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NEWS FROM THE DRY TROPICS:

1. It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a Superscientist!
2. Viva Sorgo!
3. Small is Big!
4. Abortion Leads to Rebirth
5. Highlights of Previous Issues

1.It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a Superscientist!

Forget about the image of scientists walking across experimental sites and stations to collect soil and vegetation data: these days they are flying on high with kites! In the process, they are not only revolutionizing experimental procedures, but also preserving the environment.

The technique, which consists of attaching a remotely controlled camera to a balloon or a kite, is not new. Its simplicity and low cost make it ideal for working in windy and remote areas such as the Sahel (photo). The equipment was developed as part of a special project by scientists from the University of Hohenheim, Drs Andreas Buerkert and Fritz Mahler.

Dr Bruno Gérard, ICRISAT Scientist based at Niamey, has been using aerial photography since 1994 to compare data generated by aerial photography with traditional methods for estimating vegetative cover and spatial variability in the Sahel. 

Covering a vast region spreading south of the Sahara Desert to the western coast of Africa, where the fragile ecosystem supports millions of people living on millet and sorghum, the Sahel is characterized by the high variability of its vegetation at the field level. For scientists trying to measure vegetative growth patterns, this is a serious problem often countered with a high number of replications or high levels of mineral fertilizers. 

Photos are taken between 100 and 800 meters high from the ground and integrated to a Geographic information system (GIS) for analysis. The results from several experiments, such as the measurement of plant growth or that of natural and fallow vegetation, show that kite aerial photography is an effective and non-destructive method.

The use of the Geographic Information System (GIS) image analysis software and the Global Positioning System (GPS) that gives precise geographical references of fields raises the utility of kite aerial photography to the scientific level and makes a difference in agricultural land management, both at the station and field levels.

Recently the tools were adopted by Drs Philippe Delfosse and Farid Waliyar to study the spatial distribution of groundnut soil-borne diseases (Right, example of an image analysis in the red band using an aerial photography to delimitate areas with growth ranging from poor (yellow zone) to excellent (blue). This information was useful to demarcate the field for spatial distribution of a soil-borne virus in groundnut crop.).

Collaboration with an engineering school in Belgium was recently initiated to further improve the system, such as on-board GPS with real time camera position transferred to a ground computer.

For more information, contact b.gerard@cgiar.org

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Sorghum is an important crop in Nicaragua, grown largely to feed the thriving livestock industry, but it’s also cultivated for food security along with drought-sensitive early maize in marginal production regions. About 75,000 tons of sorghum grain are produced each year from 50,000 hectares. Some 60% of this area is sole-cropped with improved open-pollinated varieties and hybrids. The rest consists of long-duration landraces intercropped with early maize. (Left, sorghum thriving in Nicaragua).

ICRISAT has been involved in sorghum research in Latin America for many years through LASIP, ICRISAT’s erstwhile Latin American Sorghum Improvement Program, which closed in 1993, as well as through CLAIS (Comisión Latinoamericana de Investigadores en Sorgo), a regional sorghum research network, which thrives to this day. During the 1980s, four improved varieties developed by CLAIS, ICRISAT and Nicaragua’s Instituto Nicarag?ense de Tecnología Agropecuaria, were released for cultivation in the country. Two more were released during the 1990s, Pinolero 1 and Tortillero Precoz (‘early flat bread’).

However, sorghum grain yields throughout Nicaragua still average only 1.5 t/ha, and national program breeders must fight to keep pace with growing demand. ICRISAT continues to serve as the main channel for technology exchange, supplying breeding materials, hybrid parents, sources of resistance and technical support. The collaboration has borne fruit, and three varieties are on the shelf.

• INTA LP – 2001. Yield potential 5 t/ha. Similar to Pinolero, derived from a cross of lines bred by ICRISAT-LASIP.
• INTA LP – 99. Yield potential 1.7 t/ha. Parentage includes one line supplied by ICRISAT. Early maturing, recommended for dry areas.
• INTA LP – Ligero. Yield potential 1.7 t/ha. Derived from crosses of Tortillero Precoz and a line from ICRISAT. Early maturing, recommended for dry areas.

Evaluation was completed by INTA last year, and all three are now ready for release. Pre-empting their government’s action, Nicaraguan farmers have already introduced seed into the market. These varieties are expected to gradually replace traditional ones, especially in the drier areas, where adoption of improved varieties has been poor.

For more information, contact c.t.hash@cgiar.org

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3.Small Is Big!

Sometimes a gentle nudge is all you need to start a revolution. Such a nudge has been provided by a team of researchers who wanted to kick-start village seed enterprises in Mali.

Over the past three decades, a bevy of donor agencies and the Government of Mali have pumped in over $16 million to strengthen the public seed sector in the country. Yet, the sector supplies less than 1% of the total sorghum seed sown every year by farmers.

The private seed sector, in its turn, has shown little interest in subsistence crops because it assumes that farmers generally use the seeds saved from their previous harvest.

Meanwhile, farmers keep complaining of seed shortage and agricultural research institutes lament that improved varieties are not reaching farmers.

To bridge the gap, scientists of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)-funded ICRISAT project in West Africa, introduced a novel scheme. They decided to pilot-test the sale of small sorghum seed packets amongst farmers. The experiment would gauge the actual demand for seed as well as farmers’ willingness to buy seed. It would also show the private sector that a small niche for marketing sorghum seed exists.

Seeds of improved sorghum varieties were produced, certified, and packed in sachets ranging in size from a half kilo to five kilos, each labeled with details about the varieties. The pricing was fixed according to the market rate for sorghum grain plus a premium. The mark-up price set for retailers was 15%. Questionnaires were given to the seed sellers to gather information from farmers, especially their reason for buying the seeds. (Right, consumers holding manageable sized sachets of seed).

The project scientists are excited because the preliminary results of this test indicate that about 80% of the farmers bought small quantities (half kilo to two kilos) for experimenting. This suggests the existence of a small but reliable niche that could be exploited by the private sector.

“However, as this is the first time such a scheme has been introduced in the region, the demand curve will become clearer after a couple of years,” says Jupiter Ndjeunga, the ICRISAT economist leading the initiative. The other partners include Mali’s national program, the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER), LABOSEM, SLACAER, farmers and village retailers.

The project has been so successful that it has fired the enthusiasm of extension workers who are now keen to expand the scheme throughout Mali.

For more information, contact n.jupiter@cgiar.org

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4. Abortion Leads to Rebirth

Mass eradication of any crop spells disaster for a farmer. When the deadly botrytis gray mold (BGM) epidemic of 1997/98 in Nepal devastated the chickpea crop, the damage was twofold. Not only did the farmers lose their investment, they refused to cultivate chickpea the following season as they normally did in the rice fallows.

ICRISAT scientists in collaboration with scientists from the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Department of Agriculture, and NGOs, launched a new program to battle the disease with funds from the Asian Development Bank and Crop Protection Program (CPP) of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK. They set to work identifying a chickpea variety resistant to BGM, and agreed that the ICAR-developed Avrodhi variety was the most suitable. In addition, they used “off the shelf” integrated crop management (ICM) techniques to establish a good chickpea crop. ICM is a package that incorporates integrated pest management (IPM) and integrated disease management (IDM).

The partners then tried the same techniques with ICRISAT seed. The results were promising. In the 1998/99 season, the new chickpea line and Avrodhi was sown in 110 farmers’ fields. The following season saw a fivefold increase in chickpea adoption. The good news kept spreading, and by the end of 2000/01, 1100 farmers were sowing chickpea. The best news is that by the end of 2001/02, the ICM techniques will have been firmly adopted by 7000 farmers.

(Left, this Nepali farmer is happy that her chickpea fields are flourishing once more).

ICM technologies included sowing an improved BGM-tolerant variety, treating seed with fungicide, spacing rows wider, and applying need-based sprays of fungicide. The increase in seed yield attributable to ICM was two to six fold, and resulted in higher net incomes. “The ICM technologies used so successfully in Nepal also hold great potential for India and Bangladesh, which face similar problems,” says Dr Suresh Pande, an ICRISAT pathologist closely involved in the project.

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5.Highlights of Previous Issues :

November 2001: Sorghum Products: Poised to Take Off • Cash from Cattle Food • Empowerment Through Technology • Outwitting an Unfair Bug

october 2001: Backing a Winner • More than a Thousand Words • Sowing a New Future for Eritrea • A Casting Coup: Farmers' Day 2001

september 2001: Don’t Get Left on the Shelf • Nigeria Targets ‘Groundnut Leprosy’ • Two Heads Are Better than One • Desperately Seeking Seeds

August 2001: Finding Chinks in the Armour • Brazilian Farmers get a Boost from the Sahel • Sahelian Partners Smash the Ivory Tower •< What You See is What You Get - Simulation Modeling for Successful Farming

July 2001: Balaji Makes IT Waves • A Hot Date in the Sahel • It All Adds Up • More from Less • That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

June 2001: Space-Age Partnership in West Africa • Bad Taste is Good • Out of Africa • Seed Priming: Rhapsody in Simplicity

May 2001: Dodging Drought in Kenya • Vietnam and ICRISAT Save Watersheds •Farmers Enrich Malawi's Soils • Groundnut Mystery Disease Identified

April 2001:Women Farmers Guide Scientists in Namibia • Ashta Puts it Faith in IPM • Sahelian Farmers Place Their Bets • China and Pigeonpea: Love at Second Sight

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: Somalia: 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 Coke®: 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.

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