1. Dodging Drought in Kenya

The images are part of a video taken by researchers from ICRISAT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) during a recent trip to document the effects of the prolonged drought - one of the worst in recorded history.

During the trip, farmers told of total crop failures and decimated cattle herds. Confirming such reports, an appeal for urgent relief by the World Food Programme stated that in the worst-hit areas "almost 80% of livestock had died and crops had withered.

" ICRISAT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), in collaboration with the Meru Dryland Farming Project, Catholic Relief Services, and the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture-Extension, are trying to do something about it. They jointly developed an intervention strategy that is helping prepare smallholder farmers to better cope with such droughts in the future.

Farmers have been testing the varieties and are enthusiastic about them. Mrs. Muthoni Migwi (left), one of the farmers in Mbeere District, said, "Although my own sorghum variety failed completely because of too little rain, the new sorghum variety Gadam Hamam and the pearl millet variety Ikrashati produced good yield and I am storing their seeds for sowing in the next season." Gadam was introduced from Sudan into Kenya by ICRISAT and Ikrashati is a popular name for ICMV 221, an early-maturing, drought-tolerant line developed at ICRISAT. An early-maturing pigeonpea line, ICPL 87091, developed at ICRISAT was also among the varieties chosen by farmers for sowing in the next season.

When former US Secretary for Agriculture, Dan Glickman, visited Kenya last year to launch a USA-funded relief project, ICRISAT researchers explained the partnership-based effort. He voiced his strong concern and support.

For more information, contact a.obilana@cgiar.org or r.jones@cgiar.org

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2. Vietnam and ICRISAT Save Watersheds

Approximately one-third of northern Vietnam is comprised of hilly slopes. Since 1950, these uplands have become densely populated. Hill forests in the region have been indiscriminately cut. Compounding the problem, high rainfall (1500-2000 mm per annum) and steep slopes (up to 40°) have led to widespread and serious erosion, generating a sustainability crisis.

In view of ICRISAT's long history and expertise in sustainable watershed management research, the Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute (VASI) requested its help. A joint project was formulated and is now generously supported by the Asian Development Bank. It focuses on the Thanh Ha watershed in the Kim Boi district.

The approach emphasizes farmer participation and buy-in, so that solutions will stick. Discussions with farmers found they were interested in small-scale landform treatments such as ridge and furrow, contour planting, waterways and drainage channels, field bunds, vegetative barriers, dugout ponds to store excess water, staggered trenches and silt traps.

Many of these treatments were quickly adopted, and have radically improved the conservation of soil and rainwater. Within 6 months, scientists recorded a one-meter rise in the water levels of 10 open wells near the percolation tanks, and soil loss was reduced from about 150 to 9 tons per hectare per year.

Integrated crop management practices are also contributing to the holistic approach. Grain legumes (soybean, groundnut, mungbean) were introduced to counter some negative effects of continuous maize cultivation. About 25,000 saplings of the leguminous tree Glyricidia were planted on the field bunds and contours to stabilize them and enhance soil fertility. These legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen and break disease cycles. Through this approach, nitrogen fertilizer use was reduced from 250 to 180 kilograms per hectare per year, saving precious cash and reducing the nitrate contamination risk to the groundwater supply.

Additional integrated practices included liming to reduce soil acidity in the region. Treating seed with fungicide and choosing resistant varieties greatly helped in managing diseases.

The initial results reveal an impressive average 250% increase in farmer incomes from four improved crop management practices. For instance, farmers found that maize, which needed large amounts of fertilizer, sold for only VND 1500 ($0.10) per kilogram, while groundnut required little fertilizer but sells for VND 8000 ($ 0.50) per kilogram.

Who says that sustainable management of natural resources doesn't pay?

For more information, contact a.ramakrishna@cgiar.org

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3. Farmers Enrich Malawi's Soils

Declining soil fertility is probably the greatest threat to sustainable agricultural growth across Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a vicious downward cycle: infertile soils cause low yields, causing low incomes, so farmers can't afford to improve fertility, leading to further yield declines...

ICRISAT and the Ministry of Agriculture-Extension of Malawi, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, are using a new approach to try to break this cycle of doom. Rather than continue to exhort farmers to apply fertilizer rates that are beyond their means, this approach asks farmers what they CAN do - and designs systems to reinforce those improvements.

In the new approach, called mother-baby trials, researchers establish one benchmark on-farm trial in a village, which they manage, in order to gain replicated data for analysis. This is called the mother trial (a metaphor that connects especially well with the highly enthusiastic women farmers).

Associated with the mother trial are about 20 baby trials, each managed by a farmer herself, using treatments she has expressed particular interest in - not just the ones the researchers may want to promote. A baby trial may have as few as four plots, easing the workload while focusing on 'best-bet' treatments the farmer is most likely to adopt.

Farmers manage their baby trials using their own inputs and equipment. They define their own control treatments for comparison to see if the new idea is really an improvement on their previous practices.

Both researchers and farmers learn from this approach. In Malawi, for example where 300 farmers across five agro-ecosystems are conducting baby trials, one farmer exclaimed, "Groundnuts doubled up with pigeonpea is my new basal fertilizer. I grow them before my maize crop and I get a strong crop: I only have to apply a small amount of urea as a side dress.

"The work has impressed upon researchers that any technology (such as N-fixing legumes) that can reduce fertilizer application requirements, tends to be much more readily adoptable by cash-strapped farmers. This finding has spurred additional research on the subject of access to inputs and new partnerships and institutions to alleviate input bottlenecks for enhancing soil fertility.

A similar approach is now being tested in Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Department of Research and Specialist Services, Zimbabwe Ministry of Agriculture.

For more information, contact r.myers@cgiar.org

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4. Groundnut Mystery Disease Identified

Researchers from ICRISAT and the National Bureau of Plant and Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in Hyderabad have identified the cause of a new disease that devastated the largest contiguous groundnut-growing area in the world last year. The epidemic caused an estimated $ 8 million in crop losses in the 700,000-hectare Ananthapur and Kurnool districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, damaging the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale farmers.

Groundnut is also known as peanut internationally, so the new plague is being called 'peanut stem necrosis disease' (PSND). Leaves, stems and pods darkened and seeds shrivelled as the disease progressed, a symptom called 'necrosis.' Most infected plants died and produced few or no marketable nuts.

Scientists from ICRISAT and Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) in Ananthapur rushed to the scene of the epidemic to collect plant samples for analysis. They isolated virus particles and studied their physical and chemical characteristics, their reaction to immunological tests, and their DNA sequence characteristics.

The virus causing PSND turned out to be a strain of tobacco streak virus (TSV), which is well-known to attack many other crop plants and weeds, but has never been seen before on groundnut. TSV causes massive damage in sunflower, for example and many farmers in India are abandoning that crop as a result.

In its known host crops and weeds, TSV is spread from plant to plant by a small insect called 'thrips'. TSV is found in the pollen from flowers of the infected plant. The pollen sticks to the body of the thrips and when it flies to a groundnut plant, the pollen apparently infects the plant when the thrips feeds on the leaves. (Right, electron micrograph showing TSV particles.)

Infected thrips from nearby weeds enter the field and need only a short time to infect, so insecticides are unlikely to kill the insect before it transmits the virus. Once a plant is infected, the virus can also survive in the seed, so planting infected seed the next year will also spread the virus.

With Andhra Pradesh Government's support and in partnership with NBPGR and ANGRAU, a project has been launched to carry out further studies of PSND and how to control it. The project is being supported through India's National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) managed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Understanding and stopping the spread of the virus, and the possibility of breeding new groundnut varieties that are genetically resistant to it, are major objectives of the investigation.

For more information, contact d.reddy@cgiar.org

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Highlights of Previous Issues:

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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