Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

country governments in agricultural research for development. The table reveals high variability among
regions and countries on the various parameters measured – i.e. issues are region-specific or countryspecific.
Other studies show that variability exists even within countries.
Here are the major conclusions from the baseline and situation analysis studies:
• Rural smallholder households are dominated by aging populations (avg. 48 years) and low levels of
education (< 4 years of schooling);
• Research systems in the SSA region are also faced with aging population, with the average age of
researchers more than 50 years;
• Grain legumes account for less than 20% of total cultivated area in the majority of target countries
(exceptions are: Niger, Malawi, and Kenya);
• Use of improved, modern varieties was generally low across target countries during the baseline
studies; unavailability of improved seed and, in some cases, lack of access to credit have been
identified as major bottlenecks for improved variety adoption;
• More than 70% of farmers use their own saved seed across target countries; the only exception is
Kenya, where own saved seed accounted for just over 34%;
• Depending on the country, farmer-to-farmer exchange and government extension are two major
sources of information on agricultural technologies for farmers;
• The radio would be the most appropriate means of disseminating information on agricultural
technologies in Africa whereas television would be appropriate for India;
• The current investment in AR4D falls short of the recommended 1.0-1.5% intensity ratio (i.e.
investment as percentage of AgDP).
Fast-Tracking and Variety Release
Screening for desirable traits (grain yield, tolerance to biotic and abiotic factors) has progressed
according to the set milestones or better. Large numbers of lines have been provided to NARS programs.
NARS scientists also made crosses and carried out their screening process according to their needs and
priorities.
Each of the crop objectives has carried out a large number of participatory variety selection (PVS) trials
in the target countries using released varieties or pre-released advanced lines, in comparison with
one or more local check(s), over the three to four seasons between 2007/08 and 2010/11. A total of
69 varieties have been released during this period (Table 1-2). The countries (and number of varieties
released) were Mali (4), Niger (8), Nigeria (7), Ethiopia (9), Kenya (13), Malawi (3), Mozambique (6),
Tanzania (9), and India (10). In terms of crops these were chickpea (12), common bean (7), cowpea
(11), groundnut (22), pigeonpea (5), and soybean (12).
All of these are farmer- and market-preferred varieties that have been identified through the PVS trials in
respective countries. Their yield advantages over the checks ranged from 5% to 300%. The range (and
average) for each of the crops were: 5-54% (30%) for chickpea; 110-115% (113%) for common bean,
56-300% (124%) for cowpea; 27-78% (47%) for groundnut; 27-59% (38%) for pigeonpea; and 5-38%
(17%) for soybean, as presented in Table 1-2. Some of the varieties with the same pedigree have been
released in more than one country. These included chickpea varieties ICCV 00305, ICCV 00108, and
ICCV 97105 released both in Kenya and Tanzania; the cowpea variety IT97k-499-35 released in Mali,
Niger and Nigeria; and the soybean variety TGx 1740-2F released in Kenya and Malawi (Table 1-2).
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Engaging Smallholder Farmers | Tropical Legumes II Project