (for instance, due to the possibility of piecemeal harvesting and their short growing cycles). In order to validate the findings from the literature review about Asian agri‐food system resilience and the role of roots and tubers within it, a ground‐truthing was conducted through field studies in Northeast India and in central Philippines. This provided access to the voices of women and men who faced different types of shocks and stressors and allowed a better understanding about how they responded, including the role played by RTCs in their responses to the adverse events. It was possible to go beyond homogenous household and community responses to shocks and stressors through differentiating perceptions in terms of genders and socio‐economic status. Whilst those who were better off were often more prepared and more able to respond because of greater asset endowment, some kinds of stressors, such as livestock diseases in East Khasi Hills, affected the better off more severely. The paper presents f examples of adaptation and even transformation occurring among households with different socio‐economic status. Prompted by the literature survey, women and men were also asked about subjective resilience, the individuals’ self‐perceptions about their ability to ‘bounce back’ or ‘bounce forward’ and conversely people’s loss of hope and feeling of incapacity. There was evidence of strong positivity among some women’s groups in the face of stressors and shocks and a determination to “fight back with all their strength”. This included a determination and confidence to find ways to reestablish agriculture by striving to obtain seeds. The importance of reestablishing access to seed through any means available confirmed the commonly identified importance in the literature of seed as a means for supporting longer‐term recovery after shocks and stresses. It was not always easy to differentiate between types of agency deployed in response to crises, in other words between coping and adaptation and transformation. The case studies also showed differences in responses both within the environments selected and also between them, especially in terms of the level of post‐disaster assistance received and the self‐characterization of responses by different socio‐economic groups. Discussions with the farming households involved in the field study supported conclusions from both the agro‐ecosystem and the technical literature regarding root and tuber crops. They were reported to play a key role in both highland mixed systems and coastal systems in Asia, agri‐food systems which are among the most vulnerable to climate change. In summary, these crops contribute to the robustness and diversity of agro‐ecologies and strengthen preparedness, coping and adaptation strategies of households

Approaches and tools for inclusive value chain development: lessons from Uganda for improved impact

Value chain development (VCD) with smallholders forms a central element of the poverty reduction strategies of governments and NGOs in developing countries. Nevertheless, too little is known about how VCD interventions are designed and implemented, the approaches and tools used, and the challenges faced in the process. This paper helps to fill this gap with evidence from six cases in Uganda. For each case, data was collected from interviews with NGOs, government organizations, buyers, and smallholder business organizations. Results indicate that use of available VCD guides and tools facilitated productive partnerships among chain actors, engagement with support organizations, and feedback mechanisms on intervention processes. Results also challenge NGOs, government agencies, and researchers to better understand the circumstances of resource-poor chain actors, the implications of VCD on gender relations, and the cultural and business context when designing and implementing VCD. This calls for stakeholders to employ a broader approach to VCD, using a combination of available and new tools, and to seek out deeper collaboration with key actors within and outside the value chain

Impact of climate adaptation strategies on the net farm revenue of underutilised indigenous vegetables’ (UIVs) production in Southwest Nigeria

This paper examined the impact of climate adaptation strategies employed by Underutilised Indigenous Vegetables (UIVs) farmers on UIVs’ net revenue of adopters and non-adopters of adaptation strategy in Southwest Nigeria. This was with a view to determine the factors that determined UIVs net revenue in the study area. Both quantitative and qualitative primary household data from 191 UIVs producers, with secondary climate data from Nigeria Meteorological agency were used. An efficient endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) was used to estimate the effect of climate change adaptation strategy on UIVs net revenue. The results show that farmers’ perception of climate change showed a high temperature and a high variability in rainfall pattern. The adaptation strategies mostly employed by the UIVs farmers is cultivating along river banks (98%) while the least was agroforestry and perennial plantation (4%). Meanwhile, all the farmers who adopted farmers that adopted Agroforestry and perennial plantation and Agricultural good practices did not experience loss in UIVs production. The factors that determined the likelihood of adopting climate adaptation strategy include years of experience (0.0335, p<0.1) in UIVs production, access to climate information (0.7895, p<0.1) and agro ecological zone (0.7889, p<0.1). Further, factors that determine the net revenue from UIVs for adopters were access to information on climate change 0.2428, p<0.1), off-farm income (0.6526, p<0.01), precipitation (0.0045, p<0.1), precipitation square (0.−0.00002, p<0.1) and Ondo location (0.4470, p<0.05). Age (0.1261, p<0.1), agro ecological zone (4.2682, p<0.1), off-farm income (−1.1765, p<0.05) and precipitation square (0.0001, p<0.01) determined the UIVs revenue for non-adopters. The promotion of UIVs should therefore be advocated by the government and non-government agencies since high temperature does not have significant effect on its revenue. Also, provision of relevant information on climate change is essential for farmers as this will enhance farmers’ likelihood of adopting appropriate climate change adaptation strategy considering the type of crop they cultivate and the peculiarity of their agro ecological zones. Also, vegetables’ farmers are encouraged to engage in agroforestry and perennial plantation

Farmer business school with climate change and gender perspective: Learning and monitoring guide

The farmer business school (FBS) is a participatory action learning process that involves farmer groups participating in agricultural value chains. As part of capacity strengthening, FBS comprises a series of group‐based experiential learning activities over a production‐marketing cycle while interacting with other chain actors and stakeholders. As a tangible outcome of FBS, the farmer‐participants are expected to initiate or strengthen a business upon completing the FBS learning process. FBS aspires to more profitable pro‐poor farm business through market‐oriented innovations that enhance trust, coordination, and collaboration between farmers and other chain actors while empowering men and women farmers, thus ultimately contributing to sustainable livelihoods of targeted farming households. This manual provides guidelines and tools to be used by senior and field staff of large-scale development projects for planning, implementing and monitoring the FBS process

Effectiveness of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (Btk) and dried Lantana camara l. foliage against potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) under local storage condition of Meghalaya

Potato Tuber Moth (PTM), Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) is an important and widely distributed pest in field and stores in mid and high hills of Hindu Kush Himalayas of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan. It causes huge economic losses to both table and seed potato. Seed potato in farmers’ stores were subjected to two different doses of talcum-based Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (Btk), and chopped and dried Lantana camara shoots in three different locations in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya, India. All the treatments were significantly effective in reducing the incidence of PTM over control. Tubers treated with Btk doses 30g and 60g/kg of talcum had 14% and 64% fewer mines at Nongwah, 50% and 46% at Wahlyngkien and 67% and 63% at Mawgap over control. Tubers treated with L. camara showed 86%, 37% and 87% lesser mines over control at all the three locations which were statistically significant. The mines were very superficial in tubers treated with Btk as compared to those covered with Lantana and control. The use of Btk and Lantana camara as organic approach for managing PTM have been discussed

Farmer Business Schools (FBS) in local communities: How do FBS stimulate farmers’ learning and social capital?

Working paper - No abstract available

Connecting smallholder root and tuber growers to markets through Farmer Business Schools

This book features a collection of stories of 24 women and men who participated in Farmer Business Schools in the Philippines and India, and of project staff of partner organizations who have facilitated the process. Since innovations are inherently linked to change in practices and lives, the stories were collected using the ‘most significant change’ (MSC) approach as a technique for capturing project outcomes. MSC is a qualitative evaluation tool based on community members’ response to a simple question: What do you think was the most significant change in your life brought about by this initiative? This encourages community members to tell the story of how their lives are now different and what part of that difference they value the mos

The diversity of postharvest losses in cassava value chains in selected developing countries

The extent of physical and economic postharvest losses at different stages of cassava value chains has been estimated in four countries that differ considerably in the way cassava is cultivated, processed and consumed and in the relationships and linkages among the value chain actors. Ghana incurs by far the highest losses because a high proportion of roots reach the consumers in the fresh form. Most losses occur at the last stage of the value chain. In Nigeria and Vietnam processors incur most of the losses while in Thailand most losses occur during harvesting. Poorer countries incur higher losses despite their capacity to absorb sub-standard products (therefore transforming part of the physical losses into economic losses) and less strict buyer standards. In monetary terms the impact of losses is particularly severe in Ghana and estimated at about half a billion US dollar per annum while in the other countries it is at the most about USD 50 million. This comparison shows that there are no “one-size-fits-all" solutions for addressing postharvest losses but rather these must be tailor-made to the specific characteristics of the different value chains

Postharvest losses in cassava value chains differ across countries and demand tailor-made solutions

The extent of physical and economic postharvest losses at different stages of cassava value chains has been estimated in four countries that differ considerably in the way cassava is cultivated, processed and consumed and in the relationships and linkages among the value chain actors. Ghana incurs by far the highest losses because a high proportion of roots reach the consumers in the fresh form. Most losses occur at the last stage of the value chain. In Nigeria and Vietnam processors incur most of the losses while in Thailand most losses occur during harvesting. Poorer countries incur higher losses despite their capacity to absorb sub-standard products (therefore transforming part of the physical losses into economic losses) and less strict buyer standards. In monetary terms the impact of losses is particularly severe in Ghana and estimated at about half a billion US dollar per annum while in the other countries it is at the most about USD 50 million. This comparison shows that there are no “one-size-fits-all" solutions for addressing postharvest losses but rather these must be tailor-made to the specific characteristics of the different value chain