Striga Management through Herbicide Resistance: A Public-Private Partnership in Action

Striga is an indigenous parasitic weed that attacks cereals and other crops in Africa. In maize croplands alone, Striga infests over 2.3 million ha resulting in 1.6 million tons of grain loss worth US $383 million annually. An innovative approach to controlling the parasite was to induce herbicide resistance in maize and to coat the seed with herbicide to provide chemical protection from infection. This breakthrough that was realized after 12 years of collaborative research and development by the International Maize and Wheat Centre (CIMMYT), the Kenya Agricultural Research Center (KARI) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, is now ready for deployment in Sub-Saharan Africa. This effort is most advanced in Kenya, where one variety of the Imazapyr-resistant (IR) maize hybrid aptly named Ua Kayongo (Striga Killer) was tested by over 13,000 households and registered for commercial release by Western Seed Company. Compared to a currently recommended commercial hybrid (H513), Ua Kayongo improved maize yields by 1,022 kg ha-1, reduced Striga expression by 81$143 ha-1 (+63%). This technology occupies a central role in the design of comprehensive Striga Eradication Initiatives in maize fields, but hindrance to achieving this goal has emerged from unlikely sources. Crop breeders committed to developing alternative, Striga-immune varieties self-indulgently dismiss IR maize as a technological dead-end single gene approach, while “green” interests unfairly label IR-maize a GMO. A public-private partnership has formed to deploy IR maize to needy African farmers. Differences in operational approaches are expected among these partners, given their underlying interests and organizational mandates, and it is important that these issues continue to be resolved in a manner that does not lose momentum or shift focus. Now that Striga has become a preventable disorder in maize fields, it is time to minimize the drama and direct all available resources toward assisting Striga’s victims in Africa.Africa, Herbicides, Maize, Striga, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Agricultural Transformation in Maize Producing Areas of Africa

Maize is a critical staple cereal across Sub-Saharan Africa but attempts to improve its productivity in small-scale farming systems often prove disappointing. The 12 key technologies required to overcome poor yields are mostly known, but the manner in which they are mobilized, packaged, and delivered requires re-evaluation. Combinations of better varieties and their necessary accompanying inputs must become more available and affordable for an African maize revolution to succeed, and land must be managed in ways that enhance, rather than diminish, land quality over time. Adjustments to the bundling and transfer of these technologies as transferable assets pose a solvable dilemma. These interventions must be based upon specific agro-ecological and socio-economic contexts and offered within the scope of well-designed regional and national agricultural development agendas. Success in boosting maize yields and its companion field legumes form the basis for greater food security across Africa and value-adding enterprises, including the growth of blended flours and commercial animal production. This chapter describes how these technologies may be most effectively mobilized within the current thrust to transform African agriculture

Blending Climate Action and Rural Development in Africa’s Sahel

This paper describes the opportunity for combining climate action and improved food and nutritional security as mutual elements of rural development projects, with particular reference to the situation in the African Sahel. This progress is achieved by identifying climate-smart agricultural production technologies and bundling them into solutions for inclusion within larger projects and programs. Seventeen (17) such technologies are offered in this chapter that represent genetic innovations, improved soil and water management, and directed improvement across landscapes. Examples of the efficacy of these technologies are presented based on results from the African Agricultural Transformation Program (TAAT) with specific reference to improved cereal production. An example of the deployment of TAAT technologies for millet and sorghum involving 83,620 households managing 123,863 ha led to nearly 200,000 MT of increased food production worth about $42 million. This effort led to an estimated annual increase of 177,279 MT CO2e in biomass and soil worth$3.9 million, assuming buyers could be found. The relationship between three principal drivers of agricultural transformation, the public, private, and farming sectors, is considered in terms of how these different technologies are mobilized and deployed. The potential for increasing food supply and carbon gains under current agricultural investment levels across the Sahel by International Financial Institutions, about $683 million per year, is described. This chapter then offers recommendations in how improved rural development projects combining climate action and food security in the Sahel may be designed in the future

A New Paradigm in the Delivery of Modernizing Agricultural Technologies across Africa

This Chapter describes the approach and impacts of the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Program. TAAT is an operational framework based upon collaboration between the African Development Bank, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and many other partners. This Program is designed to deliver modernizing agricultural technologies as a means of achieving food and nutritional security, and to boost employment and agricultural exports across Africa. TAAT consists of nine Commodity Compacts that have assembled technology toolkits for use in development programs and six specialized Enablers that help them to do so. These commodities are rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, millet, cassava, sweet potato, common beans, fish, and small livestock. The Enablers provide policy support, youth empowerment, capacity development, irrigation and soil fertility expertise, and control of invasive pests. Together these Compacts and Enablers design and conduct collaborative agricultural development projects in partnership with national counterparts. To date, TAAT has staged 88 interventions in 31 African countries, including the incorporation of customized technology toolkits within country loan projects of major development banks. Over three years, these efforts have reached about 10.6 million adopter households and increased food supply by 12 million tons worth over US $763 million, resulting in substantial improvements in smallholder farmer’s food supply (0.75 MT yr.−1) or income ($128 yr.−1). Environmental gains in terms of carbon offset average 0.74 MT CO2e yr.−1 per adopter household, an outcome indicative of positive combined rural development and climate actions. This Chapter describes how these technology toolkits are designed, deployed and evaluated, and how TAAT is becoming a leading mechanism for agricultural innovation delivery across Africa. This evaluation is limited to eight critical field crops and does not consider animal enterprises or the strategic roles of TAAT Enablers, two other important activities within the larger Program

Technology Promotion and Scaling in Support of Commodity Value Chain Development in Africa

Strengthening the production and processing of key food commodities forms the basis of agricultural development in Africa. These value chains follow a quasi-linear progression across seven main segments: farm planning > land preparation and crop establishment > field production > harvest > post-harvest handling > marketing > and value addition. Each of these consists of sub-segments whose improvement depends upon promotion and adoption of specific modernizing technologies. The technologies either have commercial application, as with the distribution of production input products and labor-saving equipment, or are related to management of farms and processing. For crop commodities, these products include improved varieties planted with more and better-formulated fertilizers and pest management materials. Management options are primarily directed toward the better conservation of resources and wiser integration of different farm enterprises. Key factors underlying value chain advancement include wider application of digital services, more effective incentives for climate-smart action, increased mechanization and irrigation, improved marketing efficiency and fairness, and incentives for value-creating agro-processing. An analogous set of factors also relate to value chains supporting animal enterprise. Attracting women and youth to meaningful careers in agriculture is particularly important since they are major stakeholders in the scaling of much-needed technologies and business models

Start them early program baseline study : understanding youth perceptions toward careers in agriculture

Results of this study suggest several avenues for Start Them Early Program (STEP) activities, designed to strengthen career pathways toward agriculture in DR Congo, Kenya and Nigeria. STEP is a youth program launched by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to advance agribusiness development in secondary schools across Africa. The project brief provides an outline of the project, development of a survey instrument, and detailed results from each country. Data was provided through a survey of 451 secondary school students, randomly selected from three purposefully selected schools. Table A3.5 proposes some ways that STEP can provide support to students attracted to agriculture

Striga Management through Herbicide Resistance: A Public-Private Partnership in Action

Striga is an indigenous parasitic weed that attacks cereals and other crops in Africa. In maize croplands alone, Striga infests over 2.3 million ha resulting in 1.6 million tons of grain loss worth US $383 million annually. An innovative approach to controlling the parasite was to induce herbicide resistance in maize and to coat the seed with herbicide to provide chemical protection from infection. This breakthrough that was realized after 12 years of collaborative research and development by the International Maize and Wheat Centre (CIMMYT), the Kenya Agricultural Research Center (KARI) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, is now ready for deployment in Sub-Saharan Africa. This effort is most advanced in Kenya, where one variety of the Imazapyr-resistant (IR) maize hybrid aptly named Ua Kayongo (Striga Killer) was tested by over 13,000 households and registered for commercial release by Western Seed Company. Compared to a currently recommended commercial hybrid (H513), Ua Kayongo improved maize yields by 1,022 kg ha-1, reduced Striga expression by 81$143 ha-1 (+63%). This technology occupies a central role in the design of comprehensive Striga Eradication Initiatives in maize fields, but hindrance to achieving this goal has emerged from unlikely sources. Crop breeders committed to developing alternative, Striga-immune varieties self-indulgently dismiss IR maize as a technological dead-end single gene approach, while “green” interests unfairly label IR-maize a GMO. A public-private partnership has formed to deploy IR maize to needy African farmers. Differences in operational approaches are expected among these partners, given their underlying interests and organizational mandates, and it is important that these issues continue to be resolved in a manner that does not lose momentum or shift focus. Now that Striga has become a preventable disorder in maize fields, it is time to minimize the drama and direct all available resources toward assisting Striga’s victims in Africa