germany and icrisat...adapting agriculture to climate change: developing promising strategies using...
TRANSCRIPT
Germany and ICRISAT
Germany is one of ICRISAT most valuable partners since early 1970s. Under the BMZ supported projects, ICRISAT has been able to work on diverse and relevant issues, of mutual concern across sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Reducing poverty together!
ICRISAT’s work with German partners
Photos: ICRISAT
▪ Develop farmer-preferred cultivars with excellent local adaptation and grain nutrient contents.
▪ Enhance sorghum and pearl millet productivity by using innovative molecular breeding tools, and contribute to food security, income generation and improved nutrition in West and Central Africa.
▪ Work on Guinea grain types in Mali and on Kaura-Fara Fara grain types in Nigeria.
▪ Conduct experiments on sweet sorghum as feed for cattle. Results revealed an increase in milk yield and fat percentage.
▪ Incorporate Integrated genetic and natural resource management to help enhance adaptation and productivity in low-phosphorus soils and water stress conditions of West Africa.
▪ Test potential agricultural adaptation strategies for rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid and dry sub-humid tropics in important crop production zones, in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
▪ Address insufficient data and lack of information flow on new technologies and access to technologies for sorghum and finger millet related technologies in Central Tanzania.
Selected ongoing projects Easy molecular breeding tools for accelerating sorghum improvement in West Africa
Grant period: 2014–2016
Project Location(s): West and Central Africa, Burkina Faso, Mali
This project aims to contribute to enhanced sorghum productivity in West Africa by accelerating sorghum improvement in this region using innovative molecular breeding tools. The project's purpose is to enable NARS and ICRISAT sorghum breeders in West Africa to use a molecular breeding platform in the development of farmer-preferred sorghum cultivars with excellent local adaptation and grain nutrient contents. In doing so, the project will contribute to reducing the gap between advances in genomic research and their application in West African sorghum breeding programs. Developing sorghum varieties which are tolerant to aluminum toxicity, adapted to low-input soils, have high content of iron and zinc in their grain and show plant and grain characteristics with a high farmer preference is a very big challenge for the sorghum breeding programs in West Africa. Testing a large set of diverse sorghum material for all these traits is very costly and time consuming and thus cannot be pursued. Having reliable molecular markers for all these traits in combination with an easy to use and cheap marker platform would make simultaneous breeding for these traits possible and largely accelerate the release of new high yielding nutritious well appreciated sorghum varieties to sorghum farmers in West Africa.
Bringing the benefits of heterosis to smallholder sorghum and pearl millet farmers in West Africa: Establishing a solid foundation for hybrid development
Grant period: 2014–2017
Project Location(s): West and Central Africa, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal
The overall goal of this project is to enhance sorghum and pearl millet productivity in West and Central Africa (WCA) through cultivation of nutritious hybrids, contributing to food security, income generation, and improved nutrition. To achieve this goal, key NARS, universities and ICRISAT researchers will collaborate to define functional; heterotic parental-pools required for sustainable hybrid development, establish efficient hybrid breeding strategies based on quantitative-genetic parameters and molecular-breeding tools, and create new and diverse hybrid parents. The sorghum research will target the main sorghum production systems (700-1100 mm rainfall) with work on Guinea grain types in Mali and on Kaura-Fara Fara grain types in Nigeria. The majority of sorghum is produced on poor soils (low plant-available phosphorus), and thus we will optimize hybrid selection strategies targeting these conditions. The pearl millet research will focus on the 400-700 mm rainfall zone with sandy soils and variable rainfall, targeting long-panicled hybrids for both Niger and Senegal. In both crops, bio-available grain mineral content (iron, zinc) of the parents and hybrids will be assessed and related to phytate contents, to permit selection of nutrient-dense hybrids that should contribute to improved human nutrition.
Collaborating to improve crops and livelihoodsFor close to 40 years, Germany has contributed both to ICRISAT’s core funding as well as to special projects through the Bundesministerium fűr Wirtschaftliche und Entwicklung Zusammenarbeit (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Together ICRISAT and Germany have worked on a number of projects and progressed far in our common battle against poverty and deprivation in Africa and Asia.
Photo: ICRISAT
Photo: J Kane-Potaka, ICRISAT
Germany and ICRISATReducing poverty together!
The role of information networks for the adoption of agricultural innovations – the case of sorghum and finger millet in Tanzania
Grant period: 2012–2014
Project Location(s): Tanzania
This research project aimed to overcome insufficient flow of information about new technologies and addressed access to these technologies by analyzing the innovation systems for sorghum and finger millet technologies in Central Tanzania. The project built on the existing data from a farm household survey that was conducted with 360 sorghum and finger millet farmers in two districts of Central Tanzania in September 2010, covering a broad range of topics that are important for understanding farm systems in general.
Conservation, regeneration, characterization / evaluation of germplasm collections of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut and small millets at ICRISAT-Patancheru, India and at the regional genebanks in Niamey-Niger; Nairobi-Kenya; and Bulawayo-Zimbabwe.
Grant period: 2014Project Location(s): ICRISAT - India, Niger, Kenya and Zimbabwe
The project is into conservation, regeneration, characterization/ evaluation of germplasm collections of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut and small millets at ICRISAT-Patancheru, India and at the regional genebanks in Niamey-Niger; Nairobi-Kenya; and Bulawayo-Zimbabwe.
Key completed projectsIntercropping of banana and sweet sorghum in marginal lands of Gujarat, India to demonstrate socio-economic and environmental benefits
Grant period: 2013–2015
Project Location(s): Gujarat, India
Twenty-two improved sweet sorghum cultivars involving ‘chohatia’, a popular forage cultivar in Gujarat were evaluated as an intercrop with banana during 2013-2014. Banana yield in the multiplication trial ranged from 20-21 t/ha with delay in flowering. A small scale experiment on feeding sweet sorghum forage to cows revealed an increase in milk yield from 0.5 to 0.7 L while the fat % increased marginally by 0.1 to 0.2 %. Capacity building programs were conducted.
Tackling abiotic production constraints in pearl millet and sorghum-based agricultural systems of the West African Sahel
Grant period: 2010–2014
Project Location(s): West and Central Africa
Using an integrated genetic and natural resource management (IGNRM) approach, this project addressed enhancing the adaptation of pearl millet and sorghum to low-phosphorus (P) soils and water stress in the Sahelian zone of West Africa (WA). A combination of physiological experiments, classical and marker-assisted breeding research, and agronomic studies were used to tackle the combined effects of low soil P and droughts on pearl millet and sorghum growth in West Africa’s smallholder cereal production systems. New crop management techniques such as seed coating with P, promotion of symbiosis with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) and on-farm processing of rock phosphate (RP) were tested.
Adapting agriculture to climate change: Developing promising strategies using analogue locations in Eastern and Southern Africa
Grant period: 2011–2014
Project Location(s): Kenya, Zimbabwe, Eastern and Southern Africa
Using a combination of model-based ex ante analyses and iterative field-based research on station and in farmers’ fields, the project tested potential agricultural adaptation strategies for rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid and dry sub-humid tropics. Four important crop production zones (two in Kenya and two in Zimbabwe) were chosen and corresponding spatial analogue locations for each production zone identified. Analogue locations are those that have today the climatic characteristics that are expected tomorrow in our four chosen production zones. Special attention was given to adaptation to temperature increases, and to continuous documentation and dissemination of project activities and achievements. A strong element of participatory research with famers within the project locations ensured that the project activities and outputs remain relevant to their needs and expectations.
Photo: ICRISAT
Livestock feeding on sweet sorghum stalks in Gujarat, India.
(L to R) Dr Madramootoo and Dr Bergvinson with GIZ officials Dr Axel Klaphake, Country Director, Ethiopia and Dr Johannes Schoeneberger, Sustainable Land Management Program Manager.
Moving forwardThematic priority areas overlap to a large extent for ICRISAT and German agencies, with food security and agriculture; climate protection; sustainability in natural resource management; water management and policies being top priority.
The ICRISAT Governing Board in September 2014 made a decision to boost its research in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by investing US$ 5 million towards upgrading research infrastructure and building scientific skills on the African continent. This investment will be across SSA where ICRISAT has its offices and will focus on harnessing the required resources to further advance the productivity of smallholder agriculture in SSA for greater self-reliance and resilience, particularly in light of climate change, and for increased participation in the market economy. These new
Aug 2015
ICRISAT is a memberof the CGIAR ConsortiumScience with a human face
ICRISAT-India (Headquarters)Patancheru, Telangana, [email protected]
ICRISAT-Liaison OfficeNew Delhi, India
ICRISAT-Mali (Regional hub WCA)Bamako, [email protected]
ICRISAT-ZimbabweBulawayo, [email protected]
ICRISAT-Kenya (Regional hub ESA)Nairobi, [email protected]
ICRISAT-NigeriaKano, [email protected]
ICRISAT-MalawiLilongwe, [email protected]
ICRISAT-MozambiqueMaputo, [email protected]
ICRISAT-NigerNiamey, [email protected]
ICRISAT-EthiopiaAddis Ababa, [email protected]
About ICRISAT: www.icrisat.org
ICRISAT’s scientific information: EXPLOREit.icrisat.org
DG’s Journal: dgblog.icrisat.org
ICRISAT works in agricultural research for development across the drylands of Africa and Asia, making farming profitable for smallholder farmers while reducing malnutrition and environmental degradation.
We work across the entire value chain from developing new varieties to agri-business and linking farmers to markets.
We believe all people have a right to nutritious food and a better livelihood.
Photo: ICRISAT
investments will provide greater opportunities for collaborative research and strengthen partnerships along the whole value chain.
In recent years, the German government has systematically stepped up its climate commitments in the developing countries and believes that agriculture research for development is most productive if carried out in the field, under natural conditions across the globe. To achieve best results, the German government works with international research centers located across the globe.
Along this line, the German government collaborates with 79 partner countries, and geographically overlapping countries exist in Africa and Asia, where ICRISAT has a big presence and work focus. Some such countries include India, Nepal, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Mali.