RTB: progress, priorities and planning for climate resilience
Graham Thiele1*and Tahirou Abdoulaye2*
1) CRP on Root, Tubers and Bananas for Food Security and Income (RTB), Lima, Peru, 2) IITA, Ibadan,
* ,
More than 300 million people below the poverty line in developing countries depend on root, tuber and banana crops for food and income, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is working globally to harness the untapped potential of those crops in order to improve food security, nutrition, income and climate change resilience of smallholders.
RTB is changing the way the research centers work and collaborate, creating a more cohesive and multidisciplinary approach to common challenges and goals through knowledge sharing, multidirectional communications, communities of practice and crosscutting initiatives. Participating centers work with an array of national and international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and stakeholders’ groups, and RTB aims to promote greater cooperation among them while strengthening their capacities as key players. Because the impact of RTB research is highly dependent on its adoption by next users and end users, the program’s research options are developed together with stakeholders and are informed by their needs and preferences. Because women and youth are widely involved in the growing and marketing of RTB crops, face a different set of constraints than men, and have traditionally been the last to benefit from agricultural research and extension, RTB is working to improve gender responsiveness and youth employment with its partners.
RTB conducted a strategic ex ante assessment of research priorities for its five crops (Cassava, Yam, Banana, Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes) following a rigorous six step approach. This global exercise used the same approach across crops and Centers to provide estimates of potential impact to each research option per crop. Using opinions of nearly 1,700 experts (online and direct interviews) across the globe, research options have been identified and ranked for each crop. Research options were also ranked by region and gender of experts involved in the surveys.
A total of 31 research options were then selectedto be evaluated using an economic surplus method. This provided estimates of impact using a set of economic indicators that included adoption potential, Net Present Value (NPV), internal rates of return (IRR) on the research investments, total number of beneficiaries and number of people potentially lifted out of poverty.Economic surplus estimates indicate that returns are positive and above the social cost of capital and that the estimated number of beneficiaries ranges from 2 million to 600,000 in the high adoption scenarios for thetechnologies with largest impact. Overall, evaluation results indicate that RTB crops have huge potential in poverty reduction due to the number of people in all regions who depend on those crops. Also the positive returns to investments in RTB crops are indicative of value for money if partners support research on those crops. RTB is planning to use the results to inform program planning for the second phase.
RTB is building on this priority assessment and reorganizing around five new flagship projects spanning the breadth of research from discovery to improving livelihoods at scale. Adaptation to climate change will feature as one of the most important grand challenges to be addressed. Participants will be invited to contribute to on-line priority setting for building climate change resilience, the most pressing challenge of our generation for agricultural research.