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BUSINESS PLAN 2014-2018

May 2014

Business Plan

Prepared by

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF)

P.O. Box 30709

Nairobi 00100

Kenya

Tel: 254-20 422 3700

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CONTENTS

Abbreviations & acronyms ........................................................................................ i

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ iii

1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Why this business plan is important ................................................................... 1

1.2. Purpose of the business plan ................................................................................ 2

1.3. Strategic positioning of AATF ................................................................................ 3

2. Rationale for intervention and how AATF works .......................................... 4

2.1. Agriculture and technology in Africa .............................................................. 4

2.2. Background to the creation of AATF ............................................................... 6

2.3. Investors and partners .............................................................................................. 8

2.4. Role of AATF ................................................................................................................. 10

3. AATF going forward .......................................................................................... 17

3.1. Conclusions from the strategy refresh process ......................................... 17

3.2. AATF Growth Strategy for 2014 – 2018 ........................................................... 19

3.3. AATF approach to product commercialisation ....................................... 21

3.4. New business models for impact ...................................................................... 22

3.5. New approaches and strategies for this business plan ........................ 24

4. AATF’s project portfolio ................................................................................... 37

4.1. Current projects ......................................................................................................... 37

4.2. Future projects ............................................................................................................ 69

5. Milestones & reporting ..................................................................................... 74

5.2. Milestones...................................................................................................................... 75

5.3. Resource mobilisation ............................................................................................ 88

6. Financials............................................................................................................ 89

6.1. Summary of AATF projected expenditure ................................................... 90

6.2. Funding requirements ............................................................................................. 90

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7. Sources of funding ............................................................................................ 92

7.1. Funding from public sources ............................................................................... 93

7.2. Private sector funding ............................................................................................ 94

8. Expected impact .............................................................................................. 95

8.1. Number of beneficiaries ....................................................................................... 95

8.2. Range of benefits ..................................................................................................... 96

8.3. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 100

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ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS

AATF African Agricultural Technology Foundation

AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

ASARECA The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in

Eastern and Central Africa

BXW Banana Bacterial Wilt

BMGF Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

CAMAP Cassava Mechanisation and Agroprocessing Project

CGIAR Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research

CORAF/WECARD Le Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le

Développement Agricoles / West and Central African Council

for Agricultural Research and Development

DFID Department For International Development, UK

FTO Freedom to Operate

GMO Genetically Modified Organism

ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute

IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

IPR Intellectual Property Rights

IR Imazapyr Resistant

ISAAA International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech

Applications

KARI Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

MDG Millennium Development Goal

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NARO National Agricultural Research Organisation

NARS National Agriculture Research System

NERICA New Rice for Africa

NEWEST Nitrogen Efficient Water Efficient Salt Tolerant

NGICA Network for the Genetic Improvement of Cowpea for Africa

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OFAB Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa

PPP Public-Private Partnership

R&D Research and Development

SACCAR Southern African Centre for Cooperation in Agricultural and

Natural Resources Research and Training

SSA Sub-Saharan Africa

WEMA Water Efficient Maize for Africa

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Executive Summary

Introduction to AATF

In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), farm productivity could increase, and poverty could

be reduced, by utilising a number of existing agricultural technologies. However,

access to these technologies by resource poor smallholder farmers is restricted

because of issues such as intellectual property rights, lack of stewardship, and

weak regulatory environment. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation

(AATF) was established in 2003 to address these restrictions; by 2013 it has been

successful in facilitating the introduction of technologies valued at

approximately $150m into Sub Saharan Africa (SSA).

In 2012, AATF refreshed its organisational strategy and identified seven objectives

to drive its activities over the Business Planning period 2014 – 2018, which are

presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1 AATF's objectives

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AATF meets these objectives by acting as an honest broker negotiating the

royalty-free transfer of technologies to smallholder farmers in Africa, and

strengthening the institutional resources for accessing and utilising proprietary

technologies.

Changes to organisation and trajectory since last business plan

AATF is maturing as an organisation, and following a refresh of its strategy, the

need to demonstrate impact of negotiated technologies at farmers’ level

became apparent albeit recognition that AATF has been successful in accessing

proprietary technologies, contributing to an enabling environment for

technology development and deployment, and creating awareness on options

for increasing productivity through biotechnology.

As more projects get closer to deployment the pressure to demonstrate impact

increases. There is thus need to: go beyond proprietary technologies to embrace

other appropriate technologies that will bring quick impact to African

agriculture; inject impact-driven and results-based management through

organisational restructuring and talent re-alignment; and imbue an

entrepreneurial and commercial culture to spearhead the business orientation

strategy of the Foundation. These changes are summarised below.

New business models for impact

A number of AATF projects are entering the deployment phase where a greater

focus on commercialisation is required. AATF recognises that the impact of its

work will be realised through successful commercialisation of its products. It will

therefore seek to develop business-oriented partnerships including encouraging

incentives and interventions that do not distort the market value chains. These

could include non-subsidy financing models or technical back-up, depending

on the challenge encountered. Financing of farmers or of seed companies will

be contracted on a needs basis. AATF will also deploy project products on a

royalty paying basis where necessary.

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In addition, AATF will pursue a number of business and licensing models to best

meet the needs of smallholders, make its activities as sustainable as possible, and

grow AATF into a centre of excellence for technology access and delivery. These

include:

i. Cost recovery and outsourcing – AATF will reinforce cost recovery measures

for services it provides to partners, and will outsource some of its services

where appropriate to keep AATF cost effective.

ii. Innovation platforms – AATF will establish platforms to fast-track development

and uptake of new technologies. For example, it will work with national

agricultural mechanisation centres to develop appropriate machinery, with

services paid for by the farmers.

iii. Internal venturing – AATF will set up an internal technology division. This will

include a seed production unit to meet the increasing demands for the

reliable supply of quality foundation and certified seed for a number of AATF

projects.

iv. Commercial models to generate resources to sustain and out-scale AATF

business – AATF may consider the following commercial models: collecting

affordable royalties, joint venture agreements or a spin-off company.

v. Developing a roadmap for delivery and impact.

Farming as a business.

Merging science, technology and innovation with social

entrepreneurship.

Developing agribusiness incubators for delivery and impact.

Effective technology diffusion pathways and methodologies.

Impact assessment.

Gender mainstreaming

AATF will strengthen its efforts in enhancing gender participation and equality in

its projects.

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Trend mapping

In addition, AATF will continue to closely map ongoing trends in agriculture in

SSA, and work with partners and governments to improve the policy and

regulatory landscape for innovative technologies including genetically modified

(GM) crops and other aspects of agri-business.

Organisational restructuring

In order to implement these new business approaches AATF needs to change

how it works. Critical to this is the injection of an entrepreneurial and commercial

culture in the organisation to spearhead the business orientation strategy of the

Foundation. To do this, it has created one directorate for Commercialisation and

Deployment. Other changes in structure have also been undertaken to

strengthen the organisation. Figure 2 shows the new organisational structure for

AATF.

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Figure 2 AATF organisational structure, effective 2013

Targets and proposed activities over business plan period

AATF activities/projects are expected to grow over the next five years. This

growth will be underpinned by the following strategies:

a) New markets: - AATF plans to scale up into new countries with existing or new

projects/technologies.

The Foundation is currently developing country profiles for SSA to guide project

investments for our growth strategy. Principally AATF intends to expand to at

least 5 additional countries by 2018. These countries should be ones where:

1. Agriculture is a major contributor to GDP

2. Most people depend on agriculture for their livelihoods

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3. There are challenges to productivity

4. There are technology gaps that needs to be addressed

5. There are potential partners that AATF can work with through the PPP

Model

6. These are countries with similar challenges to where we have already

identified solutions

7. The Governments are supportive of the agriculture sector

8. The Governments are implementing the CAADP framework

9. There are at least minimal regulatory processes that can facilitate AATF to

do its work

b) Enhanced outreach: -

AATF plans to outscale or expand its in-country coverage and penetration with

existing projects for better outreach. This will see more farmers and seed

companies getting more products from AATF projects within the respective

countries.

c) New Projects/Technologies: - AATF with its partners will continue to develop

new projects/technologies that offer solutions to smallholder farmers. The target

for the next five years is to introduce at least three new projects/technologies

that address emerging challenges to agriculture development in SSA. The

strategies are summarised in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3 Strategies to support AATF growth, 2014-18

As of the 1st of January 2014, AATF had 11 active projects. AATF will continue to

support these projects along the dimensions set out above. In addition, it intends

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to embark on new short term and quick win projects that will be commercialised

during the next five years. These will include:

Climate Smart Farming.

Water saving, harvesting and irrigation techniques.

Post-harvest handling techniques.

Introgressing Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) resistance into farmer-preferred

Tropical Maize

AATF will develop full concept notes and proposals for these short term and

quick win projects and due to the fact that most investors want to see impact, it

is expected that these projects will attract funding as soon as proof of concept is

developed. AATF will leverage on the existing projects to fast track these

technologies.

Sustainability and exit

To ensure AATF’s work is sustainable, as well as ensuring AATF has a viable exit

strategy, it will undertake to (among other approaches) i) deploy technology in

countries through effective partnerships with private sector and national

institutions; ii) help seed companies take up the production and marketing of the

technology as a commercially viable business; and iii) strengthen the knowledge

base and capacity of national institutions, researchers, extension agents and

farmers to enable post-project support.

A key element of sustainability is that AATF is able to discontinue funding to

projects when they are fully developed and viable, and use those funds to

support new projects/technologies. AATF has processes in place to determine at

intermediate points in a project’s lifetime whether it should continue or not. This

process is defined by AATF project ladder which has provided steps in which

AATF can end a project.

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AATF’s project portfolio

In addition to its eleven active projects, AATF has plans in place to implement an

additional four projects. The majority of current portfolios of projects have now

moved to the deployment stage, which implies that over 2014 – 2018 AATF has

more opportunities to commercialise products and demonstrate beneficial

impact for farmers. Section 4 of the business plan provides summaries of the

current and proposed future projects. In the table below, we present the current

portfolio and the on-going commercialisation activities.

Table 1 Commercialisation activities for current portfolio

Project portfolio Stage 2014-18 Commercialisation activities

Striga control in

Maize

Deployment Product commercialised in Kenya,

Tanzania and Uganda.

Water efficient

maize for Africa

Development/

deployment

Product is undergoing trials - some

varieties are commercialised in Kenya

and licenses are signed

Nitrogen Use

Efficient, Water

Efficient and Salt

Tolerant Rice

Development Product is undergoing development

to gather evidence necessary to

achieve license to be deployed in

different markets

Pod Borer Resistant

Cowpea

Development Partnering with National Agricultural

Research Systems to deploy product

Bacterial Wilt

Resistant Banana

Development Plan to test market linkages of the

product in the Great Lakes region

Cassava

Mechanisation and

Agroprocessing

Project

Deployment Service providers have been trained

to provide services to the farmers in

targeted areas; work is underway to

link farmers with cassava processors

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Project portfolio Stage 2014-18 Commercialisation activities

Aflatoxin Control in

Maize and Peanuts

Development/

deployment

Following product registration, a

licence will be agreed specifying

levels of product and distribution

areas to increase access to the

product among smallholders

Open Forum on

Agricultural

Biotechnology in

Africa

Deployment Project involves dissemination of

information on issues related to

biotechnology to stakeholders in the

agricultural sector, facilitating the

commercialisation of AATF products

Hybrid rice Development Hybrid rice varieties are currently in

initial stages of development

Seeds 2B Deployment Financial agreement signed with

partner specifying the market

opportunity. Pilot countries identified

Commercial

Products (COMPRO

II)

Deployment Working with target governments to

build demand for the product

In addition, AATF has revised its strategy for monitoring and evaluating (M&E) its

activities during the period 2014 -2018. AATF’s deliverables, intermediate outputs

and approach to measuring farm impacts are set out in Section 5 of this business

plan.

Funding requirements for these activities

AATF aims to almost double its annual project costs over the business plan

period, while maintaining overheads at no more than 20% of total cost. This will

ensure that AATF provides excellent value for money for its stakeholders. AATF’s

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projected expenditure is presented in Figure 4 below, and its average

breakdown across cost categories is presented in Figure 5.

Figure 4 Proposed AATF expenditure for 2014-18, in $m

Figure 5 Average share of total costs, 2014-18

AATF has commitments to cover 65% of its estimated budget. A total of $53.83m

is outstanding to support its work. AATF is now seeking this support from investors.

Expected impact

AATF expects to provide significant benefits to rural communities in SSA, by

increasing incomes and contributing to better livelihoods through preventing

crop losses from pests and diseases, increasing productivity, and strengthening

the capacity of local institutions. Its current projects could benefit 156m

smallholders in SSA. In monetary terms, farmers’ income could increase by over

$175m a year by reducing losses caused by aflatoxin contamination, pod borer

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pests, Striga weed and banana bacterial wilt diseases, as well as by increasing

yields by an average of approximately 30% for rice and maize projects in the

region by better water management and improvement of agricultural methods.

Further, cassava yields from the mechanisation project are expected to triple

from the current 6 – 8 tonnes/ ha to 27 tonnes/ ha.

Figure. 6 Expected beneficiaries of AATF projects (millions)

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1. INTRODUCTION

Since its inception in 2003, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has

developed two institutional business plans that set out in detail its mandate,

mission, vision, objectives, governance, projects, and resource needs. This is the

third business plan to cover the period 2014-2018. It has been prepared by, and

reflects the insights of, the AATF board of trustees, stakeholders, partners, and

staff.

AATF is a not-for-profit organisation designed to facilitate public-private

partnerships to access, develop, adapt and deliver appropriate agricultural

technologies for sustainable use by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa1

(SSA) through innovative partnerships and effective stewardship along the entire

value chain. The Foundation also contributes to capacity building in Africa by

engaging institutions on the continent in the diverse partnerships and activities

through which it executes its mandate.

1.1. Why this business plan is important

The year 2013 marked AATF’s 10th Anniversary under the theme: ‘10 years, 10

countries, and 10 projects’. This means AATF has come of age. It now has a clear

proof of concept, which should translate into more products and improved

livelihoods for farmers. The AATF 2014 – 2018 Business Plan shows that the

organisation is committed to the business of identifying, accessing, developing,

1 The Foundation is incorporated and registered as a private company limited by guarantee and

not having a share capital. It has been incorporated in the United Kingdom (January 2003) and in

Kenya (April 2003). It was registered as a Charity in England and Wales in January 2007 and has

been given a tax exempt status in the USA in May 2006. It was granted host country agreement by

the Government of Kenya in June 2006. It was registered in Nigeria in November 2009 as a private

company.

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adapting and transferring appropriate agricultural technologies for the benefit of

smallholder farmers in SSA. The plan:

1. sets out clear business milestones;

2. develops mechanisms to better understand AATF’s customers and

competitors; and

3. document business models.

Overall, AATF intends to grow and reposition its business models to address the

ever changing business environment and to aggressively pursue new

opportunities to develop a more results based and impact-driven strategic

organisation.

1.2. Purpose of the business plan

The purpose of the business plan is to present the structure, mission and

objectives of AATF intervention, the key activities and sub-activities it performs,

and sets out AATF’s current project portfolio and the projects it is planning to

implement over the next five years. The business plan also sets out a series of

operational principles that define how AATF seeks to maximise its impact and

also provides details of the required staffing, governance, proposed budget,

milestones and impacts of AATF interventions.

In addition, this business plan outlines the implementation plan for the

recommendations made during the AATF Strategic Refresh conducted during

2012. It maps out AATF’s growth ambitions, how to make AATF impact-driven,

results-oriented and sustainable, showcases AATF’s comprehensive

commercialisation and deployment strategy and outlines how to deal with risks,

and exploit emerging opportunities in the macro environment.

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1.3. Strategic positioning of AATF

A number of strategic recommendations were identified from the Strategy

Refresh (See Section 3.1) and further comments from the Board of Trustees. This

business plan shows how AATF is realigning its project activities based on its value

addition, comparative advantage and the expected impact. This will result in

clear and well thought-out projects based on new innovations and business

models to make positive and significant impact. The key focus for AATF from 2014

to 2018 will be:

Defining AATF’s growth strategy (country coverage, project offering and

resource needs).

Repositioning of AATF’s niche market for technology access and delivery.

Building a balanced project portfolio with quick-win projects.

Validating AATF’s projects and extending country presence from the

current 10 countries to at least 15 in the next five years.

Building strong partnerships for delivery and impact.

Demonstrating AATF’s impact through the implementation of Robust AATF

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, Improvement and Alignment (AMELIA)

system.

Diversifying the Foundation’s donor base and developing income

generating projects.

Realigning organisational skills to ensure a balance of staff skills with

commercial, technical and legal expertise to respond to the dynamic

environment.

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2. RATIONALE FOR INTERVENTION AND HOW AATF WORKS

In 2013, AATF celebrated its 10th anniversary to mark a successful first decade in

supporting appropriate agricultural technology access, development and

delivery for resource-constrained smallholder farmers in Africa. These

celebrations marked the beginning of a second transformative decade (2014 –

2023) for AATF to further increase the penetration and adoption of affordable

agricultural technologies, improving food security and increasing farmer incomes

across the region. Section 2.1 below considers the challenges facing African

agriculture, and how AATF helps overcome these.

2.1. Agriculture and technology in Africa

African countries spend millions of dollars annually importing food from the

global market. However, Africa has vast land and water resources that could be

utilised to boost food production, increase income and stimulate growth.

Boosting agricultural production and productivity will require a sharp increase in

research and development (R&D) and the widespread uptake of new

technologies including farming techniques, crop varieties and livestock breeds.

Projections indicate that most gains in production will be achieved by increasing

yield and cropping intensity on existing farmlands rather than by increasing the

amount of land brought under agricultural production. One of the best ways of

doing this is to increase the use of innovative agricultural technologies.

This could have real benefits to the poorest of the population. More than 70% of

the total population and the majority of the extreme poor and undernourished

live in rural areas. Around 65% of the total labour force in Africa is, in part,

dependent on farming activities for their livelihood and at least 60% of the

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incomes of rural people are from farming activities. There are potential direct

and indirect benefits of deploying appropriate technologies to the poor:

Higher yields of crops grown for own consumption can release land and

resources for crop diversification to improve dietary intake, or for sale in

local, national or international markets.

Increased yields and labour saving technologies can release labour for

non-farm activities that increase household incomes.

Improved varieties with increased resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

reduce vulnerability, increase yields and help protect the environment.

However, in Africa, agricultural technologies are not being developed fast

enough to meet the continent’s needs. In the rest of the world, the private sector

has begun to play an increasingly important role in technology development,

complementing public research efforts. This evolution, combined with the fact

that the private sector is usually more efficient at producing and delivering

technologies, helps explain the growing significance of proprietary technologies,

developed by both the private and public sectors. In most industrialised

countries the development and delivery of proprietary technologies are

facilitated by a number of commercial and legal institutions.

Africa’s experience in these areas is not yet well established and private

agribusiness and input delivery organisations have relatively limited proficiency in

undertaking research. But there are many proprietary technologies developed

elsewhere that can make significant contributions to increasing Africa’s

agricultural productivity and improving rural livelihoods. In many cases, the

owners of such technologies are willing to contribute them for agricultural

development in Africa. But the challenge is how to access these technologies

and manage their development and deployment for sustainable use by

smallholder farmers, and this is where AATF plays its key role.

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2.2. Background to the creation of AATF

AATF’s creation can be traced to discussions among stakeholders in industry,

research and public policy organised by the Rockefeller Foundation and the

Meridian Institute in 2000 to determine the major underlying principles and an

operational model for the AATF in addressing food security and poverty

reduction challenges and to examine ways in which agricultural science could

make a greater impact on African livelihoods.

One of the principal findings was that although the owners of many proprietary

technologies were willing to make these available to African farmers there were

significant ‘roadblocks’ to such transfers. This stimulated a series of consultations

that led to the establishment of a Design Advisory Committee for AATF in 2002,

the appointment of an implementing director, and the identification of donor

funding.

AATF was created because of several problems that affect agricultural

development in Africa including:

National markets are often too small to attract the commercial interests of

multinational corporations that offer useful proprietary technologies.

Although many firms are interested in donating some of their technologies

for poverty alleviation, they are not prepared to invest in establishing the

necessary contacts or following through the required legal and regulatory

procedures, or to face liabilities that may arise from the donated

technologies.

Similarly, many public research institutions (in the North and South) are

willing to provide their technologies for African farmers, but don’t have

the capacity to engage in the required downstream partnerships and

procedures.

Public research organisations in Africa have limited experience in

accessing and delivering proprietary/innovative technologies to the

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private sector for production and deployment and require advice and

access to best practices.

Neither public nor private organisations in the region have sufficient

experience in promoting proprietary agricultural technology targeting

resource-poor smallholder farmers. African agribusiness firms are unwilling

to invest in producing, promoting and delivering products from new

technologies to resource-poor farmers unless they have some assurance

of widespread acceptance of such products enabling a reasonable

return on investment; they may also require advice and facilitation on

legal and regulatory matters and, in some cases, initial, targeted support

to ensure widespread uptake of the new products may be necessary.

1. The rationale for the creation of the AATF was follows :

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest hunger and malnutrition rate in the

developing world, and there are a range of agricultural technologies

that would improve African production systems, improve food security,

reduce poverty, improve agricultural trade and commerce on a

sustainable basis, and provide new opportunities for African farmers;

The AATF can catalyze and foster the conditions that will allow African

smallholders to increase their livelihoods on a sustainable basis through

the acquisition and adoption of these technologies; The AATF can

contribute to the removal of the constraints to the adaptation and use

of these technologies through appropriate ‘upstream’ interventions on

the acquisition, basic and adaptive R&D, and through production and

distribution of the technology products to farmers; and

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The AATF can also assist in the development of marketing channels, by

acting as a catalyst for the development of demand-driven, market

oriented systems.

2.3. Investors and partners

AATF started operations with the support of three investors: the UK Department

for International Development (DFID), the Rockefeller Foundation and the US

Agency for International Development (USAID). AATF has developed a

significant project portfolio over the last 10 years and has attracted new and

continued funding support from the following organisations:

AATF is the result of a unique partnership between public and private sectors in

Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. AATF’s partnerships can be described as

either operational or strategic:

Operational partnerships focus on gaining legal access to proprietary

technologies and products, and delivering them to intended

beneficiaries.

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Strategic partnerships position AATF in the wider agricultural development

arena and help improve the effectiveness of governments and

intergovernmental or sub-regional bodies that influence the policy

environment within which African agricultural research and development

must occur.

Partnership may be initiated on formal contracts or by less binding Memoranda

of Understanding (MoU), or take the form of informal (and often temporary)

affiliations. AATF seeks to work as much as possible with farmers, agricultural

producers and consumers in creating access to new agricultural input

technologies. Its institutional partners include:

Agricultural research institutions. AATF works with national research

institutions in carrying out country-level co-ordination activities,

technology and product adaptation/testing and enhancing

communication and awareness. National partners include for example

the National Agricultural Research Systems in SSA, the Kenya Agricultural

Research Institute (KARI) in Kenya and the National Agricultural Research

Organisation (NARO) in Uganda. It also works with international research

organisations such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement

Center (CIMMYT), AfricaRice (formerly WARDA) and the International

Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

African trade and agribusiness organisations. AATF collaborates with

African private sector input supply companies in carrying out technology

testing, seed production, market development, and seed distribution

activities.

Agricultural technology IP holders. AATF works with private sector

multinational and public sector agricultural technology providers and

research institutes/universities that develop and license new technologies,

including Monsanto, BASF, DowAgro, Pioneer/DuPont, Arcadia

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Biosciences, Academia Sinica, University of California and Syngenta

Company among others.

Local/international NGOs. AATF works with a range of NGOs in creating

farmer awareness of new technologies and promoting new products, in

addition to enhancing awareness on innovative technologies including

biotechnologies.

African regional institutions and agencies: AATF also aligns its work with

the objectives and activities of pan-African institutions and agencies

including the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, the West and

Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, the

African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development

(NEPAD)’s flagship programme, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture

Development Programme (CAADP).

African governments: AATF works with African governments in project

formulation, development, and deployment.

2.4. Role of AATF

2.4.1. What does AATF do?

The various roles and functions that AATF performs are described below.

Honest broker

AATF serves as an honest broker in negotiating the humanitarian use (mostly

royalty-free and sometimes affordable royalty) transfer of technologies held by

public and private organisations in other countries for the benefit of smallholder

farmers in Africa.

It does this by acting as the neutral intermediary (‘responsible party’) between

owners and/or holders of technologies and those that need them, facilitating

collaboration and partnership on a case-by-case basis, working closely with

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other African institutions, and responding on a project-by-project basis to the

expressed needs of African farmers.

By creating partnerships and assuming certain stewardship responsibilities, AATF

becomes the bridge that allows SSA scientists and development experts to

access the new tools that they need, and through them get the final product

into the hands of farmers.

Project facilitator

AATF assembles the necessary components for each project it undertakes,

ensuring a balance between cost, simplicity, and effectiveness. This includes

mobilising funding for projects, managing the licensing of technologies,

facilitating testing and regulatory approval processes in-country, ensuring

appropriate product stewardship, enforcing licence conditions as may be

defined and agreed upon by the parties, and ensuring that products actually

reach farmers.

Technology steward

AATF plays a catalytic role by negotiating access to appropriate technologies –

proprietary or not - , it addresses inadequate institutional capacities, supports

technology development and adaptation as necessary, and provides

stewardship for subsequent delivery and commercialisation to farmers in the

most sustainable way. AATF also monitors and stewards licensed technologies

and the resulting products throughout the project period. It ensures that

appropriate agreements are obtained, regulations for production are observed

and licence requirements in relation to the use of the technology are enforced.

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2.4.2. AATF priority areas

The AATF has assigned high priority to agricultural technologies that would

otherwise not have been accessible to meet the needs of resource-poor farmers

in SSA. Project selection for the development of the AATF’s portfolio is undertaken

through a demand-driven process which includes, as a first priority, a review of

needs assessment studies that were undertaken for national and regional

strategies development, CGIAR needs assessments, private sector analysis of

priority targets for technology interventions and the changing demands for

innovative technologies to increase productivity, increase food security and

reduce poverty.

The following are the criteria for selection and implementation of projects:

i. technology interventions should link solutions to end-user needs;

ii. product and project concepts must be developed through a

participatory process;

iii. projects should have the potential to enhance institutional

synergies;

iv. the size of the project should optimize resource use;

v. results from project implementation should be achieved within

reasonable timeframes; and

vi. the projects portfolio should reflect a reasonable geographic

balance.

Currently AATF has seven priority areas as shown by Table 2.1 below and has

managed to build a portfolio of 11 projects covering six crops which are currently

being implemented in 13 countries.

13

Table 2.1 Priority areas

Priority Area Projects

Climate Change WEMA, NEWEST Rice

Pest Management Striga, Cowpea, Banana

Soil Management NEWEST Rice

Improving Food Quality Aflatoxin

Improved Breeding Methods Hybrid Rice

Mechanisation CAMAP

Enabling Environment OFAB, Seeds2B, Trends Monitoring

AATF has five main crops (maize, cowpea, banana, rice and cassava) currently

in its project portfolio. These are important staples across SSA and this gives a

broad project portfolio. However, looking into the future, the Foundation needs

to expand its focus into traditional crops that have high value in the drought-

prone regions of Africa as climate smart agriculture becomes more important.

Sorghum is an example of such a crop: it has high potential for heat and drought

tolerance. It is not only as important staple in Africa but among the ten most

important in the world and therefore is an important crop to secure the

continent’s food security. Improving productivity and nutritional value are key

value additions that can be brought into this crop in the vast arid regions of

Africa. It could be an alternate crop in such hardy environments where the

major cereals are highly limited in growth.

2.4.3. How does AATF work?

When undertaking any of these roles, AATF’s project activities follow a phased

approach:

Phase 0: Intelligence gathering.

14

Phase 1: Project formulation.

Phase 2: Product development.

Phase 3: Product deployment.

Figure 2.1 summarises the process of developing and implementing a project,

and more detail of the project phases is presented below.

Figure 2.1 Process for developing an AATF project

Project Lifecycle Phase 0: Intelligence gathering

AATF continuously gathers intelligence on technological breakthroughs locally

and internationally that have the potential to address the needs of smallholder

farmers and address constraints to crop productivity in Africa.

Project Lifecycle Phase 1: Project formulation

Once such a technology is identified, the technology owner is approached and,

if they are willing to give access to the technology, a rigorous process is initiated

to evaluate this opportunity and to formulate a project that will utilise the

technology to develop products that could be used by smallholder farmers. This

process goes through the formulation of a product concept note, a technical

review of the concept, a feasibility study and ultimately a project business plan

based on consultations with stakeholders.

15

Project Lifecycle Phase 2: Product development

This is the phase of the project during which collaborating partners carry out

research, testing and adaptation of technologies. AATF’s involvement typically

includes licensing of intellectual property rights to research partners who are then

responsible for adaptation and product development. Other activities in this

phase include setting up structures to service the partnership, scientific

leadership and project management, gathering information that will assist

regulatory compliance, and monitoring public opinion.

Project Lifecycle Phase 3: Product deployment

At this stage, a product has been developed, tested and found to provide a

satisfactory solution to the targeted farmers’ constraints. Relevant institutions will

have been identified to produce and distribute the product. Deployment will

start in pilot locations, and lessons learned from this will be used to scale up the

technology to other locations. During this phase, AATF provides support in

deployment and commercialisation of the products, and identifies and

establishes strategies including stewardship that will support the long term

availability of the products once AATF has exited the project.

2.4.1. How are projects managed?

The project development process is managed by AATF in consultation with its

partners. Once approved and funded, product development and deployment

activities typically are managed by a Project Manager recruited by AATF or

seconded by a partner institution. The Project Manager reports to AATF through

the AATF Technical Operations and is supported by a Project Steering or

Operations Committee made up of partner or stakeholder representatives. A

host of experts in various disciplines relevant for project implementation, referred

16

to as Technical Advisors, and are selected to provide technical advice to the

Project Manager on a voluntary basis.

The Project Steering / Advisory Committee and the Technical Advisors meet

once a year to review project’s progress and approve the work plan for the

following year.

2.5 Lessons Learnt

Over the past 10 years, there have been a lot of opportunities and challenges

and AATF has learnt a number of things. These lessons were reflected through

the strategic refresh and resonated to the strategic refresh recommendations as

outlined in section 1.3.

17

3. AATF GOING FORWARD

This section outlines the changes and measures that AATF will introduce to

address the challenges in the new business plan. First, it sets out the conclusions

from the strategy refresh process, before presenting AATF’s growth strategy,

product commercialisation strategy and new business models. The final section

contains new approaches that AATF will pursue over the course of this business

plan, including an organisational restructuring that has been undertaken and the

development of project exit strategies for sustainability. It further looks at

enhancing gender participation and equity in projects, increasing monitoring of

trends to support knowledge generation and decision making and strengthening

its efforts in working with governments.

3.1. Conclusions from the strategy refresh process

In 2012, AATF’s Board of Trustees and management conducted a refresh of the

Foundation’s strategy to ensure it was prepared for the changes, challenges and

opportunities in the agricultural environment.

A summary of the conclusions from the refresh indicated need to expand the

organisation’s mandate beyond proprietary technologies, royalty-free and

smallholder farmers. It also pointed to pressure from stakeholders to demonstrate

impact at farmer level and therefore the need to balance the project portfolio,

strengthen its M&E system to track performance and share learning and define

an exit strategy. Taking into account that most of the projects in our current

portfolio are now entering into the deployment phase, the refresh also

concluded that there was a clear need to balance staff skills sets to reflect both

scientific and commercial orientation in addition to restructuring the organisation

towards impact-driven and results-based management. To support the

organisation’s sustainability plans, the refresh concluded there was need for

AATF to diversify its donor base to include other income generation opportunities.

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To implement this strategy, AATF has developed several strategies summarised in

Table 3.1 to meet the seven objectives summarized in figure 1.

Table 3.1 Objectives and strategies from the 2012 Strategy Refresh

Objective Strategy to meet this objective

1 Access appropriate

agricultural technologies

for the benefit of

resource constrained

smallholder farmers in

SSA

Identify and prioritise smallholder farmer needs

Identify and obtain access to the matching

technologies

2 Facilitate development

and adaptation of

accessed technologies

Form effective partnerships that can develop

and adapt technologies

Clear risk management, particularly with

respect to biotechnology products

3 Facilitate delivery and

commercialisation of

products

Develop partnerships & networks

Provide technical support and targeted

communication to the main players

4 Support the

development of

enabling policies in

accessing, developing

and delivery of

technologies

Provide knowledge and information on specific

issues including the technology behind the

product

Develop an effective communication and

advocacy strategy

5 Restructure the

organisation and re-align

skills to respond to the

dynamic environment

Carry out a functional analysis to determine the

needs and responsibilities of all AATF jobs

Design and implement a team building

programme

6 Increase and diversify

the funding base

Develop a resource mobilisation strategy

Develop commercial orientation necessary to

access private sector resources

Build internal resource mobilisation capacity

7 Implement a monitoring

and evaluation system

based on an effective

knowledge

management system

Develop monitoring and evaluation system

Promote the dissemination of results from

projects through peer-reviewed publications

and other outlets

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AATF has integrated these objectives into the 2014-2018 Business Plan, most

notably through its growth strategy, as set out below.

3.2. AATF Growth Strategy for 2014 – 2018

In the past ten years AATF has been able to operationalise 11 projects in 10

countries. Over the next five years, seven of these projects either advance

into, or intensify its activities in, commercialisation. Currently, four of the

projects are already being commercialised with plans for out scaling to

other countries (Table 3.2). Another five are at the technology

development stage and will be deployed within the next two to three

years. This is summarised in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2: Stages of current projects

Commercialisation Advanced stage On-going development

CAMAP Cowpea Banana Bacterial Wilt

Striga Control COMPRO-II Rice Productivity

(NEWEST)

WEMA Seeds2B Hybrid Rice

Aflatoxin

The 11th project, the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB)

is a knowledge and information sharing platform on agricultural biotechnology

that will continue its efforts to cover more countries in Africa.

Over the period 2014 – 2018 AATF will continue to develop new technologies and

break into new markets in the region. The rationale for country expansion is

based on the premises that:

a. AATF is a Sub Saharan organisation and this is supposed to be reflected in

its country presence rather than concentrate in a few countries.

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b. There are a number of countries with similar technology gaps that can

benefit from successful technologies already accessed by AATF.

c. Smallholders farmers will quickly improve their livelihoods from AATF proven

technologies

d. The PPP model used by AATF has proved to work in commercialising

technology

The approach to achieving this growth will be underpinned by three strategies,

presented in Figure 3.1, and discussed in more detail below.

Figure 3.1 AATF Growth strategy

a) New markets: - AATF plans to out-scale into new countries with existing and

new projects/technologies. The Foundation aims to have a maximum of six

projects/technologies in a country, to ensure it reaches as wide a range of

smallholders as possible. The minimum target for the next five years is to enter at

least five entirely new countries.

b) Enhanced outreach: - AATF plans to invest into new communities/districts with

existing projects to achieve greater in country coverage and penetration. This

can easily be achieved with technologies that are now in the deployment

phase. These include Striga, WEMA, CAMAP, AFLASAFE and COMPRO.

c) New projects/technologies: - AATF together with its partners will continue to

develop new projects/technologies that offer solutions to smallholder farmers.

The target for the next five years is to introduce at least three new

projects/technologies.

21

3.3. AATF approach to product commercialisation

One of the key recommendations from the strategy refresh of AATF was that it

should identify and enhance the commercialisation opportunities of its work. To

this end, AATF intends to engrain commercialisation approaches in its new

business plan period, for the long-term benefit of African smallholder farmers.

AATF believes that commercialisation in agricultural value chains depends on

development of appropriate technologies, establishment of cost-effective

systems to enable farmers and traders access to these technologies, and to

ensure that they have the incentive to integrate these new technologies and

practices into their activities and investment plans.

The AATF commercialisation strategy will invest more to ensure that the seed

companies and the smallholder farmers are willing to pay for the technology

generation from which they will benefit. Smallholders will only be willing to pay for

technology when the investment provides them with a sufficient expected return

- equal to a ‘market rate’ plus a premium that compensates for uncertainty.

AATF’s work can help increase this willingness to pay by developing quality

products that meet consumer and market needs.

The opportunity for commercialisation continues to be a key criterion for

identifying opportunities, selecting projects, and determining the optimal mode

of delivery. For each project taken forward, AATF will continue to consider

whether it is commercially viable and how to maximise the potential for

commercialisation at each lifecycle phase. Some of issues that might be

considered as part of this process are presented in Figure 3.2, mapping the

production activities alongside the commercialisation activities.

22

Figure 3.2 Commercialisation activities AATF undertakes along the project

development cycle

3.4. New business models for impact

AATF is constantly changing how it does business to best meet the needs of

smallholders and while becoming a more sustainable organisation. As such, AATF

will pursue a number of business and licensing models to make its activities as

sustainable as possible, and grow AATF into a centre of excellence for

technology access and delivery. These include:

i. Cost recovery and outsourcing – AATF will expand cost recovery to ensure

long-term sustainability. Examples of this may include:

charging seed companies the cost price of foundation or hybrid seed

supplied to them through a project’s product development pipeline;

charging certain partners for some of the logistical services AATF

provides; and

23

outsourcing some project aspects to reduce costs rather than

implementing them internally.

ii. Innovation platforms – these will be public-private partnerships to support

technology development and deployment. For example, AATF will work with SSA

agricultural mechanisation centres to develop more efficient dryers, planters and

up-rooters for efficient cassava production and processing. AATF can form a

business unit that will act as a service provider for mechanisation services under

the Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project which will be directly

paid for by the farmers.

iii. Internal venturing – AATF will develop its internal technological capabilities

by setting up a technology division. This may include a seed production unit to

meet the increasing demands for the reliable supply of quality foundation and

certified seed for projects such as AATF’s WEMA work. AATF is empowered by its

Memorandum of Association to engage in trading activities that promote the

charitable objectives of the company. The Foundation will first explore registering

as a seed merchant and/or seed grower under Kenya’s Seeds and Plant

Varieties Act (CAP. 326) from its Nairobi office. This approach will then be

replicated in other countries and will become a source of revenue for AATF

activities in the long term.

iv. Commercial models to generate resources -AATF could consider the

following commercial models:

Royalty bearing licenses. If AATF were able to collect royalties from the

seed companies, this would mean it would no longer be dependent on

the charitable motivations of international technology owners and could

instead pay them for their intellectual property. This could give AATF

access to a huge range of technologies that were previously inaccessible.

AATF would collect the royalties on behalf of the technology owner and

then retain an administrative/implementation fee, which would also make

its business more sustainable. Increasing the range of technologies AATF

can access will help the Foundation and its partners efficiently develop

new seeds that are affordable to farmers.

24

• Joint venture agreements are formal and legally binding commitments

between partners to work together on a specific shared enterprise. The

partners share the benefits, risks and liabilities of that enterprise. AATF

could utilise such agreements for the innovation platforms and seed

production activities referred to above.

• A spin-off company is an independent company created from an

existing legal body. If AATF were to develop a new technology with

tremendous commercial potential, it may be appropriate to set up a

company to market it. In the future, such technologies could be

developed in the innovation platforms referred to above.

3.5. New approaches and strategies for this business plan

In line with its flexible and iterative process of operation for efficient and effective

service delivery, AATF will also pursue a range of new approaches over the

course of this business plan that include i) the restructuring that is currently

ongoing; ii) the development of exit strategies for sustainability; iii) stronger efforts

to enhance gender participation and equality; iv) increased monitoring of trends

and v) a new approach to working with government.

3.5.1. AATF restructuring

As discussed above, commercialisation and the need to demonstrate impact will

become increasingly important to AATF, and as a result, the organisation has

been restructured to support these key areas of interest, by creating the

Commercialisation and Deployment Directorate. AATF has also created a full-

fledged Human Resource function to report to the Executive Director. The M&E

function was moved from the Business Development Unit to the Executive

Director’s Office. A number of new positions for project managers have also

been created including a dedicated Resource Mobilisation Office. These

changes will ensure that in the future, AATF has an even stronger and more

effective management team and structure.

25

Figure 3.1 shows AATF’s new organisational structure. Key positions are as follows:

Executive Director, with overall responsibility for the operations of AATF,

including strategic guidance, resource mobilisation and utilisation as well

as managing partners and donor relations.

Director Technical Operations, responsible for identifying appropriate

technologies, technology development, providing overall leadership for

implementing AATF projects and effective management of partners and

resources.

Director – Finance and Administration, responsible for managing the

organisation’s finances and providing administrative support to ensure

efficiency in AATF operations.

Director – Commercialisation and Deployment, responsible for overall

technology commercialisation, adaptation, expansion and stewardship

through the project cycle and for ensuring effective management of

partners and resources.

Director Legal Affairs, responsible for AATF’s management of intellectual

property, including licensing and contract arrangements, legal advice

and corporate matters.

• Communication and Partnership Manager, responsible for managing the

Foundation’s public relations and strategic partnerships, as well as

designing and implementing corporate and project communication and

outreach strategies.

Business Development Manager, responsible for evaluating commercial

viability and financial feasibility of AATF projects, formulating project

business plans, and for providing AATF and its partners with the

agribusiness perspective in technology selection and commercialisation,

product development and deployment.

26

Regulatory Affairs Manager, responsible for the development and

management of the regulatory approval process for the development

and deployment of agricultural technologies across target countries.

Projects Management and Deployment Manager, responsible for

monitoring the day-to-day implementation of some AATF projects and

spearheading the deployment of AATF projects.

Seed Production Manager, responsible for the formulation and

implementation of seed production and dissemination strategies and

plans for AATF projects, including advising on germplasm improvement.

Product Stewardship Manager, responsible for the formulation and

implementation of technology stewardship strategies for AATF projects.

Project Managers, responsible for monitoring the day-to-day

implementation of AATF projects, including consultations with stakeholders

for priority setting, monitoring and technical supervision of project

implementation across the technology delivery value chain.

Programme Officers, responsible for providing technical and operational

support and guidance to projects, resource mobilisation and corporate

activities.

Head Human Resources, responsible for designing and managing all

human resources functions at AATF. The position ensures effective and

efficient provision of high quality human resources services in support of

AATF operations in all AATF locations/offices.

Resource Mobilisation Officer, responsible for providing leadership in

developing the strategy and generating broad support for

implementation of the Foundation’s activities

Monitoring & Evaluation Officer, responsible for designing and

implementing the M&E activities of all AATF Projects; assisting Project

Managers in preparing quarterly/annual reports on project progress and

will monitor the project activities on a regular basis and will be responsible

27

for the collection & analysis of different data in relation to project

activities.

AATF has a sustainability strategy to ensure continuity of work in cases of staff

exit. Each unit has a programme officer who provides backstopping services to

the respective manager. In addition to its staff, AATF works with consultants on

short-term technical or specialist assignments on a case by case basis.

28

Figure 3.3 AATF organisational structure

29

3.5.2. AATF sustainability, scalability and exit strategy

A key element of sustainability is that AATF is able to discontinue funding to

projects when they are fully developed and viable, and use those funds to

support new projects/technologies. AATF has processes in place to determine at

intermediate points in a project’s lifetime whether it should continue or not. This

process is defined by AATF project ladder which has provided steps in which

AATF can end a project as below:

Step 3 – if scientific / legal reviews are not favorable

Step 4 – If feasibility studies are not favorable

Step 6 – If the Board is not favorable for various reasons

At any other point according to the exit strategy which can be related to the

fact that the impact expected is far below the expectations, obstacles along

the value chain make the deployment impossible, or after other actors such

private sectors have been able to take up the technology for massive

deployment making AATF at that stage not relevant.

There are also cases in which exit strategies will include three major components,

summarised below.

a. Effective partnerships with private sector and national institutions

The involvement of private companies will ensure constant supply of good

quality seeds / products of improved varieties to farming communities. Projects

that AATF is involved in will have the technology inventors, developers, seed

producers, and disseminators working together to help the smallholder farmers.

The active involvement of various stakeholders (including NGOs and community

based organisations [CBOs]) in project implementation and the continual

training of staff from different organisations including seed distribution merchants

will further build the necessary capacity in each country to sustain the activities

of the projects. This will help ensure that additional resources are allocated to

further such activities beyond the project period.

30

b. Developing a robust value chain approach

A value chains approach will be adopted as part of a larger effort to promote

and sustain the adoption of the AATF generated technologies. On the basis of

an initial market survey of processors, traders, and other actors along the value

chains for the different AATF products, strategic alliances will be established for

the promotion of the products, at various levels through linking producers to

traders and processors.

The projects will adopt a participatory market chain development approach to

foster greater interaction and co-ordination among the various market actors. A

key objective is to create the awareness, capacity, and opportunities for farmers

to become more positive and informed actors in the value chain, able to

negotiate and work with other market actors rather than being passive price

takers.

The combined effect of addressing agricultural productivity challenges across

smallholder farmers in SSA and market development interventions will increase

the quantity and quality of crops produced with lower per unit production costs,

which will help domestically-produced agricultural produce to compete better

with imports. This will also help reduce costs for domestic consumers.

c. Strengthening the capacity of actors

Awareness among farmers as well as improved delivery of technologies to rural

communities are critical factors that determine their adoption by farmers. The

projects will conduct training of research and extension staff to ensure that

farmers have access to the information that will stimulate adoption and scaling

up of successful technologies.

The projects will also use diverse communication tools, including radio, television,

leaflets, posters and websites to create awareness about the importance of

31

agricultural technologies among policymakers and investors. A critical policy

component of AATF projects will be the involvement of national seed authorities

in each country (and linkage with other organisations such as AGRA) to ensure

the private sector is informed and in a position to deliver those services to

farmers.

3.5.3. Targeting gender mainstreaming and equity

Women in Africa are responsible for generating a significant part of agricultural

production, but own a small proportion of the land and have less access to

technology than male farmers. AATF has developed a new strategy for gender

in project implementation and adoption with emphasis on actively encouraging

women’s participation. The strategy is based on gender mainstreaming, which is

now a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equity by considering

the impact of different policies and projects on both women and men.

A strong, continued commitment to gender mainstreaming is one of the most

effective means for AATF to ensure that women as well as men can influence,

participate in and benefit from agricultural development efforts. This approach

will be implemented along the entire product value chain to enhance gender

equity in participation and distribution of benefits through awareness workshops,

trainings and demonstrations on the importance of gender inclusiveness.

AATF will complement this strategy with targeted interventions to promote

gender equality and women's and youth empowerment, particularly in situations

where there is persistent discrimination against women.

AATF’s gender mainstreaming and targeted interventions will be determined as

part of a larger Impact Monitoring and Evaluation (IM&E) activity for each

project. As part of the IM&E, AATF will formulate and test a range of hypotheses

32

relating to gender, and specific steps will be taken to understand gender

differentials and imbalances in access to assets, technologies, and support

services.

During the first year of project implementation and as part of the baseline, AATF

projects will conduct an in-depth study on the roles, livelihood strategies,

constraints, and preferences of men and women farmers (female-headed

households as well as women farmers in male-headed households). The results

will be used to improve participation in capacity building activities by

disadvantaged groups, resulting in an informed and balanced emphasis on

empowering women. Key performance indicators to be set jointly by all

stakeholders will be updated regularly to monitor progress on gender issues as

part of IM&E.

3.5.4. Role of Women and Youths with regards to agriculture education

Women involvement in agriculture is increasing. Forums have been formed to

ensure that women are empowered to take up agriculture as a career and also

stir up an interest at an early age. Mentorship for women professionals in

agriculture has also been formed. AATF will tap into these forums and engage

women to increase their participation in technology commercialisation.

In the rural setting, women do most of the manual work in the farms; however,

they do not have sufficient access to information, land or technologies. AATF will

give women equally access to education, information, science and technology,

and extension services to enable improving women’s access, ownership and

control of economic and natural resources. This, in turn, will strengthen women’s

ability to benefit from market-based opportunities by institutions and policies

giving explicit priority to women farmer groups in value chains.

It is also evident that country populations are dominated by youths. They are the

future of a country. They are indirectly tasked with the responsibility of feeding

the growing population around the world. Therefore, AATF will undertake to

share knowledge on agriculture with the youths and through the right channels

33

to ensure acceptance. With agriculture not being a favourite among the youth

or seen as “inferior” to other jobs, it is important to package agriculture in an

appealing manner. One approach that AATF has adopted to attract youths into

agriculture is through the implementation of the Cassava Mechanisation and

Agro-processing Project. This project is attracting youths as they find it easy,

efficient and effective to use machines rather than the traditional approach of

manual labour. Education about such agricultural machines also helps to

remove the fear of agricultural drudgery factor

If the youth are able to see the sense in agriculture, they can re-package the

information available to share with other youths through ICT. They can also help

in developing databases that will store agricultural information for use in later

years. Additionally, they can mentor young people in high school and educate

them on the importance of agriculture as a subject/career. The youth hold a

powerful role in passing on agricultural knowledge. Further to this, it is also

important to involve them in policy formulations to ensure that the exact needs

are captured and avail credit facilities for them.

3.5.5. Trends monitoring

Agro-chemistry and agribusiness are quick moving sectors internationally, and it

is important that AATF stays ahead and informed of the developments in the

agricultural arena and specifically to keep abreast of new technologies that

have the potential to support smallholders in Africa. As a result, AATF will make

deliberate efforts to evaluate and publish emerging developments in the

following sectors:

i. Trends in R&D

ii. Trends in GM policy and regulatory environment

iii. Trends in seed systems development

iv. Trends in agricultural intellectual property

v. Trends in crop production and food security

vi. Biotech knowledge sharing, awareness and perceptions

34

3.5.6. Strategic initiatives to support development of enabling environment to

access, develop and deliver technologies

AATF only undertakes product development in a country if there is an adequate

enabling environment of laws, policies and regulations. The most important

elements of the enabling environment from AATF’s perspective include

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regimes, policies and regulations for input

markets (particularly seed and chemicals), and biosafety issues (in the case of

transgenic crops). In addition, general understanding and appreciation of

options for increasing productivity through innovative technologies is important

for ensuring acceptance of technology choice and products. Strengthening

enabling environments could help AATF reach a wider range of countries. In the

past, the Foundation has eschewed engaging overtly with government on policy

advocacy issues. However, the policy environment can be a significant

constraint on technology uptake, and the emerging policy environment in Africa

for innovative technologies such as GM crops is fluid, often characterised by

unduly cautious policies and legislation.

To overcome this, during 2014-2018 AATF will support efforts to develop policies

that will enable adaptation and uptake of novel technologies by implementing

a series of strategic initiatives. The major areas of focus shall include activities

such as:

Expanding Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa into new

countries: this will include enhancing knowledge-sharing and awareness

on biotechnology to raise understanding and contribute to building a

strong enabling environment for decision making.

Deepening the understanding of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for

delivery of improved seeds in Africa: this activity will help ensure that

farmers and stakeholders understand the net benefits of using PPPs to

develop biotechnology products, as well as the stewardship issues that

must be overcome to ensure compliance with rules and regulations.

35

Monitoring trends in biosafety regulations, IP status, seed regulations, and

R&D priorities: this will showcase experiences and success stories that can

be used to enhance adoption and knowledge sharing.

Value chain analysis for delivery of crop-based technologies: this will map

product’s value chains to ensure that proper mechanisms are put in place

to facilitate commercialisation of the products.

3.5.7. AATF Risks and Mitigation Plan

The AATF is potentially working with smallholders across SSA, and in practice in 13

different countries. The level of risk will differ from country to country and from

AATF project to project. However the majority of risk has been internalised within

the Project design. AATF is aware of these risks and will manage its portfolio of

projects to reflect this. Now that AATF has been successfully established and is

operational the overall risk is low to medium.

Risk Risk mitigation plan

Policy and regulatory

environment is not supportive

and compromises gains.

This is internalised as far as possible through establishing

an information and knowledge management system.

High-level advocacy is not a principal focus of AATF

and responsibility for managing lies with development

partners and others with appropriate influence

Appropriate bio-safety

policy/law is in place and

enforced

This is a specific area of policy and law over which AATF

has little direct control, but will continue dialoging with

respective partners and countries

Adequate levels of rural

infrastructure do not exist

This issue is addressed under CAADP Pillar II and the

performance of those implementing programmes to

address this will be important

There is poor access to

appropriate input and output

markets

The availability of markets so that appropriate inputs

can be obtained at fair prices by smallholders is

extremely important for sustainable improvements in

productivity; similarly output markets with fair prices for

36

the sale of farm produce, or processed goods are

necessary otherwise there will be little incentive for

smallholders to increase productivity

AATF does not receive

negative publicity

This risk is largely associated with public perception in

Africa and the UK of both biotechnology and bio-

safety. This can be seen in the context of AATF and UK

government involvement in biotechnology. This has

been internalised through the establishment of an

information and management system and the

awareness that publicity and profile need to be

carefully managed

Political/economic

environment compromises

gains

Whilst perfect political and economic stability cannot

be expected, it is anticipated that adequate levels of

political and economic stability will exist in targeted

countries in SSA. AATF will monitor conditions in

countries where they are operating and adjust their

projects accordingly.

National, Regional and

International markets do not

support gains

AATF’s role in ensuring supportive markets is in lobbying

and providing information to policy and decision

makers.

No effective seed systems exist. Most of the technologies are dependent on seed for

their success, and this is a significant risk. However in

recognising its importance, AATF has almost completely

internalised it, ensuring that seed companies are major

partners in the development and validation of

technologies. It is extremely important, but through

internalization, the probability of it having a negative

impact is low.

No crop protection and liability

insurance for both conventional

and transgenic crops.

AATF is exploring on insurance options to safeguard

against any risks related to this.

37

AATF’s project portfolio

The current and future AATF projects are summarised below.

3.6. Current projects

3.6.1. Striga control in smallholder maize fields in Africa

Key information Details

Target constraint Striga control in maize

Coverage Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania.

Future plans for

Expansion Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe.

Partner institutions NARS, CIMMYT, BASF, IITA, TSBF-CIAT, WeRATE, NGOs, CBOs,

Ministry of Agriculture, Farmers, private seed companies,.

Technology

provider BASF, CIMMYT

Current status Product deployment

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 42.9m

To benefit from

new technology 12.9m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $8m Funding

committed $3.2m

Project timings

-pre 2004 2004 2005-2013 2014-2018

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Project

deployment Project outscaling

38

What does this project do?

About 120m people living in Africa are affected by striga (witchweed), a

parasitic weed that infests cereals. Striga has invaded over 20m hectares (ha) of

crops, leading to losses of over $2bn per year and food insecurity. For many

decades, striga was beyond the control of smallholder farmers in Africa, but

recent technological breakthroughs, particularly StrigAway (IR) maize

technology, tackle striga and are easily integrated with practices such as

intercropping and legume rotation.

In 2004 AATF initiated a public-private partnership to control striga. Currently, the

project is facilitating the uptake of StrigAway (IR) maize technology through

product demonstration, information dissemination, product commercialisation,

and stewardship for long-term benefit to farmers.

What is the progress to date?

The progress of this project to date has been significant. Already, the product is

being sold on a commercial basis in Kenya and Tanzania, with 137 tonnes and 7

tonnes being produced and sold in those respective countries. The product will

be rolled out in Uganda in 2014. To date, most farmers have increased their

yields per hectare on average from 0.5 tonnes/ha to about 2 tonnes/ha. In

addition, there is evidence that land abandoned due to striga is now being

cultivated again.

Efforts to increase awareness of StrigAway have been significant. To date, over

66,000 demonstrations have been undertaken across the three countries, which

have illustrated the product’s performance and teaching farmers how to use the

StrigAway (IR) maize within their farming systems.

39

What are the expected impacts?

The project targets approximately 6.25m ha, equivalent to 30% of the total striga-

infested area in SSA. Trials suggest that IR Maize varieties will yield 50-100% more

than local maize, and much of this benefits will accrue to the poorest – in areas

severely infested with striga, poverty rates can be 20% higher than those areas

with limited infestation. Eliminating striga completely in East Africa would add

more than 2.3m tonnes of maize to current production levels over 20 years,

which would have a net present value of $2.2bn.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

Over the next five years the project hopes to significantly expand its work to

other striga infested land in its current countries as well as into Malawi, Zambia,

Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. These four countries account for 85% of the striga weed

occurring within Africa’s maize fields. The project will start exiting in some of the

areas already covered in the later part of this business plan period, so by 2018,

AATF will undertake impact studies to assess and document the adoption of the

technology and lessons that can be learned.

3.6.2. Pod Borer Resistant Cowpea

Key information Details

Target constraint Control of insect pests in cowpea

Coverage Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi

Future plans for

Expansion Niger, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon

Partner institutions

NGICA , CSIRO, IITA, Monsanto, Kirkhouse Trust, PBS, Ministry

of Agriculture, NABDA, INERA, IAR, CSIR-SARI, NGOs, CBOs,

farmers, private sector

40

Key information Details

Technology

provider Monsanto Company, USA

Current status Product Development

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 28.6

To benefit from

new technology 8.6

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $15.0m Funding

committed $10.0m

Project timings

Pre 2004 2004-2007 2008-2017 2017-2022

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Product

development

Product

deployment

What does this project do?

Cowpea is one of the most nutritionally and economically important grain

legume and fodder crop in Africa, cultivated on over 12.5m ha of land

benefiting over 200m people. It is estimated that over 2m people in Africa

consume cowpea on a daily basis as protein supplement. However, cowpea

productivity levels have been very low due to limited uptake of chemicals and

other methods to prevent losses from pests and diseases. Yield losses due to the

pod borer, Maruca vitrata, alone reach 80%.

In response to the impact of pests on the productivity of cowpea production,

AATF and NGICA initiated the cowpea project in 2003 with the objective of

enabling smallholder farmers in Africa have access to both seed of high quality

41

and farmer preferred cowpea varieties with increased resistance to Maruca

(MR) pod borer.

What is the progress to date?

In 2005, AATF obtained from Monsanto Company, USA the cry1Ab gene on a

royalty-free basis and a licence to transfer the gene into cowpea. AATF has also

obtained the Freedom to Operate (FTO) and sublicensed the gene for research

purposes to CSIRO (Australia) and IITA (Nigeria) for the transformation of cowpea

varieties resistant to Maruca.

To date, the gene has been successfully incorporated into a selected cowpea

variety and its efficacy tested against Maruca vitrata, a Lepidopteran pest. The

selection of an elite event was done in Australia, with field tests against Pod Borer

Resistant cowpea conducted in Puerto Rico and they are also currently

underway in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and lately for Ghana.

The project has also provided an opportunity for partnering with the NARS of

these countries to develop capacity in access and utilisation of novel

technologies. Further, the project has enabled regulatory authorities to gain

experience in processing applications and making science-based decisions.

What are the expected impacts?

The Pod Borer Resistant cowpea project is expected to transform the livelihoods

of many farmers in Africa who depend on cowpea for food and as a source of

income. The benefits accruing to the households will lead to improved food

security and poverty reduction and these include the following:

42

Increased yields and incomes for smallholder farmers. It is estimated that

the use of improved Pod Borer Resistant varieties can lead to increased

yields of between 450 kg per hectare to 1.5 tonnes per hectare. Assuming

that farmers receive $0.5 per kg of cowpea and given that the cost of

Pod Borer Resistant varieties is expected to be $28 per hectare; a

conservative estimate is that farmers’ incomes will increase by at least

$197 per hectare (450 * 0.5 - $28). But the increase in incomes could be

over $700 per hectare if yields are above 1.5 tonnes per hectare.

Improved nutrition and health. Cowpea grain contains around 22%

protein and provides a cheap source of dietary protein for low income

urban and rural populations. The availability of high yielding Pod Borer

Resistant cowpea varieties will create an increased product base of

cowpea secondary products that can lead to more utilisation, better

nutrition and improved welfare.

Improved environmental protection. By supporting farmers to achieve

higher yields the improved Pod Borer Resistant varieties will reduce the use

of toxic cotton pesticides which will decrease pollution/environmental

damage.

Enhanced soil fertility and stability. The cowpea project is anticipated to

increase soil fertility and stability in sandy and infertile soils in Africa as

some cowpea cultivars have beneficial effects that include weed

reduction because of good soil cover, its atmospheric nitrogen-fixing

abilities, and its impact on organic matter content.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

The period 2014 – 2018 will see the continuation of product development and

deployment activities, which will involve the production of Pod Borer Resistant

cowpea lines suitable for breeding and commercialisation of promising

transgenic farmer-preferred varieties, while ensuring that the product remains

43

compliant with regulations, which is a particular concern for a genetically

modified crop.

Towards the end of the business planning period, the project will move to the

product deployment phase. By 2017, the target is for the Pod Borer Resistant

cowpea product to be ready for pilot and wide scale deployment, which will

entail on-farm testing, product demonstrations, dissemination and stewardship of

the improved and consumer-preferred Pod Borer Resistant cowpea varieties in

Africa. It is expected that seed of the first Pod Borer Resistant cowpea variety will

be available to the farmers by 2017.

3.6.3. Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA)

Key information Details

Target constraints Frequent droughts and insect-pest infestation in maize

Coverage Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique

Partner institutions CIMMYT, NARS, Monsanto, NGOs, CBOs, Farmers, Private

seed companies, Ministry of Agriculture

Technology

provider Monsanto, BASF

Current status Product development and deployment

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 22m

To benefit from

new technology 10.7m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $57.5m Funding

committed $57.5m

Project timings

44

Key information Details

2005 - 2006 2007 – 2008 2008 - 2013 2014 - 2018

Intelligence

gathering

Product

formulation

Product

development

Product

development and

deployment

What does this project do?

The WEMA project has been developed to respond to the challenge of

mitigating drought risk faced by over 300 million farmers that depend on maize it

as their main food source.

AATF is leading a collaboration of public and private organisations – including

the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of Kenya, South Africa,

Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, CIMMYT and the Monsanto Company – to

develop drought-tolerant and insect-pest protected African maize using

conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding, and advanced

biotechnology.

At the time of inception, the goal of the project was to enhance food security in

SSA through developing and deploying drought tolerant maize royalty-free to

the smallholder farmers. However, in 2011, the project also facilitated access to

transgenic insect-pest protection technology to complement the drought

tolerant efforts.

45

What is the progress to date?

Since inception the project has made a number of achievements. AATF

successfully negotiated royalty free access to three proprietary technologies and

work with both public and private partners is ongoing. .

The WEMA partnership has successfully established one of the biggest maize

breeding pipelines in Africa. Between June 2013 and May 2014 the project

released 25 conventional drought tolerant hybrids in Kenya, Uganda and

Tanzania; and nominated two for Registration or Variety Listing in South Africa.

Over 80 tonnes of certified seed of the first conventional drought tolerant WEMA

hybrid WE1101 released under the trade mark DroughtTEGO™ were sold in

Kenya between October 2013 and March 2014 season reaching about 25,000

farm households. An additional 800 tonnes of seed are under production in

readiness for the October 2014 – March 2015 seasons; targeting over 200,000

farmers. Maize grain yield increased from a national average of 1.8 tonnes/ha to

an average of 4.5 tonnes/ha among farming communities that grew WE1101 in

the short rains of October 2013 to January 2014.

What are the expected impacts?

The new drought-tolerant and insect-protected maize hybrids developed in

WEMA will provide valuable economic, agronomic and environmental benefits

to millions of farmers by helping them produce more reliable harvests under

moderate drought conditions and better grain quality due to reduced insect

damage.

By the end of 2018 the WEMA project seeks to achieve a number of important

outputs such as supporting 50 new technologies/ products to reach the

deployment phase, with over 550,000 farm households will be growing WEMA

hybrids. The improved maize varieties are expected to deliver significant

46

improvements in farmers’ maize yields, which will support farm households to

increase their incomes.

The incremental yield gain from adopting WEMA hybrids is estimated to increase

each farm household’s annual income by $147 if the farmers plant once a year

and $294 if they plant twice a year. It is projected that the value of yield increase

will be over $80m by 2017. Further, by 2025, about two million farm families,

approximately 12 million people, will be growing WEMA hybrids with a projected

total value of yield increase estimated at over $280m.

Overall, this project could provide a more sustainable source of maize for

consumption; in the long-term the project could eliminate the food deficit for

nine million Africans in the five target countries (assuming maximum adoption

levels). In addition, by improving the productivity of farmers’ production the

WEMA project will reduce the pressure on land use for cultivation, delivering

beneficial environmental impacts.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

In the period 2014 – 2018 the project will continue research and development of

both conventional and transgenic maize hybrids and deliver products with

improved drought tolerance and insect-pest protection to farmers by engaging

and sub-licensing new inbred lines and hybrids to seed companies in Africa.

From 2014, the main activities envisaged for the project include:

Facilitate production and distribution of drought tolerant and insect-pest

resistant maize seeds for end users.

Ensure the stewardship of drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant maize

inbred lines, hybrids and traits throughout the value chain.

47

Develop and test drought tolerant maize germplasm (source populations,

inbred lines and hybrids) through conventional breeding, molecular

breeding technology and transgenic trait technology.

Regulatory affairs and compliance to support multi-site testing and

commercial release of, drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant maize

hybrids in the WEMA partner countries.

Communications and outreach to support testing, dissemination,

commercialisation, adoption and stewardship of conventional and

transgenic drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant hybrids in the five

target countries.

Develop and implement appropriate sub-licensing and intellectual

property protection mechanisms for WEMA products.

Ensure effective coordination, management and scientific leadership of

the WEMA project.

3.6.4. Aflatoxin control in Maize and Peanuts

Key information Details

Target constraint Aflatoxin control in maize and peanuts

Coverage Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal

Future plans for

expansion

Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger,

Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mozambique, Zimbabwe,

South Africa

Partner institutions IITA, USDA-ARS, University of Arizona, NARS, Ministry of

Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Food Industries

Technology

provider IITA, USDA-ARS and the University of Arizona

Current status Deployment

48

Key information Details

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 5.8m

To benefit from

new technology 1.7m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $5.2m

Funding

committed None

Project timings

2005-2009 2009-2010 2010-2013 2014-2018

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Product

development

Product

development and

deployment

What does this project do?

Mycotoxins are substances produced by fungal moulds that contaminate

various agricultural commodities. Dietary exposure to aflatoxin (a type of

mycotoxin) contaminated maize has been associated with various human

health conditions including the high incidence of liver cancer, growth

retardation in children, reproduction impairment and the suppression of cell-

mediated immune responses. In a number of cases, maize grains contaminated

with aflatoxin-producing fungi have been implicated in incidences of food

poisoning: in Kenya, over 100 people died in 2005 alone from eating

contaminated maize.

AATF has identified the control of mycotoxins in cereals as a priority area for

intervention. Tools for preventing aflatoxin formation in crops have recently been

developed, and in 2007 AATF began to work with its partners to implement an

aflatoxin bio-control project using AflasafeTM. Aflasafe™ is a biological product

49

that excludes the colonization of aflatoxin- producing fungi on crops. AATF

estimates that this project will cost $5.2m over the 2014-18 business plan period.

What is the progress to date?

Aflasafe™ is currently in the development and deployment stage. Progress to

date has been significant, with the initial partnerships with USDA-ARS and IITA

expanded to incorporate NARS partners in Nigeria, Senegal and Kenya.

Provisional registration of Aflasafe was secured in Nigeria in 2010 and a request

for full registration of Aflasafe™ was submitted to the regulatory authority in

Nigeria for consideration in 2014/15.The process of securing full registration for

Aflasafe™ is currently ongoing in Kenya and Senegal.

Efficacy trials of Aflasafe™ conducted in Northern Nigeria have consistently

shown over 80% reduction in aflatoxin contamination of maize and peanuts on

test fields. A total of 1,000 farmers have participated, with the efficacy trials

covering 85 ha. In Kenya alone, Aflasafe™ efficacy evaluation commenced on

farm during 2012 where some 800 farmers in the aflatoxin hot-spot areas

participated. This work is ongoing.

What are the expected impacts?

This project aims to prevent the health impacts of aflatoxin contamination on

humans, as well as the loss of income from livestock that eats contaminated

feedstuffs, as well as the reduced value of crops contaminated with aflatoxin

and open up entry of such products to export markets as Aflasafe is expected to

reduce the levels of contamination to lower levels that are acceptable for

trading purposes. The cost of aflatoxin contamination in Kenya is estimated to be

over $300m per year. It is estimated that using Aflasafe™ will increase income by

$103.87/ha.

50

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

The project will continue working closely with regulatory agencies to achieve full

registration in Nigeria, Kenya and then in Senegal where AATF and partners are

currently working on products for aflatoxin control in peanuts. AATF is exploring

opportunities for producing Aflasafe™ on a commercial basis, which will be

developed further in 2014 once the product is registered in Kenya and

candidate commercial producer(s) are identified. A licensing agreement will be

negotiated and signed between AATF and private sector producers clarifying

the target quantities of AflasafeTM to be produced and distributed in the target

area for sale to farmers, royalty-free.

3.6.5. Improvement of Banana for resistance to Banana Bacterial Wilt (BXW)

Key information Details

Target constraint Bacterial wilt in banana

Coverage Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya

Future plans for

expansion Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Tanzania

Partner institutions IITA, NARS, IRAZ, Academia Sinica, NGOs, CBOs, Farmers,

Ministry of Agriculture, private sector

Technology

provider Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Current status Project development

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 10.0m

To benefit from

new technology 3.0m

Funding for 2014-2018:

51

Key information Details

Funding required $4.5m Funding

committed None

Project timings

2005 2006-2008 2008-2013 2014-2018

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Product

development

Product

development

What does this project do?

In the East African highlands and the Great Lakes region, cooking bananas

represent a major food, and generate income for an estimated 100m

smallholder farms. Despite the importance of this crop, the cultivation of banana

in the region faces several challenges from pests and diseases, most notably

banana bacterial wilt (BXW, Xanthomonas campestris pv musacearum). In the

five years following the first outbreak in Uganda in 2001, the disease has spread

to Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, and

has the potential to affect all of the banana growing areas in Africa.

Since 2005, AATF and its partners have been working on an initiative to improve

the productivity of bananas in the Great Lakes region through the development

of genetically engineered banana varieties with traits for resistance against BXW.

What is the progress to date?

AATF has acquired licenses to three genes for resistance to BXW from Academia

Sinica. Eleven transgenic lines developed from these have shown 100% disease

resistance in comparison to non-transgenic plants. Experiments are underway to

assess the efficacy of over 300 transgenic lines with stacked genes as compared

to a single gene for enhanced durability of resistance against BXW.

52

A banana Tissue Culture Training workshop was held in 2012 with 22 trainees from

across the region participating. In addition, two Ph.D. students are being fully

trained in banana tissue culture and transformation.

What are expected impacts?

The project is expected to have an initial investment of $20.3m (of which AATF

will cover $4.5m between 2014 - 2018) but will have a long period before it

reaches economic viability. Scenario analysis suggests that at the earliest, the

project will see a small positive financial Net Present Value (NPV) in year 18. At

that stage, up to 20.5m bunches of bananas could be produced using the new

technology, producing revenue of up to $62m.

From a social perspective, the project will help prevent the $46m a year regional

loss from BXW, and help protect 25m people who would otherwise be at risk for

food insecurity.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

Towards the end of this business plan period, the project should have identified

the optimal transgene expression for further development, and AATF will assess

environmental and food safety issues to facilitate the compilation of the requisite

safety dossier to secure regulatory approvals in the target countries. Over this

period the project will also assess market linkages and the development of tissue-

culture based banana plantlets in region.

53

3.6.6. Cassava Mechanisation and Agroprocessing Project (CAMAP)

Key information Details

Target constraint High labour cost and inefficient production and processing

Coverage Nigeria, Zambia,Uganda

Future plans for

expansion Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, Sierra Leone

Partner institutions

Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI); National

Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation (NCAM), Nigeria;

National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Nigeria,

Governments of Osun, Kogi, Ogun and Kwara States,

Nigeria, Farm machinery producers of Brazil, Indonesia,

India, China, NARS, Ministries of Agriculture, NEPAD Pan-

African Cassava Initiative (NPACI), D’Andrea Agrimport

(Brazil), UNIDO

Technology

provider

Planti Center, Farm machinery producers of Brazil,

Indonesia, India, China etc.

Current status Project deployment

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 28.6m

To benefit from

new technology 3.5m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $10m Funding

committed $1.3m

Project timings

2005-2009 2009-2010 2011-2012 2012-2018

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Project

development

Project

deployment

54

What does this project do?

Africa is the world’s largest cassava producing region, despite having the lowest

cassava yields in the world. There are many opportunities for processing cassava

– for example for ethanol production, and to meet the required 10% of cassava

flour that must be included in wheat flour for bread making in Nigeria – but this

requires a large cassava processing capacity that currently does not exist in the

region. Entrepreneurs who wish to enter this market struggle to do so, as the

quality of locally-made equipment is poor, and equipment manufacturers in

other regions are often reluctant to ship equipment to African businesses.

The goal of CAMAP is to enhance the contribution of cassava production and

processing technologies to food security, incomes and livelihoods in the cassava

sector. CAMAP will promote equipment and support systems that meet farmers’

needs, including domestic manufacture and maintenance of such equipment. It

will also support relevant training and extension programmes, and will promote

financing systems for the purchase the machinery. AATF estimates that the

project will cost $5.2m over the 2014-2018 business plan period.

What is the progress to date?

The project is currently under implementation in Zambia and Nigeria, to later be

rolled out to Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana and Uganda. The project is now

being implemented in four states in Nigeria (Osun, Ogun, Kwara and Kogi), three

districts in Zambia (Manza, Kaoma and Samfyia) and one district in Uganda

(Apac). Currently at least 8,000 farmer in Nigeria, Zambia and Uganda are

participating in the project, and partners have been engaged in all countries.

The project has accessed a number of mechanisation technologies from Brazil

for demonstrations which include: 17 planters, 17 root diggers, ten cultivators,

and seven boom sprayers. In addition three tractors, one trailer, four disc harrows

55

and three ploughs have been acquired locally to fast track the implementation

of the project.

What are expected impacts?

Full implementation of the project will benefit directly more than 1.5 million

smallholders and indirectly more than 20 million consumers. Better working

conditions are expected (which should particularly benefit women, who supply

over 80% of the labour force in cassava production and processing) and end

users will benefit from access to cheaper products. Increased use of fertiliser –

which will be promoted as part of the project – is expected to increase yields

from six to eight tonnes/ha to 27 tonnes/ha. Increased yield and reduced labour

is expected to lead to income per ha increasing from the current $700-900 to up

to $3,000–4,500.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

During the next five years, efforts in this project will be targeted at out-scaling the

project to other African countries, developing market linkages, sourcing

additional technologies and bringing together more partners for implementing

the project.

3.6.7. Commercial Products (COMPRO11)

Key information Details

Target constraint

Facilitating emergence of an appropriate policy and

regulatory environment for testing and registration of bio-

products

Coverage Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda

Partner institutions IITA, NARS, FIPS, Universities

56

Key information Details

Technology

provider IITA, USDA-ARS and the University of Arizona

Current status Deployment

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 5.8m

To benefit from

new technology 1.7m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $3.3m Funding

committed None

Project timings

2005-2009 2009-2010 2011-2018

Intelligence gathering Project formulation Project deployment

What does this project do?

COMPRO II aims to institutionalise quality control mechanisms critical for

commercialisation and dissemination of products that will increase yields and

improve food security for smallholders in Africa. AATF’s focus for this project is on

policy and regulatory mechanisms for ensuring quality control of bio-products.

What is the progress to date?

AATF has worked with national agencies in the target countries to create a

conducive environment for testing, registration and commercialisation of

products. A stakeholder workshop was convened in Kenya in 2012 to examine

the existing policy and regulatory environment for fertilizers and bio-fertilizers. This

aimed to identify gaps and propose interventions that would create a functional

regulatory environment to help commercialise bio-fertilizer products. The

57

workshop concluded that gaps exist in regulatory frameworks in all target

countries, caused by inadequate legislation, capacity and/or inefficient

implementation. A survey of the equipment and capacity of the participating

laboratories in the target countries is almost completed and will determine the

level of additional equipment and personnel required to improve analytical

capacity. Early results suggest that the main challenge is a lack of sufficiently

qualified staff.

What are expected impacts?

AATF’s support for institutionalisation of quality control mechanisms will ensure

that more farmers use new commercial products, because their safety, efficacy

and quality will be ensured through effective national regulatory and quality

assurance mechanisms. The targeted specific outputs for this element of the

project are that:

By the end of year 2, a functional legislative and regulatory system will

have been established in at least two target countries;

By the end of year 4, at least two products are registered by the National

regulatory agencies and are for sale in at least three target countries, and

By the end of year 5, in at least four countries, an institutionalised quality

control system will be implemented as a customer-paid service to assess

the quality of biological commercial products and chemical agro-inputs.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

For the next three years, AATF will continue to work with governments and

regional bodies to formulate, harmonize and implement relevant legislation for

bio-fertilizers as well as to enhance the capacities of national regulatory

authorities to monitor the quality of products released for use by farmers.

Following this, a country-specific action plan encompassing key policy

interventions will be developed and implemented.

58

3.6.8. Developing Hybrid Rice for use by smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan

Africa

Key information Details

Target constraint Breeding by Design

Coverage Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, and

Mozambique.

Partner institutions aWhere, Heal, Private Seed Companies

Technology

provider aWhere, Heal

Current status Product development

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 20m

To benefit from

new technology 4.3m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $4.8m Funding

committed $4.8m

Project timings

2011 2012-2013 2014-2018

Intelligence gathering Project development Product deployment

What does this project do?

Annual rice production in Africa is estimated to be 12m to 17m metric tonnes,

and has been increasing by 3.7% per year. However rice consumption within

Africa is growing by 6% per annum resulting in an annual deficit of 6.5m metric

tonnes, valued at $1.7bn. Rice is thus imported, using scarce foreign currency.

59

Currently in its initial implementation phase, the project aims to develop and

expand 2-line hybrid rice technology in selected African countries, and ensure

that through private companies and public institutions in Africa this technology

reaches farmers and increases their rice yields and income streams. This project

is developing a 2-line hybrid rice germplasm that is adapted to African

conditions, as well as an IT tool to manage the production risk for such hybrid

rice. Some of the hybrids being developed will create plants that become sterile

in high temperatures, but remain fertile in cool temperatures. If temperatures are

high at the time of flowering, floret sterility could be introduced which can limit

grain yield. These new hybrids will prevent this.

AATF works with its partners in Kenya and Tanzania in carrying out country-level

coordination of activities, technology and product testing, and communication

and awareness creation for this project.

What is the progress to date?

Project partners have been set up and hybrid breeding has commenced in

Malindi Kenya. The first project consultative meeting was held in July 2013 in

Nairobi and attended by 28 participants representing seed companies, NARS

regulators and AfricaRice, which will be providing some rice lines for

introgression into farmer preferred varieties. A tentative work plan was

developed including training for breeders as well as seed producers by the

technology providers of HEAL and aWhere. Details of the project and scaling up

in future for countries listed in the project proposal were discussed.

60

What are expected impacts?

The project is meant to develop 2-line hybrid rice germplasm that is adapted to

African conditions. This will increase yields by at least one ton over the best

commercial varieties currently available for use by smallholder farmers.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

Intense breeding activities will continue and will take most of 2014 - 2015.

Screening of the first batch of S lines will be completed, and will be made

available to the stakeholders during this business plan period, with training

conducted on both breeding and seed production. To achieve the target of

identifying eight seed companies for training by the end of the second project

period (which ends in December, 2015), AATF will be reaching out to contact

more seed companies. In addition, the Foundation will have a one day training

session on yield testing technology, to have trials conducted uniformly by all

partners, with consistent data collection and reporting methodologies.

Seed production will be completed by Q2 of 2014, and testing will commence as

soon as seed can be distributed to various companies and public sector

institutions. At least the seeds of 100 hybrid lines will be produced at the level

required for multi-location testing, and another 2-300 for preliminary testing in 2-3

locations. A total of 20 locations are being targeted for the multi-location testing.

3.6.9. Improvement of Rice Productivity (NEWEST)

Key information Details

Target constraint Soil nitrogen deficiency, salinity and water use

Coverage Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda.

61

Key information Details

Future plans for

expansion

Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Tanzania, Cote d’Ivoire,

Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone

Partner institutions PIPRA, NARS, Arcadia Biosciences, NGOs, CBOs, Farmers,

Ministry of Agriculture, NABDA, Private sector

Technology

provider Arcadia Biosciences, USA, PIPRA, USA, Japan Tobacco.

Current status Product development

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint 14.3m

To benefit from

new technology 4.3m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $8m Funding

committed $5m

Project timings

2005 2006-2008 2008-2013 2014-2018

Intelligence

gathering

Project

formulation

Project

development

Product

development

What does this project do?

Annual rice production in Africa is estimated to be 12m to 17m metric tonnes,

and has been increasing by 3.7% per year. However rice consumption within

Africa is growing by 6% per annum resulting in an annual deficit of 6.5m metric

tonnes, valued at $1.7bn. Rice is thus imported, using scarce foreign currency.

This project aims to increase the productivity of Africa’s rice farms to meet this

deficit. Two of the main constraints for rice in West Africa are nitrogen deficiency

and salt accumulation. The most acute nitrogen deficiency occurs in highly

weathered uplands, where yields are 25% of their potential. Salt accumulation

62

affects 650,000ha of rice production in the region, due to minerals in irrigation

water.

This project seeks to harness use of Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) and Salt Tolerant

SAL+ technologies for the production of rice by smallholder farmers in Africa.

Improved nitrogen use efficiency within rice production systems will increase

crop yields, lower the continent’s fertiliser nitrogen deficit, reduce its soil nutrient

depletion, and protect water quality. Benefits from increased salt tolerance by

rice would increase yields and allow for the recovery of lands previously

abandoned to salt accumulation and reduce demand for Africa’s limited

supplies of fresh water.

What is the progress to date?

AATF has acquired Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE), Salt Tolerance (ST) and Water

Use Efficiency (WUE) genes and gene constructs from Arcadia Biosciences and

University of California (PIPPRA). Work on these is underway in Ghana and

Uganda. The NUE and ST NERICA rice variety has been developed and tested by

Arcadia, so there is proof of concept. The project has now incorporated the WUE

gene and transformation is underway. Confined field trials have been

undertaken in Uganda and Ghana and more trials are on-going.

What are expected impacts?

Research has demonstrated that NEWEST rice can increase yields by up to 30%

with 50% less nitrogen fertilizer than conventional rice. If the project meets its

targets of growing 4m ha of rice, this could bring an additional harvest of

335,000 tonnes and a welfare benefit of almost $300m. In addition, NEWEST

reduces demand for scarce fresh water supplies, and will stabilise yields in the

face of water stress. Research undertaken suggests that this could boost yields

63

by an average of 15% moderate water stress area, and a 25% boost for areas

with severe water stress. The project will also open up lands that otherwise

would have been abandoned and unusable due to salt accumulation.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

Next, AATF will extend NEWEST into other countries facing similar challenges. It

will extend agreements on the use of intellectual property between

stakeholders to cover all target countries, complete a plant breeding

programme to develop NEWEST Rice varieties that are adapted to different

countries’ growing conditions and negotiate production and distribution

agreements with local partners.

3.6.10. Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB)

Key information Details

Target constraint Improving bio-technology awareness, appreciation and

support in SSA

Coverage Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana,

Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso

Partner institutions Nigeria (NABDA - ARCN), Zimbabwe (NBA- AfricaBio),

Ghana (CSIR), Burkina Faso (INERA), Tanzania (COSTECH),

Uganda (UNSCT), Ethiopia (EIAR) and Kenya (ISAAA

Technology

provider

N/A

Current status Outscaling Activities

Estimated number of farm households:

Affected by

constraint

500m To benefit from

new technology 100m

Funding for 2014-2018:

64

Key information Details

Funding required $5.0m Funding

committed $1.2m

Project timings

2006 – 2008 2008 - 2013 2014 - 2018

Product formulation and

launch

Product deployment Product deployment and

out-scaling

What does this project do?

OFAB was established by AATF in 2006 to bring together key players such as

scientists, journalists, policy makers, civil society and farmers for frank discussions

on the benefits and challenges of biotechnology. The Forum facilitates key

knowledge transfer for stronger policies and regulatory frameworks as well as

new partnerships for addressing biotechnology issues.

OFAB aims to enhance knowledge-sharing and awareness on biotechnology

that will raise understanding and appreciation of agricultural biotechnology and

contribute to building an enabling environment for decision making. This work

directly impacts the ability for AATF and other agricultural biotech organisations

to achieve a vision of ‘prosperous farmers and a food secure Sub-Saharan Africa

through innovative agriculture’.

What is the progress to date?

OFAB has delivered a number of achievements in recent years:

AATF recruited a full time staff member in June 2012 to coordinate the

country activities and ensure efficient and effective attainment of the

programme goals. Each national chapter will also have a fulltime staff

65

member to assist with coordination, management and reporting of the

chapter’s activities and mandate.

OFAB has now expanded to eight countries namely Kenya, Uganda,

Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.

OFAB brand has steadily gained recognition among key stakeholders across

Africa. Institutions from countries such as Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have

expressed interest in establishing their own national chapters; and regional

organisations such as Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and

Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement

Agricoles / West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and

Development Wes (CORAF/WECARD) want to work with and through OFAB.

The success of OFAB in Nigeria was evident with the conversion of the

Forum into a unit within National Biotechnology Development Agency

(NABDA). Furthermore, each of the 36 states in Nigeria has expressed

interest in hosting special OFAB sessions. To respond to this demand the

chapter decided to conduct an OFAB event in each of the agro-

ecological zones.

What are the expected impacts?

The impact of OFAB is difficult to quantify, but the activities of the programme

are key to AATF’s strategic objectives as it plays a key role in enabling the AATF’s

other projects to achieve their targets by facilitating knowledge transfer and

supporting the development of improved policy and regulatory frameworks

throughout SSA.

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

In the new business planning period, the project will mainstream biotech

awareness campaigns at the grassroots levels in addition to on-going work at the

66

national, regional and international levels. Work to reach farmers will form a key

part of OFAB strategy due to the urgent need to provide them with credible,

factual and timely information on biotechnology.

The project is also going to do more to facilitate dialogue between the

European Union and African Union on biotech policy through the national

science academies of the two regions. As part of this there will be a focus on

building strong media outreach programmes by partnering with media

peer/professional networks through which AATF can get access to credible

science reporters and editors.

Additional work will also be carried out to expand OFAB into new countries in

sub-Saharan region.

4.1.11 Seeds2B

Key information Details

Target constraint Improve farmer access to quality improved seed of new

varieties.

Coverage Malawi, Zimbabwe.

Future plans for

expansion

Ethiopia, South-Sudan, Zambia, Liberia, Uganda, Cote d’

Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Madagascar, and Mozambique

Partner institutions AATF, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

(SFSA), seed companies, and NARS

Technology

provider

Private Seed Companies, CGIAR centers

Current status Product deployment

Estimated number of farm households:

67

Key information Details

Affected by

constraint 100m

To benefit from

new technology 4.3m

Funding for 2014-2018:

Funding required $10.0m

Funding

committed $2.0m

Project timings

2012 – 2013 2014 – 2018

Intelligence gathering and Project

formulation Product deployment and out-scaling

What does this project do?

The Seeds2B Project aims to engender agricultural transformation in SSA by

leveraging public-private partnerships to bridge the gap between breeders,

researchers and farmers. The project purposes to improve access to quality seed

of new varieties by brokering access to and facilitating delivery of existing seed

based technologies developed within or without the African continent for the

benefit of smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Seeds2B Project will

access, test and deliver appropriate and adaptable seed-based technologies

to address constraints to improved agricultural productivity in target countries

while ensuring that technology owners from the public and private sector earn

returns on their investments in crop improvement, which could either be

monetary or non-monetary in nature depending on their mandates.

Catalysed by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture through its

Seeds2B Programme, AATF will develop and apply a scalable hybrid business

model for technology dissemination that shares attributes of both for-profit and

68

not-for-profit models. These models will allow for the commercialization of

technologies which, while not providing the margins required to attract private

risk capital to finance a for-profit enterprise, can provide margins sufficient to

sustain an enterprise without continued infusions of capital or donations. The

Foundation will manage technology trials and negotiations for access to lead

technologies on behalf of African seed companies as well as oversee ensuing

business relationships between participating seed companies and technology

owners to ensure benefit for all and more so smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan

Africa.

What is the progress to date?

Project implementation began in 2013 with the finalization of project roles and

responsibilities and signing of a financial agreement between AATF and SFSA.

The mapping out of Seeds2B Project opportunities was initiated thereafter.

Countries targeted for initial project piloting include Ethiopia, Malawi, Zimbabwe,

and Burkina Faso.

What are the expected impacts?

Given that the project seeks not only to improve farmer access to higher quality

seed of new varieties but also catalyse the development of the seed industry in

SSA, it is not possible to give specific figures relating to the potential impact of

the project, which is in an early stage, with a business plan yet to be developed.

However, overall, the project’s intervention is expected to have a considerable

impact on increasing yields as well as improving incomes for smallholder farmers

through the enhancement of their access to better seed. In addition the project

will support the development of seed systems in SSA, which will deliver longer-

term benefits, including increased competition in seed markets, stronger linkages

between farmers and seed producers and higher profitability of African seed

companies.

69

What activities are planned for 2014 - 2018?

From 2014, the main activities will involve the following:

Technology needs assessment and development of product profiles;

Technology scouting and negotiation for access to adaptable and

appropriate technologies;

Determination of project feasibility and development of a business plan;

Facilitation of in-country on-station and on-farm technology trials and

deployment of lead products in partnership with seed companies;

Management of regulatory approvals for variety release ,plant variety

registration, plant variety protection and seed trade; and

Development and application of project communication materials,

royalty management systems, M&E and impact assessment tools and

project metrics.

3.7. Future projects

A number of the possible future projects for AATF are set out below. These

represent the new thinking within the organisation, and a central focus on ‘quick

wins’ for African farmers. In today’s world, results must be accomplished in shorter

and shorter timeframes using fewer and fewer resources. At the same time, most

farmers and agribusinesses are plagued with numerous complexities—a variety

of internal technology challenges, unreliable rainfall patterns, incompatible work

patterns, competing programs, and activities—that get in the way of achieving

timely results. AATF is building a model for quickly identifying, organizing, and

achieving results that must be achieved within two years using existing resources

and authority which is essential to organizational success. Business as usual is no

longer adequate if AATF is going to meet its goals.

70

3.7.1. Climate smart farming

Climate change is affecting agricultural production across Africa, and a possible

way to mitigate this problem is to commercialise the use of greenhouse

technology for smallholders. Greenhouses increase agricultural output by

allowing for the control of environmental factors such as temperature, humidity,

lighting, air movement and pest/diseases. They also save on space and irrigation

water.

When operated correctly, a greenhouse can give fresh produce throughout the

year, including from crops that would not otherwise be suited to a particular

region. Greenhouses can also enable the use of modern technology such as

hydroponics, where plants are grown in a liquid (this can be water infused with

specialized nutrient mixes) which allows plants to grow larger and faster than

normal.

In Israel, greenhouses are widely used by small farmers, due to scarcity of water

and land. However, in most African countries the adoption of greenhouse

farming is in the initial stages and has mostly been restricted to commercial

farmers, due to the high costs of constructing and maintaining the buildings.

A potential solution to this may be to organise smallholders into green-house

farming groups, in order to pool resources. Over the course of this business plan

period, AATF wishes to explore how to increase smallholder’s access greenhouse

technologies for growing cash crops in West Africa. This project will mainly target

young entrepreneurs who otherwise may not be attracted to agriculture. These

farmers will be linked to greenhouse technology owners and trained on their

proper use and maintenance, including the cropping systems for greenhouses.

Market linkages will also be established.

71

3.7.2. Water saving, harvesting and irrigation technologies

There is now less food in most African countries than a decade ago, and many

families are starving owing to unreliable rains and frequent droughts and floods

in Africa. Some of these trends could be reversed through the use of irrigation,

water harvesting and water saving technologies.

Irrigation can increase productivity four fold. However, such technology is yet to

take root in Sub-Saharan Africa, where only 3% of arable land is irrigated,

compared to the world average of about 20% of arable land. This has hardly

changed over the last 20 years, while the percentage in South Asia has been

rising significantly, as part of Asia’s ‘green revolution’. Agricultural water

technologies in Africa are lagging behind.

Over the coming business period, AATF will explore on mechanism to access

water related technologies for the benefit of smallholder farmers across SSA.

AATF will initiate technology scouting activities to identify the appropriate

technologies and these will be matched with the water related constraints in

SSA. Technology access, adaptation, development and transfer through PPP

along the entire value chain will be established.

3.7.3. Post-harvest handling technologies

If developing countries in Africa cut post-harvest losses in half, the region would

produce enough food to feed one billion people by 2050. Food loss in

developing countries adversely affects the livelihoods of smallholder producers

by decreasing saleable harvest and farmers’ income. According to the Food

and Agriculture Organisation, post-harvest losses reduces the income of 470

million smallholder farmers and other actors in the food chain by at least 15%,

exacerbating food insecurity.

72

In the coming business plan period, AATF will proactively seek to enhance

smallholder farmer’s access to promising solutions and markets by exposing them

to new knowledge, technologies, business models and distribution systems and

better link farmers to retailers and food companies. There will be training on

grading, standards and certification including linkage to contract farming to

guarantee farmers of a reliable market for their produce and better returns. AATF

will further increase opportunities to increase affordability of post-harvest

solutions that enable farmers to derive greater value from their harvest, while

reducing spoilage and loss through value addition and agro-processing, which

AATF is already supporting through the Cassava Mechanisation and

Agroprocessing Project.

3.7.4. Introgressing Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) resistance into farmer-preferred

Tropical Maize

This project is an additional aspect of the WEMA project, which has the potential

to bring significant benefits to East Africa through large increases in yields.

Unfortunately, this opportunity is threatened by the outbreak MLN disease in the

region, first reported in Kenya in 2011 but has now spread to other countries, and

its impact is reaching a crisis level in the region. The disease is so virulent that an

entire maize field could be wiped out in a season if planted with a susceptible

maize line or variety.

AATF proposes to complement existing strategies currently being explored under

the WEMA project and other maize projects to control MLN disease by using

identified efficient transgenes and genomics assisted breeding to introgress

durable resistance into adapted maize germplasm to enhance food security in

Africa. It will develop this working with existing partners from the WEMA project,

including CIMMYT, Monsanto, and NARS and new partners from Cornell

University/ North Carolina State University, USA.

73

It is hoped that this project would lead to new relevant transgenes for MLN

resistance being accessed and developed, with at least 30 conventional hybrids

developed with combined MLN resistance and drought tolerance in National

Performance Trials (NPTs) and Release, as well as the MLN resistant transgene

being introgressed into at least 50 elite drought tolerant inbred lines. Of these, it is

hoped that at least two transgenic MLN resistant hybrids will be ready for

deployment by the end of the project in May 2018, and at least five transgenic

inbred lines stacked with MLN resistance, insect-pest resistance, and drought

tolerance will be ready for field evaluation.

It is estimated that this project will cost $8.5m over the five year business plan,

with $2m being sourced through the current WEMA Phase II budget.

74

4. MILESTONES & REPORTING

This section presents details of the AATF strategy for monitoring and evaluating

(M&E) its activities during the period 2014 -2018.

4.1. Theory of Change

Food security in Sub-Saharan Africa can be significantly improved by providing

African smallholder farmers with practical access to appropriate proprietary and

other technologies sourced and licenced on a

royalty free basis from providers outside of Africa.

Most organisations will select part of a value

chain e.g. marketing and focus on its

improvement while neglecting other areas. In

AATF, focus will be on the whole value chain i.e.

from identification of a constraint to

commercialisation of the technology identified to

solve the technology gap. For a project on seed

development, all sections will have stewardship

and value addition so as to ensure quality and

sustainability of the project.

The theory of change for AATF has been done by

creating a vision of success, mapping of the

changes and the actors in relation to the wider

context, setting the limits, considering unintended

consequences and agreeing on how to measure

success as shown in box 1 on the right and figure

5.1 below.

Box 1: What is a theory of change?

All interventions are based on a set of

assumptions about the social-political-

economic context in which they operate,

and the way in which change/ development

will occur. All too often programme staff

and other stakeholders fail to make this

underlying ‘theory’ explicit. The Theory of

Change approach is about making explicit

this often implied theory of change (and

doing so ex ante). It is then about sharing

and reaching agreement with stakeholders

on the underlying theory/ logic behind an

intervention and its context. And lastly, a

Theory of Change is about using M&E and

research to test, validate and refine the

understanding of the Theory of Change.

So a theory of change is a set of

assumptions about how change can be

triggered/ produced in order to address

problems or issues that affect individuals,

groups, and/or systems. Typically, a theory

of change defines the problem to be solved,

the targets for change (including

programme stakeholders, how they will act

and possible conflicts of interest), the

strategic levers required to solve the

problem, and the expected results.

75

Figure 5.1 AATF Theory of Change

5.1.1 Monitoring and Evaluation

The purpose of undertaking M&E is to continually ensure that AATF’s activities are

delivering a set of outputs, outcomes and ultimately, impacts that contribute to

the overall achievement of its mission and objectives. M&E activities are

undertaken to record and report the outputs of AATF’s work on an on-going

basis, and to provide donors with the evidence they need to understanding the

return on their grant or investments in AATF. M&E activities are funded from the

core and project-level AATF budgets.

4.2. Milestones

There are broadly two types of milestones relating to AATF’s activities and

projects:

AATF deliverables.

Enabling environment

Regulatory environment, public and political awareness and acceptance

of biotechnology, quality of partnerships, capacity, market prices,

credit availability, extension, agribusiness development.

Exam

ple

Vision of Success

Enable resource poor smallholder farmers in SSA gain access to

innovative and affordable crop technologies including

seeds that are drought, pest and weed resistant.

Product

development

(research

and testing)

Farm-level impacts

(food security,

nutrition/health status,

income, wealth, equality,

sustainability)

Product

deployment

(seed supply

chain)

Farmer demand,

access, & uptake

(market access,

price, seed

availability,

Farmer use and

production (know-

how, pest control

mgt, fertiliser use,

yields)

Intermediate farm-

level outcomes

(sales, consumption)

76

Intermediate outputs.

Milestones are the basis of future management and targeting of the AATF

project and other activities, and are the benchmarks for AATF’s future reporting

and M&E.

4.2.1. AATF deliverables

Deliverables are closely related to the phasing of AATF’s projects and the

intermediate outputs of those projects (see next sub-section) – they are the

documents and reports that AATF staff deliver throughout the duration of each

project lifecycle. The different stages of the project lifecycle feature different

AATF deliverables as described in Table 5.1.

Table 4.1 AATF deliverables by phase of project lifecycle

Phase AATF deliverable

Intelligence

gathering

AATF Management reviewed and agreed product ‘idea’

report (includes definition of agricultural problem and

proposed solution).

Project

formulation

AATF Management reviewed and agreed product concept

and feasibility studies / report / notes.

Board of Trustees and AATF Management reviewed and

agreed product development business plans.

Product

development

AATF Management reviewed and agreed product risk

mitigation plans.

AATF Management reviewed and agreed communications

plans.

AATF Management reviewed and agreed baseline data.

77

Phase AATF deliverable

Product

deployment

AATF Management reviewed and agreed deployment

(including licensing) and stewardship plans.

AATF Management reviewed and agreed technology

impact assessments.

AATF Management reviewed and agreed cross-border

expansion plans.

AATF Management reviewed and agreed monitoring

reports.

AATF staff provide evidence of the commencement, management and

monitoring of deliverables on a monthly, quarterly and/or annual basis as

appropriate, according to the current status and progress of each project.

4.2.2. Intermediate outputs

Intermediate outputs are counts (numbers) of physical units of things generated

by AATF activities at specific points in time. The highest level AATF intermediate

output is the number of projects AATF is implementing / has delivered. The

purpose of defining and measuring intermediate outputs is to provide an

indication of the progress of individual projects and to allow AATF and its

investors to judge whether particular milestones have been achieved.

The different stages of the project lifecycle feature different intermediate outputs

as described in Table 5.2 below.

Table 4.2 Intermediate outputs by phase of project lifecycle

Phase Intermediate output

Project

formulation

Number of viable, potentially high impact projects

progressed to the product development phase.

78

Phase Intermediate output

Product

development

Number of locally appropriate new technologies (such as a

new disease-resistant variety) accessed and generated by

each AATF project.

Number of new technologies / products progressed to the

product deployment phase.

Product

deployment

Number of demonstration plots and/or farmer field schools

(FFS) run in pilot locations / target geographies.

Number of farm households accessing, experimenting

and/or adopting a new technology generated by an AATF

project.

Number of seed companies, input suppliers and stockists

producing, processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technologies generated by an AATF project.

Volume of new technology stocked and sold per input

suppliers or seed companies (per year).

Enabling

Initiatives

Number of legal and policy reforms as a result of AATF

projects and initiatives that support access to and adoption

of agricultural technologies, by 2018

Number and type of knowledge management and sharing

platforms developed as a result of AATF projects and

initiatives, by 2018

Number and type of new collaborative agreements and

partnerships established as a result of AATF projects and

initiatives by 2018

Product development and deployment intermediate outputs could be

measured at the local, national, regional or pan-African levels depending on the

target coverage of each project. It is also possible to aggregate intermediate

outputs to understand AATF-level results (recognising that there may be overlap

of some projects, e.g. a farm household may benefit from both the WEMA

Project and the maize Striga Project).

79

Tables 5.3 and 5.4 below set out the phasing of intermediate outputs by project

and year. These intermediate outputs relate mainly to the product deployment

activities to the end of 2018, reflecting the fact that many projects either are or

will be in the product deployment phase throughout the period of this business

plan. Please note these intermediate outputs are projections, and are subject to

change.

80

Table 4.3 AATF intermediate outputs for 2014-2018 relating to current projects

Intermediate output Maize Striga

Insect

Resistant

Cowpea

WEMA NEWEST Rice Banana

Bacterial Wilt

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

10 varieties

by end of

2018

6 varieties by

end of 2018

50 varieties

by end of

2018

8 varieties by

end of 2018

5 varieties by

end of 2022

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

50,000 by

end of 2018

5,000 by end

of 2018

50,000 by

end of 2018

5,000 by end

of 2018

10,000 by

end of 2018

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology2

300,000 by

end of 2018

50,000 by end

of 2018

550,000 by

end of 2018

50,000 by

end of 2018

100,000 by

end of end

of 2018

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

15 by end of

2018

7 by end of

2018

20 by end of

2018

6 by end of

2018

6 TC

companies

by end of

2018

2 Based on CEPA assumption of 10 farm households adopting the new technology per demonstration plot (each demonstration plot

attended by 25 farmers in an FFS, with 40% of FFS attendees subsequently adopting technology).

81

Intermediate output Maize Striga

Insect

Resistant

Cowpea

WEMA NEWEST Rice Banana

Bacterial Wilt

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

250 by end

of 2018

150 by end of

2018

50 by end of

2018

125 by end

of 2018

6 TC

companies

by end of

2018

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

120 tonnes

by end of

2018

50 tonnes by

end of 2018

14,500

tonnes by

end of 2018

100 tonnes

by end of

2018

705,000 TC

plants by

end of 2018

Target application rate (kg per farm

household assuming 0.5ha of land

dedicated to food crops per farm)

10kg 15kg 10kg 25kg 7 plantlets

Table 4.4 AATF intermediate outputs for 2014-2018 relating to current projects

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Intermediate output Mycotoxin

Control

Cassava

Mechanisation

Hybrid Rice Seeds2B

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

4 strains by end of

2018

4 prototypes by

end of 2018

20 varieties by

the end of

2015

10 varieties by

the end of

2018

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

2,000 by end of

2018

50,000 by end of

2018

20,000 by the

end of 2018

40,000 by the

end of 2018

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology

100,000 by end of

2018

80,000 by end of

2018

150,000 by the

end of 2018

100,000 by

end of 2018

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

2 processing

plants by end of

2018

50 by end of 2018

12 by the end

of 2018

4 by end of

2018

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology 20 by end of 2018 10 by end of 2018

50 by the end

of 2018

30 by end of

2018

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

200 tonnes by

end 2018

150 machinery units

by end of 2018

100 tonnes by

the end of

2018

0.2 tonnes by

end of 2018

83

4.2.3. Progress reporting

In accordance with the original business plan, AATF implements processes to

meet investors’ requirements for financial reporting and review. As far as possible,

these draw on existing material produced for internal management and review.

A multi-investor report is produced annually by AATF. Its purpose is to review

progress against AATF’s objectives, and present funding proposals for new

projects. The report is supplemented by individual arrangements for financial

reporting – reflecting the different reporting requirements of investors. AATF will

continue to convene an annual investor meeting to present and discuss the

report.3

As set out in the original business plan, AATF will carry out a ‘zero’ based review

of the AATF’s activities, and its impact in 2018. It would also consider whether

AATF would either (i) withdraw from activities when capacity has been

developed in its areas of competence; or (ii) increase its capacity building

function over time.

AATF staff will present details of milestone reporting schedules in their projects to

the AATF Board, and will be required to meet these milestones as part of their

role. They will also update and revise project plans and budget milestones,

including the redefinition of the years 2 to 5 grant-making phase presented in the

business plan, on a yearly basis during the period 2014-2018. A milestone

reporting template (annex1) will be used to report on the progress in the

implementation of the milestones.

3 In order to minimise the workload associated with financial reporting, AATF will consider

establishing an intermediary mechanism to handle investor contributions and reporting.

AATF will consult with the investors on the appropriate mechanism.

84

4.2.4. Indicators for evaluation at the end of AATF’s involvement in a project

Given lead time of AATF’s projects, it is expected that the approach to

evaluating the impact of its activities will involve the following consideration of

different indicators.

Indicators are the highest-level measures of the farm household outcomes and

impacts of the AATF’s activities over the duration of the AATF intervention’s life.

The overall effectiveness of the AATF intervention will be measured by four

generic indicators at the farm household level:

Percentage and absolute increase in household income and asset

indices.

Percentage and absolute decrease in child malnutrition and hunger.

Percentage and absolute increase in median crop yields (tons per

hectare).

Percentage increase in the use of improved seeds and other inputs.

The highest level indicator that the AATF will seek to monitor and evaluate is the

percentage and absolute changes in the volume of improved seed and other

inputs (developed and deployed via AATF’s projects) consumed by farm

households in target geographies.

Other indicators that are expected to contribute to the M&E of AATF’s projects,

and the intervention as a whole include:

Farmer financial and physical access to locally appropriate improved

seed and other input technologies developed and deployed by AATF’s

projects.

Farmer demonstration and experimentation with new input technologies.

85

Farmer adoption of new input technologies.

The intermediate outputs presented will contribute to the measurement and

assessment of these indicators – they will be project-specific and will be

measured during and after the product deployment phase of each project.

Table 5.5 below presents details of the purpose of these indicators and

information about how they will be measured. Another key intermediate

indicator (not shown in the Table) is the extent of governmental and institutional

adoption of improved policies and information influenced by or arising from

AATF’s project activities.

These indicators will be collected, monitored and measured at the project level

by AATF staff in collaboration with partner organisations as appropriate. Project-

level indicators will then be aggregated to allow AATF and its investors to

evaluate the overall outcomes and impacts of the AATF interventions.

86

Table 4.5 AATF farm impact indicators

Indicator Description Purpose How to measure

Farmer financial

and physical

access to

locally

appropriate

improved seed

and other input

technologies

Sustained, seasonally

recurring private (or

public) sector supply of

and farmer effective

demand for locally

adapted, appropriate

seed and other inputs.

Primarily to capture the extent to

which supply chains (and value

chains more generally) have

emerged that efficiently provide

farmers with financial and

physical access to locally

appropriate input technologies

developed and deployed by

AATF projects. This is a proxy

measure of the extent to which

farmers have an on-going

incentive to consume input

technologies developed and

deployed by AATF.

Periodic field and household surveys of

changes in input consumption among

smallholder farmers in target

geographies.

Periodic surveys of changes of

imported inputs by seed company and

agro-dealer throughput (volumes

stocked and sold) of locally

appropriate seed and other inputs in

target geographies.

Farmer

demonstration

and

experimentation

with new input

technologies

Low unit cost extension

of locally adapted

agronomic information

and experimental

quantities of inputs to

farmers in target

geographies.

To capture the effectiveness of

AATF supported or leveraged

deployment / extension activities,

which are the key intermediate

step required for the transfer of

locally adapted input

technologies and ultimately to

stimulate sustained demand for

Periodic field and household surveys of

reach of AATF-supported or leverage

deployment / extension service

delivery, and assessments of the

relevance (local appropriateness) of

the information and inputs being

extended.

87

Indicator Description Purpose How to measure

improved inputs.

Farmer

adoption of

new input

technologies

Sustained, seasonally

recurring farmer

demand for and

effective use of new

input technologies

(developed and

deployed by AATF

projects), normally

extended through

Government extension

agents, NGO, agro-

dealers or other private

sector channels.

Primarily to capture the

effectiveness of AATF supported

deployment / extension activities

in directly reaching farmers who

subsequently adopt the new

input technologies being

promoted.

This measure will also capture the

effectiveness of AATF activities in

supporting the strengthening of

input supply chains and

agricultural value chains more

generally.

Periodic household surveys of farmers

directly interfacing with AATF-

supported deployment extension

activities.

Periodic household surveys of farmers

who have adopted new technologies

via either: (i) other -leveraged donor /

Government projects and programs; or

(ii) farmer to farmer demonstration

effects; or (iii) new customers of agro-

dealers.

88

4.3. Resource mobilisation

As the previous sections have shown, AATF has undertaken a number of reforms to strengthen its business model and

prepare it for the future. The Foundation is now ready to take its work to the next level; it has the people, networks,

business plan, and grassroots partners in place across Africa.

Its focus now is on securing the necessary financial resources. While competition for funding in the current climate is

fierce, AATF offers a real opportunity to help Africa meet its need for more food by offering simple, practical solutions,

using an approach that will increasingly have significant impact and open up opportunities for commercialisation. To

investors, the Foundation offers a number of different funding models, all of which can be linked to real impacts on the

ground.

To meet its ambitions for the 2014-2018 business plan, AATF plans to spend close to $141.03m. The next sections provide an

overview of AATF’s historic and future expenditure, sources of funding, and the impact that investments in AATF’s work

has the potential to achieve.

89

5. FINANCIALS

This section sets out historic spending from 2003 to the end of 2013 and the

projected budget from 2014 to the end of 2018 based on AATF assumptions about

future staffing, operating and capital expenditures, and the project portfolio.

Table 5.1 AATF historic expenditure

Cost 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 TOTAL

Staff 0.18 0.65 0.96 0.99 1.21 1.49 0.96 1.33 0.68 1.01 0.70 10.16

Operating 0.40 1.13 1.16 1.04 0.97 1.02 1.11 1.13 0.74 1.49 0.78 10.97

Capital 0.03 0.14 0.05 0.01 0.01 0.06 0.07 -0.04 0.01 -0.07 0.00 0.28

Projects 0.00 0.00 0.03 1.61 1.41 10.54 8.48 9.23 14.72 14.54 16.71 77.27

TOTAL 0.62 1.91 2.20 3.66 3.60 13.11 10.61 11.64 16.15 16.98 18.19 98.67

90

5.1. Summary of AATF projected expenditure

The AATF’s projected expenditures for the period 2014-2018 shows that AATF plans

to significantly increase its project activities especially those related to

commercialisation of the technologies as the Foundation gear towards making

impact.

Table 5.2 Projected expenditure

Cost item 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Total

Staff 1.02 1.12 1.17 1.23 1.29 5.83

Operating 0.46 0.50 0.55 0.61 0.67 2.79

Capital 0.05 0.09 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.21

Projects 18.20 21.50 26.50 30.50 35.50 132.20

TOTAL 19.73 23.21 28.24 32.36 37.49 141.03

5.2. Funding requirements

5.2.1. Project activities

The estimated funding requirement for AATF’s current and future projects is shown

by table below for the period 2014-2018. AATF is now seeking to raise an additional

$53.83m from donors for project-specific expenditures for the period 2014-2018.

Table 5.3 Budget requirement by project

Project

Estimated

budget

requirement

2014-2018

Funding committed

by donors

2014-2018

Funding now

being sought

from donors

2014-2018

Current projects

91

Project

Estimated

budget

requirement

2014-2018

Funding committed

by donors

2014-2018

Funding now

being sought

from donors

2014-2018

Striga Control in Maize 8.0M 3.2M 4.8M

Water Efficient Maize for

Africa (WEMA) 58.0M 58.0M -

Nitrogen Use Efficient, Water

Use Efficient and Salt Tolerant

Rice (NEWEST)

8.0M 5.0M 3.0M

Bacterial Wilt Resistant

Banana 4.5M - 4.5M

Cassava Mechanisation and

Agro-processing Project

(CAMAP)

10.0M 1.2M 8.8M

Aflatoxin Control in Maize

and Peanuts 5.2M - 5.2M

Open Forum on Agricultural

Biotechnology in Africa

(OFAB)

5.0M 1.0M 4.0M

Cowpea 15.0M 10.0M 5.0M

Hybrid Rice 4.8M 4.8M -

Seeds2B 10.0M 2.0M 8.0M

Commercial Products

(COMPRO II) 0.7M 0.2M 0.5M

Total 127.2 85.4M 41.8M

92

Project

Estimated

budget

requirement

2014-2018

Funding committed

by donors

2014-2018

Funding now

being sought

from donors

2014-2018

Future projects

Climate Smart Farming

Water Saving

Technologies

Post-harvest handling

technologies

5.0M 5.0M

Corporates expenditure

Staffing

Operating expenses

Capital expenditure

8.83 1.8 7.03

Overall total 141.03M 87.2M 53.83M

6. SOURCES OF FUNDING

This section presents details of how and from whom AATF will leverage funding to

support its activities during the period 2014-2018.

The precise composition of AATF’s financial resources is driven by the nature of the

technologies it pursues and the pace of growth in Africa’s commercial, legal and

regulatory institutions. In its early years of operation, AATF’s projects have supported

the delivery of technology that would otherwise remain inaccessible to resource-

poor farmers; given that the activities have been designed to tackle market failure

this has justified the use of donor and government support for AATF’s activities. As

93

commercial incentives become more widespread in African agriculture, AATF’s

projects should increasingly attract direct investment from the private sector.

6.1. Funding from public sources

From 2014 – 2018, AATF’s activities will be funded mainly by grants. AATF aims to

maintain its current donors and attract additional new investors. AATF will:

Seek to increase the level of funding from existing donors to cover projects

and/or core funding.

Encourage linkages with related agricultural development initiatives (e.g.

relating to soil health and fertility, seed systems, policies, and agricultural

innovations in Africa).

Engage in income generating projects and cost recovery activities.

Seek to attract new sources of funding from additional organisations that

fund agricultural development in Africa such as:

o African Governments and Foundations: e.g. through special

agricultural initiatives such as those in Nigeria and Kenya, Dangote

Foundation, Elumelu Foundation, Econet Foundation, Government

initiatives that encourage public/private partnerships e.g. BMZ of

Germany, other overseas Government agencies such as DANIDA and

the EU/EC etc.

o Other relevant Foundations: those that are concerned with

supporting agricultural growth in Africa and providing solutions to

food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition and poverty e.g. Gatsby, and

IFAD.

o Multilateral Development Banks that support agricultural

development in Africa: e.g. African Development Bank and the

World Bank.

94

AATF seeks to use its funding to leverage additional contributions from other donors

and from the private sector. This provides possibilities for closer interaction and

collaboration with donors who have interests in particular types of technology, but

it runs the risk of increasing the burden on reporting procedures (if each project has

a separate donor) and, in the extreme, can potentially detract from AATF’s ability

to provide a consistent and coordinated service.

6.2. Private sector funding

As an institution rooted in public-private partnerships, AATF is also expected to

leverage contributions from the private sector, including:

Proprietary technology held by the public and private sectors in OECD and

other countries. Placing a value on this technology in African markets is

difficult, but the expectation is that much of it will be licensed at zero royalty

initially. The elapsed time and financial costs associated with publicly funded

development of equivalent technology (assuming that public institutions

have the appropriate capacity) are likely to be substantial (hundreds of

millions of US dollars). It is anticipated that companies will continue to

contribute in kind to AATF’s projects through the provision of knowledge and

time by appropriate specialists.

Investment by the national (and potentially international) private sector firms

in production and distribution.

AATF will start to generate revenues to cover the costs of some of its operating

activities. AATF currently does not collect royalties on its products, but as markets

develop it may levy modest royalties on selected products to recover costs.

95

7. EXPECTED IMPACT

This Section provides an early indication of the impact of the projects that AATF will

be implementing during the period 2014 - 2018. This is a relatively high-level analysis,

but shows the significant benefits that the Foundation hopes to achieve. It is also

worthy of note that evaluation of impact is an ongoing effort for AATF, as is set out

in Section 5.

7.1. Number of beneficiaries

AATF aims to promote food security and enhanced livelihoods, and its current

projects will go a long way towards the achievement of that goal – it is currently

estimated that the eleven projects will support 156m smallholders in SSA. On

average, each project targets 25% of the total farmers who are affected by the

constraint.

Figure 7.1 Beneficiaries of AATF projects

96

7.2. Range of benefits

The benefits of these different projects will vary by their intended impacts. AATF

projects can be categorised into three types:

Capacity building, projects that aim to improve the skills and organisation of

existing institutions such as national agencies, agricultural research bodies

and seed companies. This includes the COMPRO II Project, the Seeds2B

Project, and OFAB.

Loss prevention projects that aim to develop new seeds and technologies to

reduce the share of crops lost to pests and diseases. This includes the project

to control aflatoxin contamination in maize and peanuts, efforts to improve

resistance to Banana Bacterial Wilt disease, controlling Striga infestation in

maize fields, and the development of pod-borer resistant cowpea.

Productivity increasing projects that aim to increase the yields of

smallholders’ crops, whether through innovative seeds, practices, or

mechanisation. Projects under this category include the high-profile Water

Efficient Maize for Africa, the two projects to improve rice production (by

producing hybrid rice and rice that is salt tolerant, and nitrogen and water

use efficient) and the mechanisation project for cassava (CAMAP).

However, there are some projects that can fall under two or more categorises. An

example is Seeds2B which can apply in all the categories. For the capacity building

projects, the impacts will be more institutional and therefore not possible to

quantify, and as such these are not considered below, though this will be

developed through different reviews.

7.2.1. Impact of loss prevention projects

The four projects that aim to eliminate pests and diseases from crops could provide

an annual benefit to farmers in total of over $175m per year. A short summary of

how each project will achieve this is presented below.

97

Table 7.1 Impact of loss prevention projects

Project Summary

Annual potential

benefits to

farmers

Aflatoxin

This project has developed a biological product

(Aflasafe™) that excludes the colonisation of

aflatoxin-producing fungi on crops. The annual

potential benefit to farmers represents the profit

that will be achieved over the target area of

100,000 ha. In addition to this, reducing aflatoxin

will have significant health benefits.

$10.6m

Banana

Bacterial

Wilt

This project is developing banana varieties with

traits for resistance against BXW. The annual

benefit shown represents the current annual loss

to the region from banana wilt.

$46m

Cowpea

Cowpea yield losses from pod borer are in the

region of 80% and to overcome this AATF is

facilitating the development a cowpea variant

with increased resistance to pod borer. Current

market analyses consider a number of scenarios,

with one estimating a total producer surplus of

$451.3m over 15 years, giving an annual average

benefit to farmers of $30.1m

$30.1m

Striga

Striga is a parasitic weed that attacks cereals. This

is thought to impact around 120m people in

Africa. AATF is countering this by facilitating the

development of herbicide resistant maize that is

coated in herbicide to kill the Striga weed.

It is estimated that in Kenya, Tanzania and

Uganda where it has been introduced, this

project will bring total gross annual benefits of

$108m. As this is estimated to cost $380m over 20

years, this will bring an average annual net

benefit of $89m.

$89m

98

Figure 7.2 Total annual potential benefit to farmers of loss prevention projects

7.2.2. Impact of productivity increasing projects

The four projects that aim to improve productivity are expected to increase yields

by an average of approximately 30% for the hybrid rice, NEWEST and WEMA

projects, with yields on the CAMAP project expected to more than triple. This is

likely to have a real impact on the incomes of farmers, as well as on the costs paid

by consumers in domestic markets. A short summary of how each project will

increase yields is summarised below.

Table 7.2 Impact of productivity increasing projects

Project Summary % improvement

in yield

Hybrid rice

This project will develop rice hybrids that will

increase yields and still be productive under

different temperatures. It is estimated that this will

45%4

4 An initial estimate based on predictions that Hybrid rice will increase yields by one ton (0.9 tonnes) per ha. The

percentage increase is based on the average rainfed rice yield (2 tonnes/ha) given in AATF’s NEWEST business

plan.

99

Project Summary % improvement

in yield

increase productivity by one ton over the best

commercial varieties available to smallholder

farmers.

NEWEST

This project will develop rice that is water and

nitrogen efficient and salt tolerant, to allow it to

grow on land that is water stressed, has nutrient

deficiencies, or that has been abandoned to salt

accumulation.

Research has suggested that NEWEST rice can

increase yields by up to 30%. This includes in areas

where there are limited water supplies – yields

could increase by up to 25% in areas with severe

water stress.

30%

WEMA

This project will target both increasing

productivity and reducing loss from pests. It has

developed maize that is drought tolerant as well

as insect-pest protected.

In 2012 trials indicated that the best single-cross

hybrids developed as part of the process had

yields 31-64% higher than the best commercial

comparator. To err on the side of caution, the

lower bound of this range is shown here.

31%

CAMAP

This project takes advantage of the tremendous

opportunities for cassava processing in Africa by

developing machinery that improves cassava

production and processing. It is estimated that

this will increase yields for farmers from 6-8

tonnes/ha to 27 tonnes/ha, and increase income

from $700-900/ha to $3,000-4,500/ha.

350%

100

Figure 7.3 Percentage yield improvement of productivity increasing projects

* An early estimate of potential yield improvement

7.3. Conclusion

Despite the difficulties in developing agricultural technologies from scratch, AATF

has been tremendously successful in accessing and developing these technologies

and products and getting them on the market as quickly as possible. Already, the

results of this are beginning to emerge, as is shown above, and over the course of

this business plan these technologies will have real benefits to smallholder farmers in

Africa.

101

Annex 1: MILESTONE REPORTING

Green Everything is as defined and agreed, on track and under control

Amber This component is not proceeding exactly as defined and agreed but is under control and

expected to be back on track within the next 1 or 2 reporting periods. No changes in the

project plan are expected to be necessary.

Red This component of the project is suffering from serious set-backs or constraints and may not

meet its commitments for cost, schedule or scope. The schedule needs to be reviewed, or

the scope of work increased, to get back on track. A proposed new plan of action for this

component of the project should be submitted to AATF during the next reporting period.

Milestones 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Remarks

Objectives

Access appropriate agricultural technologies for the

benefit of smallholder farmers in SSA

Facilitate development and adaptation of the

agricultural technologies accessed

Facilitate delivery, utilization and stewardship of

accessed and adapted technologies

Contribute to the development of enabling policies

that support access, delivery and utilisation of

agricultural technologies, through knowledge and

information management

Increase and diversify AATF’s funding base and

reduce reliance on one funding source

Create a balanced skill-set combining public and

private sector experience, scientific and

entrepreneurial skills that ensure effective delivery of

the organisational mission

102

Maize Striga

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

10

varieties

by end of

2018

8

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in pilot

locations / target geographies

50,000 by

end of

2018

926

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology5

300,000 by

end of

2018

30,250

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technology

15 by end

of 2018 5

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

250 by

end of

2018

48

Volume of new technology stocked & sold per

input suppliers / seed company (per year)

120 tonnes

by end of

2018

182

Stocke

d

125

Sold

Maize Striga

Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However more attention

should be given on increasing the number of demonstrations plots for creating awareness of the

technology. By so doing, the number of farmers accessing, experimenting and adopting the

technologies will also increase. Attention should also be given to increase participation of input

suppliers.

103

Insect Resistant Cowpea

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

6 varieties

by end of

2018

0

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in pilot

locations / target geographies

5,000 by

end of

2018

23

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology6

50,000 by

end of

2018

0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technology

7 by end

of 2018 0

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

150 by

end of

2018

0

Volume of new technology stocked & sold per

input suppliers / seed company (per year)

50 tonnes

by end of

2018

0

Insect Resistant Cowpea

As this is an institutional Business Plan and we are reporting of strategic intermediate outputs by year

2018, this project is transiting into deployment with most of the intermediate outputs happening from

2015 onward. Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However

attention should be given to ensure that we achieve the project targets.

104

WEMA

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

At least

28

hybrids/

Inbred

lines by

end of

2018

35

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in pilot

locations / target geographies

20,000 by

end of

2018

1,400

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology7

550,000

by end of

2018

11,450

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technology

20 by

end of

2018

23

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

50 by

end of

2018

20

WEMA

Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However more attention

should be given on increasing the number of demonstrations plots for creating awareness of the

technology. By so doing, the number of farmers accessing, experimenting and adopting the

technologies will also increase.

105

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Volume of new technology stocked & sold per

input suppliers / seed company (per year)

5,500

tonnes by

end of

2018

114.5

NEWEST

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

8 varieties

by end of

2018

0

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

5,000 by

end of

2018

5

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology8

50,000 by

end of

2018

0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technology

6 by end

of 2018 0

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

125 by

end of

2018

0

NEWEST

As this is an institutional Business Plan and we are reporting of strategic intermediate outputs by year

2018, this project is transiting into deployment with most of the intermediate outputs happening from

2015 onward. Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However

attention should be given to ensure that we achieve the project targets.

106

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Volume of new technology stocked & sold per

input suppliers / seed company (per year)

100

tonnes by

end of

2018

0

Banana Bacteria Wilt

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

5

varieties

by end of

2022

0

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in pilot

locations / target geographies

10,000 by

end of

2018

0

107

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology9

100,000

by end of

end of

2018

0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or distributing

new input technology

6 TC

compani

es by end

of 2018

0

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

6 TC

compani

es by end

of 2018

0

Volume of new technology stocked & sold per

input suppliers / seed company (per year)

705,000

TC plants

by end of

2018

0

Cassava Mechanisation

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Banana Bacterial Wilt

As this is an institutional Business Plan and we are reporting of strategic intermediate outputs by year

2018, this project is still in the development phase with most of the intermediate outputs happening

from 2018 onward. Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However

attention should be given to ensure that we achieve the project targets.

108

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

4

prototype

s by end

of 2018

3 (Planter,

Cultivator,

Root

Digger)

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

50,000 by

end of

2018

2,700

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology10

80,000 by

end of

2018

2,700

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

50 by end

of 2018 10

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

10 by end

of 2018 1

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

150

machinery

units by

2018

98

Mycotoxin Control

Cassava Mechanisation

Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However more attention

should be given on increasing the number of demonstrations plots for creating awareness of the

technology. By so doing, the number of farmers accessing, experimenting and adopting the

technologies will also increase. Attention should also be given to increase participation of input

suppliers.

109

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

4 strains

by end of

2018

1

Provisional

registration

of Aflasafe

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

2,000 by

end of

2018

800

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology11

100,000 by

end of

2018

0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

2

processing

plants by

end of

2018

1

Number of input suppliers/stockists

stocking and selling new input technology

20 by end

of 2018 1

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

200 tonnes

by end

2018

2

Hybrid Rice

Mycotoxin Control

Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However more attention

should be given on increasing the number of farmers accessing, experimenting and adopting the

technologies will also increase. Attention should also be given to increase participation of input

suppliers.

110

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

50

varieties

by end of

2018

0

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

50,000 by

end of

2018

35

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology12

550,000 by

end of

2018

0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

20 by end

of 2018 8

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

50 by end

of 2018 0

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

14,500

tonnes by

end of

2018

2

Hybrid Rice

As this is an institutional Business Plan and we are reporting of strategic intermediate outputs by year

2018, this project is transiting into deployment with most of the intermediate outputs happening from

2015 onward. Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However

attention should be given to ensure that we achieve the project targets.

111

Seeds2B

Intermediate output Target 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Rating

Number of new technologies / products

progressed to deployment

10

varieties

by the

end of

2018

0

Number of demonstration plots / FFS run in

pilot locations / target geographies

40,000 by

the end of

2018 0

Number of farm households accessing,

experimenting and/or adopting new

technology13

100,000 by

end of

2018 0

Number of seed companies producing,

processing stocking, selling and / or

distributing new input technology

4 by end

of 2018 0

Number of input suppliers/stockists stocking

and selling new input technology

30 by end

of 2018 0

Volume of new technology stocked & sold

per input suppliers / seed company (per

year)

0.2 tonnes

by end of

2018 0

Seeds2B

As this is an institutional Business Plan and we are reporting of strategic intermediate outputs by year

2018, this project is transiting into deployment with most of the intermediate outputs happening from

2015 onward. Most of the activities are currently going on well for this reporting period. However

attention should be given to ensure that we achieve the project targets.