AFSI update No. 4 – July/Aug, 2011

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AFSI update No. 4 – July/Aug 2011 Update on Africa Food Security Initiative through the CSIRO Partnerships with CORAF/WECARD and BecA

Program

Australian-based AFSI members’ 2-day workshop: The workshop (31 Aug – 1 Sept) was an opportunity for the whole team to meet each other for the first time, discuss details of the projects, hear a number of presentations and be involved in exercies designed to stimulate our understanding of how ‘learning’ can be applied to help our interaction with our partners.Tristan Armstrong and Amelia Addison from AusAID Canberra also attended. Ethics approvals: both the CORAF/WECARD Seeds Project and BecA African Swine Fever Project were reviewed by CSIRO’s Social Science and Human Research Ethics Committee. Both were approved on provisional consideration of certain conditions. Communication coordination: Larelle McMillan joins us in a full time capacity to manage the AFSI Australian communications and assist CORAF/WECARD and BecA with communications in Africa. Larelle will also play a key role in the M&E of the partnership. CSIRO’s annual contract report to AusAID was submitted and approved in August.

CORAF/WECARD partnership

Welcome Khady: Mrs. Ba Ndeye Khady Lo was hired by CORAF/WECARD as a Scientific Communication Assistant and started the position on September 1. Khady has educational qualifications in English literature, Journalism and Political Communication, and has worked as a journalist and reporter for major television stations and newspapers in Senegal. Khady will work with CORAF/WECARD, CSIRO and NARS staff to develop and implement improved communications across the partnership within the subregion, and within each project team.

Australian High Commissioner visit to Nigeria: Mr Ian McConville, visited the Project Coordinator of the CerLive Trees Project*, Abasse Tougiani, in July, to discuss the project and Abasse’s long-term collaboration with CSIRO. *full project title: An integrated cereal-livestock-tree system for sustainable land use and improved livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Sahel.

Significant progress has been made in finalizing project agreements. Contracts have been signed between CORAF/WECARD and all the NARS which are leading agencies on projects. The lead institutions are in turn in the process of signing contracts with the partnering institutions. Thirteen CSIRO scientific staff have been assigned to work within the CORAF/WECARD projects and they have been working with their NARS partners to refine project methodologies and design implementation strategies. Most are planning visits to Africa in the next few months. Monitoring and evaluation strategies took the next step forward with Bruce Pengelly, Larelle McMillan and Caroline Bruce visiting CORAF/WECARD staff for 2 weeks in late July/early August to work through the latest version of the M&E Plan and advance communications; this included

AFSI update No. 4 – July/Aug, 2011

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interviewing a number of candidates for the Scientific Communications Assistant role. Bruce Pengelly also met with members of the CORAF/WECARD Mid-Term Review Evaluation Team. Commissioned reports: a review of soils within the Sahel region has been submitted to and approved by CORAF/WECARD. This and the other commissioned reports received by CORAF/WECARD during Phase 1 of the Partnership are being externally reviewed by CSIRO and African researchers prior to publication. A new coordinator, Mr Adama Traore, has been designated for the APESS Project*. * full project title: Sustainable Intensification of Integrated Livestock/Agriculture to increase productivity and agropastoral Food Security in West and Central Africa

Within the Seeds Project*, multi-location field trials have been planted in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Mali. The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso planned to visit these trials in Burkina Faso on August 21. The draft questionnaire for the baseline study is under development by all partners and the M&E plan has been widely distributed for review and adoption. The capacity building plan is being developed by the project team members and includes

capacity needs in seed production and delivery, research methodologies and Monitoring and Evaluation. * full project title: Unlocking the opportunities to enhance sustainable seed systems of staple crops (sorghum, pearl millet, maize, cowpea and groundnut) to improve food security and agricultural production in West and Central Africa

CORAF/WECARD Parthership: upcoming events in Sept/Oct:

• Sept/Oct; visit by CSIRO scientists to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali to work with members of the Seeds Project and 4 Farming Systems Projects

• Oct/Nov; Larelle McMillan to work with Khady Lo on Communications strategy for the partnership and projects

BecA partnership

Welcome Leah: Dr Leah Ndungu joined the AFSI team on 1st July as the Project Coordinator for the BecA/CSIRO partnership, Leah holds a PhD in Veterinary Science from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, Masters in Veterinary Sciences, from Washington State University, USA, and Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine from University of Nairobi, Kenya. She brings a wealth of experience in research management, stakeholder engagement and laboratory research. Leah previously held the postion of Research Management Officer at ILRI.

Maize demonstration plot, Cameroon

photo: Tony Webster, CSIRO

Leah (R) with Caroline (L) and Larelle (C)

photo: Larelle McMillan, CSIRO

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Tesfaye Legesse, Senior Program Manager from AusAID’s Food Security, East and Horn of Africa office, has been strongly supportive of the BecA partnership projects, attending and contributing to the inception workshops for the African Swine Fever*, Amaranth**, Mushroom*** and Aflatoxin**** Projects. * full project title: Capacity and action for aflatoxin reduction in Eastern Africa ** full project title: Nutritional characterization and value addition of amaranth vegetable and grain by low cost sustainable processing: towards poverty reduction, food and nutrition security in Kenya and Tanzania. *** full project titles: Domestication of wild edible mushrooms in East Africa **** full project title: Capacity and action for aflatoxin reduction in Eastern Africa The Aflatoxin Project’s inception workshop was held on 24-27th July 2011 in Kenya. The 19 participants included project scientists with a wide range of expertise and from several institutions including BecA, CSIRO, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Agricultural Research Institute (ARI), Open University of Tanzania (OUT), Cornell, QAAFI/UQ, and DEEDI. Workshop discussions were first held in Naivasha to map out detailed experimental plans and synchronize the project components. A stakeholder consultation was then conducted at the BecA Hub at ILRI, engaging representatives from key national organizations and the private sector. Finally, project scientists visited maize farms, a local flour mill and the KARI research station at which Kenyan maize field trials will be conducted to identify genotypes with reduced aflatoxin accumulation.

Participants, Aflatoxin Project inception workshop (L); and examining maize infected with aflatoxin (R)

Inception workshops were held for both the Mushroom and Amaranth Projects between 3rd – 11th August, during which three CSIRO scientists, Manny Noakes, Malcolm Riley and Jay Sellahewa visited Kenya and Tanzania. These consisted of initial full-day meetings in each of the lead partner institutions followed by a day at the BecA-ILRI Hub that brought together the key scientists involved in both

projects. This was followed by field visits to one commercial and a number of small scale mushroom farms around Nairobi as well as several field trial sites. Subsequently the team visited three partner institutes in Tanzania. The purpose of the meetings and visits was to finalize project goals and key milestones, deliverables and expected outcomes; agree on timelines, roles and responsibilities of key partners and team members; finalize budgets and reporting schedules; agree on internal and external communications; and allow workshop participants to become familiar with the teams, facilities and capacity of partner institutions. 19 participants attended.

seeds from different amaranth varieties

photo: Jagger Harvey, BecA photo: Jagger Harvey, BecA

photo: Daniel Sila, JKUAT

Amaranth Project Leader, Daniel Sila at demonstration plot, JKUAT

photo: Daniel Sila, JKUAT

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A number of developments have occurred within the African Swine Fever (ASF) Project: o A workshop was held on 20th and 21st July 2011 to identify research gaps. The workshop

participants included representatives from existing collaborators from CISA-INIA, Spain (EU diagnostic reference centre) SLU, Uppsala, Sweden, University Complutense Madrid (OIE World Reference Centre), IAH Pirbright (OIE World Reference Centre), Edinburgh University, ARL, CSIRO, Kenya DVS and Ugandan MAAIF, BecA-ILRI, FAO and AU-IBAR. The workshop presenters reviewed global importance of ASF, virus biology, control, past and on-going research on aspects of ASF research. Reviews of ASF epidemiology, surveillance and control were also presented. Key presentations shared experiences from past disease control and eradication successes especially in Spain and South America. The output of the workshop was the identification of research gaps in epidemiology, Vaccine Development, surveillance and disease control. Contact Caroline if you’d like the full workshop report: caroline.bruce@csiro.au

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participants of the Africa Swine Fever Project workshop o Post-workshop, follow-up meetings have been held with FAO ECTAD (The Emergency Centre

for Transboundary Animal Diseases) and The World Organisation for Animal Health’s World African Swine Fever Reference Centre at the University of Complutense Madrid. Both have indicated they will provide financial support for additional components of the Project, including

dissemination of disease information and control packages to farmers, development of an ASF Risk map for Kenya, and establishment of a twinning arrangement in which the DVS Kenya would be designated as an East African Reference centre for ASF.

o A student from Makerere University has been

identified to undertake his PhD while working as a modeller within the project. Mr. Mike Barongo is a mathematician with a MSc. from the University of Bergen in Norway. He will be registered at the University of Pretoria and start full-time at the BecA-ILRI Hub on October 1st.

Restraining a bush pig for blood sample collection

photo: Richard Bishop, ILRI

photo: Edward Okoth, ILRI

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o Two candidates have been identified for social science consultancies within the project; one from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Industries and Fisheries (MAIIF) in Uganda and one from the DVS in Kenya. Both will accompany the data collection team for the longitudinal survey in 2012 and work closely with Jocelyn Davies (Senior Sociologist, CSIRO).

o Within the laboratory, there has been some initial success in establishing a more efficient

method of complete African Swine Fever genome sequencing using long-range PCR. Capacity building through the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund (largely funded by AusAID) forges ahead: o The announcement for the next scientific writing workshop (Nov 20th – 25th) has been sent to

BecA’s mailing list and posted on their website. The closing date is in mid-September and at least 500 applications are expected. This course is one funded by the AusAID AFSI partnership.

o Jagger Harvey visited and gave seminars at the the Institute of Endemic Disease in Khartoum and the University of Gezira’s National Institute of Cancer and Agricultural Research Corporation, Sudan. The lecture halls were full of researchers and postgraduate students keen to learn about BecA and the opportunities available through the Challenge Fund. Through the Faculty of Agriculture, the University of Gezira is keen for further collaboration and to arrange a MoU with BecA.

o Segenet Kelemu and Appolinaire Djikeng visited several institutions in Uganda between 14th – 18th August. Institutions visited included the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Program (LVEMP), Makerere University, National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) and the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF). The purpose of the trip was to publicize BecA Hub activities particularly aiming at building and strengthening capacity for scientists at African Universities and research institutions. As part of the efforts to support RUFORUM’s training and capacity building needs, the BecA Hub has reserved slots in each of three Challenge Fund courses in 2012. In addition, three Research Fellows will be identified by RUFORUM for a 3 to 6 month research placement at the BecA Hub during 2012.

Larelle McMillan and Caroline Bruce visited Kenya for 2 weeks in July/August to work through the latest version of the M&E Plan, attend parts of the Amaranth, Mushroom and African Swine Fever Projects’ inception workshops, meet Project Leaders and discuss project- and partnership-communications.

BecA Parthership: upcoming events in Sept/Oct:

• Meeting with FAO in Kigali to make recommendations on how BecA-ILRI will be directly involved in future FAO-ECTAD initiatives on African Swine Fever

• 31st Oct – 6th Nov; Inception workshop for the Cavy Project, Cameroon

• week of 25th Sept; Presentation on the Aflatoxin Project at stakeholder meeting, University of Nairobi

• 19th – 23rd Sept; Meeting to finalise modeling component within the Aflatoxin Project, Nairobi

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Focus on CORAF/WECARD Seeds Project:

Understanding the roadblocks to more grain for West Africa My name is Dr Lamissa Diakite from Mali. I’m an Agro-economist at the Institut d’Economie Rurale, based in Bamako, Mali. I am also a farmer. In West and Central Africa there have been lots of new, improved varieties of maize, sorghum, millet and groundnut developed over the years. In all our research trials these new varieties yield well above the conventional ones. Unfortunately most farmers do not use these improved varieties, or when they do, they don’t know the best way to grow them, so they don’t get much of a yield improvement, and they quickly go back to their old varieties. This project is going to try and find out the reasons adoption of these new varieties is very low. It could be because the seeds are not easily accessible to farmers, or they don’t know what fertilisers they need to apply to get the best out of them. Maybe it could be as simple as they don’t like the taste of them.

So this project is looking at every point along the agriculture system (from the breeding programs to the farmers to the consumers) and identifying the main roadblocks to higher adoption of improved seed varieties. Once we can understand what these roadblocks are – we’ll be able to work out what we need to change to remove those roadblocks, so hopefully farmers are more likely to adopt the improved varieties, and have the best chance for their crops to succeed so they can make more money from their farms. As part of this project we’ll be conducting a number of variety trails with farmers to work out the best environments and practices for the improved varieties. These trials will also act as demonstration sites so our African science institutes can showcase to local farmers the improved varieties. We’re working closely with CSIRO scientists, and learning how to use farming system models like APSIM here. There’s potential for improvements in the commercial aspect of seed sales too – we want to understand the role small rural supplies shops can play in improving the uptake of improved varieties.

A really important part of the project is not just about working with farmers and rural supply shops; it’s also about the way we’re running the project. The project is running in four countries, with more than 15 African agricultural scientists being trained and mentored as part of this project, and that’s a powerful step to producing more food for West Africa.

CSIRO

Contact Caroline Bruce, Partnerships Coordinator, CSIRO-AusAID African Food Security Initiative

Phone +61 457 549 338 Email caroline.bruce@csiro.au

ony Webswter, CSIRO

photo: Tony Webster, CSIRO