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| SATrends Issue 5 | April 2001 |
NEWS FROM THE DRY TROPICS:
- Women Farmers Guide Scientists in Namibia
- Astha Puts its Faith in IPM
- Sahelian Farmers Place Their Bets
- China and Pigeonpea: Love at Second Sight
- Highlights of Previous Issues
1. Women Farmers Guide Scientists in Namibia
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Maria
Kaherero is a smallholder farmer in Namibia who worked with scientists to develop an
improved pearl millet population (named in her honor) that is providing breeders
throughout Southern Africa with the genetic raw material to develop improved “second
generation” varieties. In so doing, she helped prove that everybody wins when farmers
become an integral part of the research team.
During the late 1980s, ICRISAT helped the Namibian national research team to test the then-new concept of 'participatory plant breeding'. By getting farmers to participate in selecting the best lines for release, researchers hoped that the varieties chosen would more closely fit their needs so they would be enthusiastically accepted by farmers. This approach succeeded quickly and spectacularly with the release of 'Okashana 1' in 1989, which now covers half of the country's pearl millet area.
Maria Kaherero was excited by this partnership and launched her own breeding program, crossing Okashana 1 with local landraces to produce plants that combined the best traits of each parent. The new plants had Okashana’s early maturity and large grains, but were further enhanced by adding the landrace’s strong stems and hard, weevil-resistant grains.
Working with Namibian scientists, Emmanuel Monyo, ICRISAT’s Pearl Millet Breeder in Zimbabwe, used Maria's plants to develop a breeding population named MKC (Maria Kaherero Composite). To measure what she had achieved, he carried out some detailed studies comparing MKC's traits with those of other millet populations developed by breeders only (without farmer input), such as NC-90.
His results showed that MKC was superior in several key traits including yield, earliness, and grain size. The frequency of high-yielding accessions (above 3.3 tones per hectare) was 21% in MKC versus 18% in NC-90. And only 2% of the MKC plants had not flowered by 70 days after sowing, compared to 15% for NC-90.
ICRISAT continues to foster the integration of farmers into the research process. Their practical knowledge combined with scientist's technical expertise creates a winning team in every case. Farmers are now routinely involved in the identification of parents and the development of composite populations and production of new varieties from these composites as evidenced in the case of MKC.
For more information, contact e.monyo@cgiar.org
2. Astha Puts its Faith in IPM
Tucked away in the Kinwat tribal area of Nanded district in the state of Maharashtra in west-central India is a small village called Astha. In Hindi the word “astha” means “faith” - a fitting motto for the leap of faith they took in adopting integrated pest management (IPM) technology to eliminate their use of toxic, costly insecticides. The pioneer project in Astha started with 10 locations in 1997 and has since spread to over 1,000 farmers in 55 locations.
During the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the forward-looking farmers of Astha had been quick to adopt new high-yielding varieties and improved agronomic practices. When synthetic insecticides were introduced in the late 1980s, these farmers quickly embraced them to reap better and bigger harvests of cotton, pigeonpea, sorghum, and chickpea.
Heavy use of insecticides, though, caused insects to build up resistance. Applying more and more pesticides worsened the problem. Farmers were caught in a crunch, facing ever-higher insecticide costs and risks, while crop prices declined. Crop failures replaced the earlier boom times. (Right, explaining IPM to the farmers).
The desperate farmers sought assistance from the Marathwada Agricultural University (MAU). ICRISAT, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), MAU and the National Center for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM), joined hands to help Ashta, through the generous support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The team set to work designing various eco-friendly strategies to control the pests, involving the farmers as they went along. Pheromone (chemical attractant) traps were set to monitor the buildup of the damaging pests, and eco-friendly control methods were implemented only when needed, replacing regular toxic sprays.
Manual shaking of the bush-like pigeonpea plants was found to efficiently dislodge many of the larval worms, and some farmers even collected the downfallen pests to feed them to their chickens for an added benefit!
Leaves of the fabled neem tree were extracted to create a spray with insecticidal properties. The nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV), which attacks insect larvae but is harmless to humans and animals, was also sprayed onto plants to kill Helicoverpa larvae. And periodic releases of Trichogramma, an insect whose own larva eat the eggs of Helicoverpa, further enhanced its control.
Farmers in Astha have not used even a single spray of chemical insecticide for the past three years, and today the entire village practices IPM religiously. Astha has become a role model for IPM, and a prime example of successful team work. Farmers produce their own NPV and neem extract, and are convinced that IPM saves the environment, their crops, their health, and their incomes.
No wonder they call IPM “krishi sanjeevini” which means “the farmers’ revitalizing nectar.”
For more information, contact s.wani@cgiar.org or g.rangarao@cgiar.org
3.Sahelian Farmers Place Their Bets.
Agricultural research by ICRISAT and its partners over the past 28 years unleashed a rainbow of possibilities. Improved germplasm, crop, livestock, soil, nutrient, and water management techniques, labor-saving devices, biological pest control methods, and many others provide farmers with a wealth of choices they can use to grow their way out of poverty.But this happy result creates a dilemma - are there too many choices? How are farmers to choose - to mix and match, fine tune and customize, test out and refit so many possibilities given their limited means?
To help farmers find a shortcut through
this thicket, ICRISAT teamed up with ILRI, IITA, IFDC, the University of Kingston (UK),
and with the national systems of Mali, Niger and Nigeria, to devise "Best Bet" trials. These test a few of the most-promising options on-farm. 
To choose the best bets, a multidisciplinary team of scientists, including agronomists, animal scientists, breeders, economists, biometricians, soil scientists, and social scientists, worked closely with farmers to understand their overall systems, priorities, resources, motivations and risk tolerances. The best bets usually turn out to be those technologies that are simple to implement, are low-cost, low-labor, and low risk, yet give a high benefit. (Left, ICRISAT scientist in the forefront with Sahelian farmers).
The best bets currently under test include a combination of improved cultivars of sorghum and dual-purpose varieties of cowpea (high-yielding in both fodder and grain), using minimum inputs. The crop residues from the fields are fed to sheep and the animal manure produced from the sheep is returned to the field in the next season to further enhance productivity.Farmers are satisfied so far with the outcomes, but have also made a few more suggestions- such as an increase in the cereals components of the cropping pattern and the addition of fodder types of sorghum. This kind of iterative feedback and fine-tuning of the best bet approach is exactly what researchers want to see: farmers contributing their own insights and making research more relevant to their needs.
In view of the enthusiastic reception of the approach by farmers and the strong and productive partnerships among institutions, the CGIAR's Systemwide Livestock Program recently decided to renew funding for 2001. After that, IDRC-Canada will generously support the project for a second three-year phase.
For more information, contact r.tabo@cgiar.org
4. China and Pigeonpea:Love at Second Sight
Through their interactions with ICRISAT, Chinese researchers are rekindling an old flame - pigeonpea - an ancient crop for modern times as a source of fodder, fuel, soil conservation, and food.
Although China came in contact with pigeonpea about 1,500 years ago when its seeds were probably carried to the country by some adventurous traders from India, the crop did not become popular because the type of pigeonpea grown there took a long time to mature, produced a low yield, and the seeds were small and bitter.
The crop managed to survive in some parts of the country, because it was used for folk medicine. During the 1950s, farmers grew it to rear an insect, the larvae of which produces lac (a type of resin). But the demand for lac ceased and farmers lost interest in the crop.
With the recent introduction of new
short-duration, highly-productive lines bred at ICRISAT, interest in the crop has
re-ignited in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces, especially for fodder and fuelwood production
and for soil conservation..jpg)
Guangxi is the most important province for livestock production in the country and their tests have shown pigeonpea fodder to be an excellent feed. Trials at the Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GAAS) showed that some ICRISAT varieties like ICPL 93047 have great potential for fodder production.
“As pigeonpea enriches soil fertility and large areas of Guangxi and Yunan provinces have problems of soil erosion and salinity, we are seeking assistance from ICRISAT in this area also,” said Tang Qizhan. He was part of a high-level Chinese delegation that visited ICRISAT headquarters recently for a three-week training program on the crop. The delegation, led by Dr. Li Yangrui, President, GAAS, also visited the national pigeonpea research centers in India and met with pigeonpea farmers, traders, and processors.
Describing the fruitful partnership, ICRISAT Pigeonpea Scientist Dr. K.B. Saxena said, "Although our collaboration with China is new, it has been very vigorous with exchange of visits and technology sharing. Last year, we sent about 1 tone of seed of the ICRISAT variety ICPL 87119 to GAAS Station at Nanning for large-scale on-farm trials.” He added that scientists of the collaborative project were also exploring pigeonpea's use as green vegetable.
The Provincial Government of Guangxi honored Drs Saxena and L J Reddy from ICRISAT with Jin Xiu Qiu Jiang (the Golden Love Ball Award) for their contributions in research and development of pigeonpea in Guangxi.
For more information, contact k.saxena@cgiar.org
March 2001: Agriculture: an Ally Against Global Warming? •Breaking the Spell of Witchweed • Groundnut Taking Root in Central Asia and the Caucasus • Zimbabwean Smallholders Drive the Research Agenda
February 2001:malia: Seeds Deliver Hope Amidst Chaos •The CGIAR Fights Desertification in Africa •Creating the World's First Molecular Marker Map of Chickpea •Aflatoxin and Cancer: Cracking a Hard Nut in Developing Countries
January 2001: Things Grow Better with CokeŽ: Micro-Fertilizer System Sparks 50-100 Percent Millet Yield Increases in the Sahel • Groundnut (Peanut) Production Accelerates in Vietnam • Pigeonpea Broadens Farmer's Options in Sudan • Private Sector Invests in Public Plant Breeding Research at ICRISAT.
December 2000: International Symposium on SAT Futures • Centers Team Up to Help East Timor • Spatial Variability in Watersheds • World's First Cytoplasmic Male-Sterile Hybrid Pigeonpea • Groundnut (Peanut) Variety Boosts Malawian Agriculture • National Researchers Persevere in El Salvador • ICRISAT Celebrates India-ICRISAT Day • ICRISAT and World Vision International Work Together in Southern Africa.