The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (AfricaRISING) initiatives: issues of land degradation, land heath, agricultural productivity, and technology adoption

1. Better opportunities. Characterize farming systems in the action and counterfactual sites, and identify opportunities for enhancing typology-based farm productivity and resource use efficiencies (key entry points)

2. Better crops (Exogenous treatment). Introduce and evaluate improved varieties of food/fodder crops and trees (Step 1) to farm households in a manner that complements their on-going farm enterprises.

3. Best bets. Develop scenarios for sustainable production of identified crop varieties (Step 2) that contribute to sustainable agricultural resource management and offer nutritional and marketing advantages.

Bilateral aligned to CRP1.1

1. What are the key biophysical and socio-economic production constraints to crop and livestock at farm and landscape levels?

i) Integrated assessment of land condition and soil health

ii) Map the spatial variability of land condition and soil health constraints and identify areas that require priority management intervention

iii) Conduct household (farm?) typology to characterize household conditions and constraints

iv) Conduct agronomic survey to estimate actual yield obtained by farmers based on their own practices and management systems

v) Conduct one replicated nutrient response trials in different agro-ecological zones to determine appropriate application rates (N and P) that are expected to be limiting

AfricaRISING - 2013

2. How effective are some of the existing technologies in tackling land degradation, restoring degraded landscapes, and enhancing productivity?

i) Conduct ex-ante analysis of technologies/innovations/management options to assess their role in tackling land degradation and enhance productivity and improve crop/livestock yield

ii) Analyze the impacts of a combination of land management technologies on improving land productivity and household income.

iii) Simulate the potential impacts of those interventions (and other potential external facto such as policy) at different locations and spatial scales

AfricaRISING - 2014

3. What are the key constraints/opportunities that determine (dis) adoption of technologies by farmers?

i) Which group of farmers (dis) adopt which types of technologies and why?

ii) Analyze the impacts of a combination of land management technologies on What determines farmers’/households’ decision to choose and (dis) adopt a given or combination of technologies

iii) Do the technologies adopted by farmers complement each other?

iv) Who are the ‘non-adopter’ farmers or households and what governs their decision?

AfricaRISING - 2014

4. How applicable are decision support tools for rapid resources assessment, prioritization and management?

i) Educate farmers through village-level field days to identify limiting nutrients through a translated “maize doctor”

ii) Improve nutrient expert program to account specific landscape conditions and household typologies to enhance its applicability for site-specific fertilizer recommendation

iii) Apply nutrient expert software to advice farmers on best crop management options

iv) Develop decision support tools that can help match appropriate technologies to specific landscape and household conditions and conduct tradeoff and cost-benefit analysis

AfricaRISING - 2015

Challenge Program – Nelson Mango

Other bilateral

Also working on Innovation Platform

Collate what we have = from other projects within CRP1.1

Background document – intensification by using more inputs?

Establish partnership

CRP1.1 Inception Phase and Future Plans (tentative)

Inception phase …

Threshold?

Poor households?

CIAT’s Focus is in SSA: East and Southern Africa

“Inception phase activities”

Detailed biophysical data for the following sites

Conduct integrated assessment of soil and land health (land condition assessment)

Design and administer household surveys to build household/farm typology

Collate, catalogue and characterize existing technologies/interventions

Evaluate enabling situations or constraints to technology dissemination and adoption

Assess coping mechanisms employed by farmers/pastoralists and evaluate their effectiveness and sustainability

Conduct agronomic survey of selected crops and farmers fields to assess yield gaps

CRP1.1 - 2013

We have activity plans for possibly THREE YEARS