Program Highlights ..........
Through supplemental funding from IFAD, a new project was launched in West and Central Africa to integrate natural resource management innovations with improved sorghum and pearl millet varieties to increase on-farm productivity. The project is being implemented by ICRISAT with five NARS partners (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria).
Also through IFAD sponsorship, a partnership-based project to promote the use of integrated pest management in grain legumes organized participatory on-farm trials in 30 locations with 400 farmers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Insecticide application was reduced by up to 93% without reducing yields through the combined use of improved seed, neem spray, and nuclear polyhedrosis virus sprays, and low-labor manual shaking of pigeonpea bushes to remove the dreaded larvae of the pod borer Helicoverpa armigera.
Chickpea cultivation in rice fallow lowlands of Nepal has been declining in recent years due to pest and disease pressures. Following joint ICRISAT/NARS on-farm demonstrations of a practical, affordable integrated pest management package to control Botrytis gray mold and pod borer insect pests, an estimated 700 farmers have re-introduced the crop in five districts.
Socioeconomics and policy
With the shift of staff to Africa and a special focus on poverty, a workshop was held in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on approaches to reviving ICRISAT’s renowned village-level studies to identify critical issues and opportunities for poverty reduction for SAT Asia and Africa.
The Situation and Outlook Report, FAO/ICRISAT’s joint mechanism for assessing current and future trends for mandate commodities, focused on groundnut in 1999. Demand for groundnut, formerly an export crop in Africa, was found to now be largely driven by population growth there, reflecting its increasing role as a household food security crop for the poor, especially women. This contrasts with Asia, where demand is driven by income growth and urbanization – groundnut is increasingly a purchased crop, and is losing share in the oil market while gaining as a confectionery item.
Global trade reforms in the coming years are likely to put pressure on developing-country producers to increase efficiency and commercial orientation. New uses of SAT crops are needed (industrial, food, feed) to increase demand so that higher production does not lead to market price weakness. But even where current demand is high, adoption of already-available improved technologies for SAT food legumes (groundnut, pigeonpea, and chickpea) by subsistence farmers was found to be limited. Greater efforts to overcome technology adoption bottlenecks are warranted. Biohazards such as aflatoxin risk in groundnut, for example also constrain access to global markets, foregoing a major export earnings opportunity.
Despite declines in crop area in recent years (countered by yield increases), sorghum remains central to rural SAT livelihoods in India. Besides being a cheap food source for the poor, sorghum is of increasing importance as fodder and as a raw material for industrial use.
Jointly with national partners, ICRISAT completed a typology of agricultural systems in India incorporating socioeconomic and agro-ecological factors. This was developed as a policy planning support tool at the request of the Government of India.
Studies in Africa found differing constraints for the adoption of improved technologies for cereals than for legumes. For pearl millet and sorghum in Tanzania, the major hindrances were low and variable productivity, uncompetitive prices, and high marketing costs. For pigeonpea in Kenya, major marketing constraints were: low volume traded, poor storage facilities, lack of quality standards, poor access to credit, and weak infrastructure. Marketing studies in Kenya showed that farmers receive the lowest share of the total gross marketing margins in all channels. ICRISAT will link with the NGO Technoserve to test alternative marketing arrangements to reduce transaction costs and deliver a higher share of benefits to farmers, who are largely women.
The limited use of inputs by poor smallholders is a main bottleneck to increasing their productivity and food security. Studies of fertilizer and seed input constraints during 1999 showed that farmers were willing to adopt both, but limited availability and affordability precluded them from doing so. Increased adoption of fertilizer was documented in Kenya as policy constraints were alleviated, although application rates continue to be far less than extension services recommend.
However, studies showed that there are substantial opportunities for improving crop productivity even using small quantities of fertilizer. Researchers can foster increased adoption by disseminating “best bet options” even though these may not give maximum yields. The importance of input and product market development for SAT crops, which were historically grown mainly for subsistence, is highlighted. This will require bringing in additional partners from the commercial, regulatory, and trade sectors, as well as farmer’s groups.
Studies of emergency seed relief programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Niger studies found that sponsors are often fragmented in their approach and tend to repeat errors due to insufficient planning. Under time pressure to meet emergencies, they often over-estimate seed requirements and deliver seed of varieties that are not well adapted to the target area, creating an additional risk for farmers. Fears that drought-induced crop failures risk a loss of genetic diversity were not supported by the data. Village seed systems were efficient at maintaining germplasm, although farmer-to-farmer sharing of diversity was less than commonly thought. Community seed cooperatives were found mostly not to be sustainable.
Information resource management
A Center-Commissioned External Review of Information Resource Management and of Partnerships, chaired by H K Jain was completed in late 1999. Echoing the sixth recommendation of the CGIAR System Review and ICRISAT’s Fourth External Programme and Management Review, the panel of five urged ICRISAT to build a core competency in knowledge management, capitalizing on the new tools of information technology, both to enhance research-for-development and also improve knowledge-sharing with partners, clients, and stakeholders. The Institute responded by creating a new Information Resource Management Program, with three major thrusts: public awareness, information systems, and learning systems.
ICRISAT moved closer to achieving a global interconnectivity during 1999. Internet connectivity was achieved at Bamako, and improvements were underway at Bulawayo, Lilongwe, and Niamey. Microsoft Exchange (an advanced messaging system) now interconnects Patancheru, Bamako, and Niamey with the CGIAR’s global network of Centers.
The Y2K rollover went smoothly across all locations, a result of careful preparations during 1999.
