Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
Intensification of maize-legume based systems in the semi-arid areas of Tanzania (Kongwa and Kiteto districts) to increase farm productivity and improve farming natural resource base
ESA Project Proposal – Kongwa Kiteto Research Team
(Refreshed for 2015/16 season)
Submitted to:
International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
December 2015
The Africa Research In Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises three research-for-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative.
Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING will create opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.
The three regional projects are led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (in West Africa and East and Southern Africa) and the International Livestock Research Institute (in the Ethiopian Highlands). The International Food Policy Research Institute leads the program’s monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. http://africa-rising.net/
This document was made possible with support from the American people delivered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the US Government’s Feed the Future Initiative. The contents are the responsibility of the producing organization and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of USAID or the U.S. Government.
Table of Contents
Core research team ii
Summary 3
Consolidated budget 2015/16 (USD) 4
Research Problem and Justification 5
Progress along the research to impact trajectory 7
Requirements to mature technologies 9
Methodology for maturation of technologies 12
Thematic area 1: Technology packages for genetic intensification 12
Thematic area 2: Integrated crop, soil health and livestock technologies for ecological intensification 17
Thematic area 3. Aflatoxin mitigation to improve nutrition, safety and market competitiveness 28
Thematic area 4: Socio-economic intensification through innovation platforms 32
Lesson learning and management 38
Expected outcomes and impacts 39
Development impacts 39
Intermediate development outcomes (IDOs) 39
Research outputs and outcomes 40
Communication and Dissemination Strategies 41
Dissemination strategy 41
Monitoring and evaluation 42
Project Budget 43
Appendices 44
Appendix 1. Project Theory of Change 44
Appendix 2. Logical frame work 45
Appendix 2. Feed the Future indicator projection matrix for 2015-2016 63
Appendix 4. Detailed budget broken down by thematic areas and activities 68
ii
Core research team
Name / Gender / Institution / Disciplinary expertise / Highest qualification / Project roleElirehema Swai / M / ARI- Hombolo / Soil Scientist/ Agronomy / PhD / Co-PI
Anthony Kimaro / M / ICRAF / Forestry & Soil Fertility / PhD / Co-PI
Dan Makumbi / M / CIMMYT / Plant Breeder / PhD / Co-PI
GangaRao, NVPR / M / ICRISAT / Plant Breeder / PhD / Co-PI
Anitha Seetha / F / ICRISAT / Molecular Diagnosis / PhD / Scientist
Monica Lyimo / F / SUA / Nutrition expert / PhD / Scientist
Yasinta Muzanilla / F / SUA / Nutrition expert / PhD/Prof / Scientist
Omari Mponda / M / ARI Nalendele / Plant Breeder / PhD / Scientist
Chrispinus Rubanza / M / University of Dodoma / Forage Scientist / PhD / Scientist
Rashid Msangi / M / Pasture Research / Forage Scientist / PhD / Scientist
Martha Swamila / F / ICRAF / Agriculture Economist / MSc / Scientific Assistant
Mathew Mpanda / M / ICRAF / Forestry/Nursery techniques / MSc / Associate Researcher
Bekele Hundie Kotu / M / IITA / Agricultural Economist / PhD / Researcher
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Summary
The aim of this project, now in the third year of implementation, is to provide a scientific basis for sustainably intensifying agricultural production in semi-arid areas of central Tanzania. The project will implement activities packaged under 4 thematic areas that address three critical elements of sustainable intensification, i.e. genetic, ecological and socio-economic intensification technologies. The scope of activities being implemented include: Final packaging of new legume and cereal varieties with over 120% yield advantage, packaging and validation of integrated productivity enhancing technologies for cereals, legumes, legume trees and soil health technologies, food safety primarily to reduce aflatoxin contamination and integration of livestock into the cropping systems. In the 2013-2014 season, we reached out to 1217 and 1795 in 2014-2015 in Kongwa and Kiteto. This year we plan to reach out to about 1500 new farmers. Innovation Platforms and onfarm experimentation approaches will underpin our operations priority investments, R4D processes and impact pathways. The project team remains the same with ICRISAT leading implementation.
Consolidated budget 2015/16 (USD).
The total budget for this year is 551,530 USD.
Research Problem and Justification
State of the art and progress along the research to impact trajectory
The research was launched in the 2012-2013 cropping season to improve resilience and productivity of maize-legume based farming systems in Kongwa and Kiteto. The rationale for these investments is still valid i.e.
1. Low productivity of crop and livestock systems and fragile production to market systems[1].
2. High vulnerability of communities to weather, natural disasters and nutritional deficiency (IFAD[2], 2001).
3. High levels of food poverty line at 35.5% and up to 51.4% based on expenditures[3].
In 2013-2014 cropping season, the project registered a number of achievements (Box 1).
In the 2012-2014 cropping season, this research for development (R4D) team undertook activities tooth validate promising technologies as well as generate new approaches for sustainably intensifying agricultural productivity of agro-pastoral communities in Kongwa and Kiteto. The main success points of the work such as, (i) identification of new high yielding maize, other cereals and legumes as part of genetic intensification; (ii) validation of low resource use efficient technologies for soil fertility and water management; (iii) characterization of new locally adapted legume browse species for integration into the agro pastoral rangeland and erosion management; (iv) testing of appropriate crop combinations as part of the ecological intensification; (v) characterisation of crop to market chains for aflatoxin contamination points; (vi) establishment of an innovation platform to inform the R4D process as well as provide scaffold for scaling up and out of innovation. In the 2014-2015 season, investments were focused on selected technology combinations to form “intensification research streams” for testing, validation and promotion at appropriate scale (Figure 1). In 2015-2016, candidate technologies will be further studied to inform the packaging for scaling-up and-out. Technology release especially varieties will be undertaken as well as elucidation of gender, trade-off analysis of candidate technologies. The innovation platform will still remain a key mechanism for engaging multi stakeholders.
Figure 1: Conceptual diagram illustrating the implementation framework being used to ensure, focus and relevance, integration of appropriate technologies, lesson learning and effective adoption strategies for sustainable intensification in line with Hypothesis 4 of the Programme framework.
Progress along the research to impact trajectory
This project has been designed along the Africa RISING principles of; (i) targeting investments and activities at the farm household scale inline with farm typology differences, (ii) Applying innovations that sustainably increase output from the same land area, while reducing negative environmental impacts, increasing contributions to natural capital and the flow of environmental services; and (iii) evaluating different options of innovations to generate options for intensification in semi-arid zones; (iv) location and design of interventions to identify and test key elements of development domains for the target districts; and (v) engaging R&D partners in innovation to improve relevance and adoption. Using these principles, our project is designed to experiment/evaluate diverse options for sustainable intensification of crop and livestock productivity in Kongwa and Kiteto. The project is using a three-pronged strategy that deploys the three key elements of sustainable intensification i.e. genetic ecological and socio-economic approaches (Montpellier Panel, 2013)[4]. The new varieties supply genetic improvement inputs i.e., crop and livestock management to assure ecological relevance and fitting, whilst the innovation platform and socioeconomic studies address questions relevant for adoption and scaling out of technologies.
These three essentials of agroecological intensification are being implemented using an integrated approach involving diverse R&D specialties to generate suites of technologies relevant for the target districts and other semi-arid agroecologies. After three years of experimentation, the suites of technology packages to support intensification being packaged include (i) New cereal and legume varieties with yield advantage of 60 to 100% and their deployment options; (ii) Soil health and management (including water management) for effective crop management; (iii) mycotoxin management to unlock market and nutrition opportunities. The Innovation Platform will be used to inform, support learning and forge new partnerships (Figure 2). The work is being done in partnership with NARS and development agencies such as and NAFAKA. This way, our R4D approach will evaluate the Africa RISING approach and provide key lessons for semi-arid savannahs of Tanzania.
Figure 2. Africa RISING impact pathway on a time scale. This research being conducted in Kongwa and Kiteto, now in its third year, is focusing on testing of integrated technology options and their scaling out approaches in agro pastoral communities of Manyara (Kongwa and Kiteto).
Requirements to mature technologies
2015-2016 research objectives
The ultimate goal of this project is to provide suites of technologies that will increase productivity of maize, associated cereals and legumes in the agro-pastoral communities of Kongwa and Kiteto. These technologies will increase output per unit input of deployed by farmers, increasing net benefits to farmers of the two environments. The technology packages will be validated for increasing production with more efficient use of all inputs on a durable basis, while reducing environmental damage and building resilience, natural capital and the flow of environmental services.[5]Models for scaling out will equally be tested to inform the next phase of the project i.e. the up and out scaling of proven technologies. The entire project is testing Africa RISING’s R&D hypothesis 4. However, project objectives 1-3 are also testing programme hypothesis 2 on integration, while objective 5 is testing Programme hypothesis 1 with an RO2 focus. A brief description of the project objectives this year (2015-2016) is provided below.
1. National performance and adaptability trials to underpin genetic intensification. A central research entry point for this team is the testing and deployment of new higher yielding and resilient crop varieties in these semi-arid zones. Genetic intensification in this case embodies technologies that will increase crop productivity, improve nutritive value, enable nitrogen uptake and fixation and enhance resilience to pests and diseases. The success of genetic intensification requires that we get clarity on the traditional genotype (variety differences) by environment (agroecological information) interaction information. But, given the variation in typology of farmers and farming practices, the role of management actually influences performance and stability. Thus clarity on genotype x environment by management will inform (i) stability of material in the relatively drier cropping systems of Kongwa compared to millet with over 53% yield advantage (Box 1 for major results). These materials will be tested for both mono and multiple cropping systems as is common in the target areas. The role of genotype x environment x management interactions on productivity of the target varieties in the mono and multiple cropping systems will be studied. This will be done to identify and or validate the most promising technology packages for the relatively stressed environments of Kongwa compared to Kiteto. This objective will elucidate the effects of management options on crop productivity ultimately, but specifically to plant resilience to water and heat stress and competition for nutrients. The effects of sequential planting, effects multiple cropping on pest and disease as well as productivity and resilience to weather will be tested. Through this objective, new varieties around which productivity-enhancing innovations have been designed will also be released. This output will contribute to outcome 1 of our intervention (increased crop productivity) and objective 1 of the Africa RISING Programme. In the ESA log frame this activity will contribute to output five on “Innovations that increase resilience and productivity of farming systems deployed.”
2. Testing and validation of crop, soils technology packages for ecological intensification. During the period 2014-2016, we will complete the testing of a number of promising crop soil fertility and soil water management options to underpin sustainable intensification in these semi arid tropics. Activities packaged around improved crop and tree varieties and species respectively (legumes, cereals and agroforestry tree species), designed to improve nutrient use efficiency, erosion control, soil moister capture and retention (Box 1 for highlights for major results) will be deployed. Candidate options such as micro dosing, soil-water and fertility management, multiple cropping options and option that target erosion control, contribute to environmental resilience (wood supply, carbon sequestration, carbon recycling etc.) via shelter belts and afforestation), will continue to be studied and packed being long-term experimentation.
3. Integration of crops, livestock and poultry for enhanced productivity and resilience. In period 2013-2014 we identified locally adapted browse species rich in crude protein content (Box 1) and in year 2 characterised the grazing systems. In 2015-2016, through the innovation platform as well as observations and recommendations during the commissioned external review of 2015, the need to focus on small ruminants such as goats was raised. The focus on goats for homestead based augmented feeding systems will allow the project improve an already existing system by improving the quality of browse fed to ruminant. This is the new element under this activity. This effort will provide insights of how to improve the design of Sylvo- pasture systems to support the agro-pastoral communities by supplying browse and soil nutrients and erosion control. Under this activity limited work on poultry production especially feeds and management will also be implemented to improve household nutrition and incomes. This objective will contribute to objective 2 and 3 of the programme and to output 5 of the ESA log frame.