Humidtropics West Africa Flagship Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 1 – September 2014

Humidtropics, a CGIAR Research Program led by IITA, seeks to transform the lives of the rural poor in tropical America, Asia and Africa. Research organizations involved in core partnership with Humidtropics are AVRDC, Bioversity, CIAT, CIP, FARA, icipe, ICRAF, ILRI, IITA, IWMI and WUR.

Published by the Humidtropics West Africa Flagship IITA, PMB 5320, Oyo Road, Ibadan, Nigeria http://humidtropics.cgiar.org | Tel: +234 2 7517472

September 2014. This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

   

A Nigerian farmer in his mixed cropping system farm. Photo by Latifou Idrissou, Humidtropics.

Launch of the Humidtropics West Africa Flagship Newsletter The CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics (Humidtropics) seeks to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers in the humid tropic regions of the world through integrated system approach. One of the major characteristics of integrated system approach is partnership, which aims at bringing together different stakeholders with different backgrounds, perspectives, interests and goals to put their resources and efforts together towards development achievement. Partners targeted by Humidtropics include among others farmers, researchers, government representatives, private sector, NGOs and civil society, etc. Partnership assumes that partners interact and share knowledge and information in their collaborative efforts.

To that effect, the West Africa Flagship Newsletter intends to be the principal channel for knowledge and information sharing among the different stakeholders involved in the West Africa Flagship Project. The objective of the Newsletter is to inform partners and stakeholders on the progress of Humidtropics in West Africa and keep regular contact with them. It is published once every two months, except if there is a special issue, which deserves immediate coverage. It features primarily all the events taking place within the Flagship, such as research and intervention activities, training workshops, platforms activities, etc., but also important events happening in other Flagships, as well as global news about the Program. What characterizes the West Africa Flagship Project? The West Africa Humid Lowlands Flagship covers the southern parts of the countries spread from Cameroon to Liberia, which represents an area of 206 million hectares and is home to 145 million people. About 28% of the population lives on less than US$1.25/day, the average market access is 3 hours and 58% of land area is estimated to be degraded. Farming in the Flagship is dominated by tree-crop systems that occupy 47% of the cultivated land (46 million hectares) followed by root-crop systems on 30% of land (29 million hectares) and cereal-root crops systems on 23% (23 million hectares). The West Africa Flagship research activities on farming systems improvement thus targets primarily tree-crop systems of which cocoa and oil palm account for 90%, while root crops such as cassava and yam, and cereal crops such as maize associated with tree crop systems are also of interest. Four Action Sites are identified in four countries: Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Nigeria and

 

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Cameroon Action Sites are now operational, and the Ivory Coast and Ghana Action Sites will be launched during the second half of 2014.

The four Action Sites of the West Africa Flagship.

Indentifying Field Sites in the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites and their major agricultural constraints Research activities in the West Africa Flagship are aimed at tackling the major agricultural constraints and as such would be carried out at the Field Site level in the Action Sites. The major agricultural constraints on which research activities in the Nigeria Action Site should focus were identified in February 2014 at the stakeholders workshop organized in Oshogbo. The Field Sites where these identified research activities will be conducted, were also specified by the stakeholders representing farmer organisations, private sector (input dealers, agricultural products processors, agricultural product marketers, etc.), NGOs and civil society, governments, research institutes and universities invited at the workshop. Through group discussions, the participants identified the following broad constraints and challenges of the agricultural sector in the Nigeria Action Site:

• Inconsistency in government policies; • Low productivity due to decline in soil

fertility; • Lack of integrated production and pest

management system; • Improper processing of farm produce;

• Low access to inputs services and agricultural machineries;

• Poor agricultural extension services; • Shortage of unskilled labour; • Lack of irrigation facilities; • Climate change and inadequate warning

system.

The Field Sites were identified by the stakeholders taking into consideration important factors such as high population density, level of market access and level of natural resources degradation combined with soft criteria such as access to the research area, presence of activities of CGIAR Centers, past experiences on which the Program can build on. Based on that, four Field Sites were identified, two in Oyo State and two in Osun State:

 

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Oyo State • Ido and Ibarapa Local Government Areas • Ori-Ire and Ogo-Oluwa Local Government

Areas

Osun State • Iwo and Ayedire Local Government Areas • Atakumosa East and West, and Ife East

Local Government Areas

The Nigeria Action Site and its Field Sites. The same process was followed during the Inception Workshop of the Cameroon Action Site held in Yaounde last February to identify the constraints and challenges of the agricultural sector and the Field Sites where research activities will be carried out. The constraints and challenges identified by the participants of the workshop were:

• Improving inputs (improved planting materials, seed in quality and quantity, fertilizers and pesticides) supply system;

• Soil degradation and fertility management; • Pests and diseases management;

• Improve access to land and property right; • Access of farmers to financial and

agricultural product markets; • Partnership among agricultural sector

stakeholders.

The three Field Sites identified in the Cameroon Action Site are:

• Central region: Lekie, Mefou-et-Afamba, Nyong-et-Mfoumou, Mefou-et-akono and Nyong-et-So’o;

• Southwest and Littoral regions: Fako, Meme and Moungo; • West and Northwest regions: Momo, Bamboutos, Menoua, Mezan, Ngo-Ketunja and

Kouoptamo.

 

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The Cameroon Action Site and its Field Sites.

Research activities in the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites While taking into consideration the main farming systems in the Nigerian and Cameroon Action Sites, the constraints and challenges identified during the stakeholder workshop in Nigeria and the inception workshop in Cameroon were used as guide to define the research activities that would take place in the Action Sites. The research activities in these two Action Sites will focus on the improvement (intensification and diversification) of integrated tree-crop systems. This rather broad theme serves as the point of departure for the Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Innovation System (RAAIS) of the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites, whose objective was to identify the different dimensions of the themes and the research areas related.

The RAAIS exercises revealed that for the Nigeria Action Site, research topics should focus on institutions and their functioning in the agricultural sector, evoked by 84% of the participants, and productivity, which is important for 16% of the participants. Institutional constraints are related to inconsistent government policy and wrong or poor policy implementation, poorly developed value chains and inappropriate financial mechanisms and poor access to funding. Productivity research on the other hand should focus on poor inputs (agro-chemicals and early maturing varieties) supply systems and lack of market for appropriate technologies, machineries and infrastructures.

In the Cameroon Action Site, research should focus on institutions (63%), productivity (29%) and natural resources management (8%). Institutional constraints are lack of training of farmers on good agricultural practices, difficulties on getting access to credits and capital and limited access to market. Agriculture is also constrained by low soil fertility, difficulties in access to improved inputs and pest and deceases that hindered productivity in the action site. Natural resources management research should focus on the difficulties in getting access to resources financial, energy, water, land security for women and youth, and the vulnerability to climate change.

 

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A specific research topic was identified for each Action Site and proposals are developed to get funding to kick-start research activities in each of these two Action Sites where platforms that were set up will be involved in the research making it easy for the stakeholders to relate with each other. The Research for Development (R4D) Platform of the Nigeria Action Site is working on “evaluating best agricultural practices to enhance cocoa productivity in South-western Nigeria”, whereas the Cameroon Action Site R4D Platform is working in improving the cocoa, maize, oil palm and yam systems. R4D/Innovation Platforms set up in the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites R4D Platforms for the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites have been set up and are operational. R4D Platform members are representatives from national partner institutions such as Farmer Organisations operating at national or regional levels, Ministries, Universities, Research Centers, and private sector organisations covering the Action Site, and international partner research and/or development institutions. They are the primary stakeholders of Humidtropics at national level. R4D Platforms make strategic decisions with regards to the orientation of research activities in the Action Site, and partner with the international CGIAR Centers to plan, follow up and evaluate research activities.

The members of the two R4D Platforms have been trained on set up and operations of Innovation Platforms by FARA, in collaboration with IITA from May 13 to 16, 2014 in Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ife for the Nigeria Action Site, and from June 3 to 6, 2014 in the Centre Touristique de Nkolandom in Ebolowa for the Cameroon Action Site.

Nigeria Action Site R4D Platform members at the RAAIS workshop. Photo by Latifou Idrissou, Humidtropics.

Innovation Platforms have been also set up at Field Site level. The same categories of stakeholders from the R4D Platform but operating at Field Site level are represented within the Innovation Platforms. Stakeholders from the R4D Platform are also members of the Innovation Platform that focuses on their main area of skill or research activities. This creates linkages between the R4D and Innovation Platforms in carrying out the research activities.

 

Information on the items mentioned in this Newsletter can be sought from the Humidtropics West Africa Flagship Manager, Latifou Idrissou at l.idrissou@cgiar.org. We welcome your comments and suggestions on how we might serve you better through this communication medium.  

Innovation Platforms have been set up in the Nigeria and Cameroon Action Sites. In the Nigeria Action Site, four Innovation Platforms have been set up, one in each of the four Field Sites. Thus, an Innovation Platform has been set up in Akindele village in Ido Local Government Area (LGA), in Lagbedu village in Ogo-Oluwa LGA, in Osunwoyin village in Iwo LGA, and in Iwara village in Atakumosa East LGA. In the Cameroon Action Site, one Innovation Platform has been set up in Mbalmayo for the Central region Field Site, one in Kumba for the Southwest and Littoral field site and one in Batibo for the West and Northwest Field Site. For each Innovation Platform, a steering committee has been put in place with a leader to assemble the meetings and lead the discussion. The areas of interest for the members and their constraints were identified during the setting up of the Innovation Platforms. The next step is to plan and follow through with carrying out the various activities towards achieving the objectives of the Humidtropics.

The Innovation Platforms will also be involved in research activities with Humidtropics’ CGIAR partner Centers and R4D Platforms.

Field visit during Innovation Platform setting up in Akindele village in Ido LGA in Nigeria. Photo by Latifou Idrissou, Humidtropics.

Preparing to impact the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Cote d’Ivoire In line with achieving the targets of Humidtropics, various activities are outlined for the implementation of the Program in the selected Action Sites in West Africa Flagship Project. Cote d’Ivoire, being one of the Action Sites experienced a visit of a team of Humidtropics West Africa Flagship composed of scientist from IITA (Latifou Idrissou) and ICRAF (Ingrid Oborn and Ann Degrande) from 9 to 12 June 2014. The team assessed the opportunity and possibilities of launching the Cote d’Ivoire Action Site.

The scoping visit was held in two stages involving a meeting with potential partners in Abidjan on June 10 to introduce Humidtropics, followed by a field visit to the Soubre Department to see the activities carried out by ICRAF on the framework of the project “Vision for Change” founded by Mars Inc. At the end of the visit, Humidtropics’ inception workshop for the Côte d’Ivoire Action Site was slated to take place on September 22-25, 2014. One of the objectives of the workshop is to delineate the boundaries of the Côte d’Ivoire Action Site and its Field Sites, and to identify the research areas.