Four Seasons of Learning and Engaging Smallholder Farmers - icrisat

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hybridization techniques, design of experiments and statistical data analysis, disease screening and use of the infector row technique benefited seven research technicians from Malawi (3), Tanzania (2), and Mozambique (2). Three scientists one each from the partner countries attended the statistical data analysis training conducted at ICRISAT Malawi. On awareness creation, a total of 35 – 40 farmer field days were conducted annually in Malawi and 20 each in Tanzania and Mozambique. In Malawi about six thousand (6000) Flyers on groundnuts management practices including options for the management of rosette and aflatoxin were produced and distributed during field days in Kasungu, Nkhotakhota and Mchinji. Three quarters of these were in Chichewa (the local language) – some of them specifically focussing on the results of studies conducted on farmers’ fields as a way of bringing back to the farmers elements of the evaluations that is required for further analysis. In this way farmers contribute directly to the ongoing research. In Tanzania, 4000 booklets describing good agronomic practices and methods for good quality seed production were produced and disseminated. Finally both Tanzania and Malawi printed flyers (4500) on farmers and market preferred groundnuts varieties in three categories: description of released varieties, description of promising materials under farmer evaluation and results of participatory variety selection from previous seasons. Lessons learned – groundnut improvement 1. Scientist-farmer partnership in agricultural research and development is crucial in bringing about desired changes in the agricultural research and production scenario in the country; 2. Farmers’ advocacy of new varieties and technology is essential to bring about changes in existing policies and large scale adoption; 3. Sustained seed support is essential for large area coverage by FPVs and resultant enhanced productivity in groundnut; and 4. Policy makers, administrators, scientists, farmers and formal and informal seed sectors need to come together to initiate a silent revolution in rain-fed agriculture. Seed Production and Delivery Systems The inability of existing seed systems to provide small-scale farmers with access to improved groundnut seed is conditioned by a number of constraints. First, public-sector seed production has not been able to meet the demand for new varieties. Priority for the initial quantities of Foundation Seed stocks is generally given to more commercial crops, such as hybrid maize. The private sector also has shown little interest in entering the legume seed industry, particularly groundnut, due to low profitability. Groundnut has a very high seeding rate (approx. 100 kg per ha) and low seed multiplication ratio (approximately 1:10). Since it is a self-pollinated crop, farmers normally resow varieties multiple times once they receive the initial germplasm, thus making it difficult for the private sector to make profit marketing groundnut seed. Many seed enterprises, especially legumes, have been supported by non-governmental organizations and tend to be subsidized and inefficient. This combination of poor public-sector performance, lack of private sector interest, and reluctance to invest, has led to a void in seed supply systems that need to be filled. Seed production and delivery strategies The project embarked on three main strategies for seed provision – addressing the needs for Breeder Seed, Foundation Seed and Certified Seed. 44 Engaging Smallholder Farmers | Tropical Legumes II Project
Breeder Seed Breeder Seed provision is the responsibility of the breeder and therefore efforts have been directed to making sure that seed is produced at all major research centers under the good eye of the breeder. In Malawi the main activities for Breeder Seed is centred around the ICRISAT and NARS breeding activities at Chitedze Research Station. From barely meeting obligations by ensuring availability of 0.5 – 1.0 MT Breeder Seed per annum, the combined efforts of ICRISAT and NARS are currently providing 27 MT of the five released popular varieties (Nsinjiro, CG 7, Chitala, Kakoma and Baka) in Malawi each season (about 5 MT each). Similarly, there was only one popular variety Pendo in Tanzania until 2009. Breeder Seed production activities of this variety were spread across three major research stations and one farmers training center (FTC) – Naliendele and Nachingwea in the Southern Zone and Makutopora and Bihawana FTCs in the Central Zone. A target of a minimum of 1 MT per center guaranteed 5 MT per year for the variety Pendo. Foundation Seed Two strategies were pursued for Foundation Seed provision. The first is contract farmers with a track record of successful delivery implemented in Malawi and Farmer Field Schools and Farmer Groups implemented both in Malawi and Tanzania. This came about as a result of long-term training of farmers through this project. The successful farmers were facilitated through an initial seed grant and after it was proved that they have a reputation to deliver they were given contracts as seed growers. Each season the selected farmers obtain new breeder seed from research and sign a contract to produce foundation seed. The Farmer groups for Malawi are those linked to the National Association of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi (NASFAM) whereas those for Tanzania are linked to the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA). Successful farmer field school members are also inducted into the scheme in both countries. Another successful Foundation Seed provision scheme in Malawi is the seed revolving fund scheme run by ICRISAT (Figure 3-2). This was initiated by ICRISAT in 2001 through a onetime financial grant from USAID and it is running to-date without injection of any more funds. Since its inception, the scheme has delivered more than 996 MT of Foundation Seed and 113 MT Breeder Seed. Realizing that the scheme has been in operation for the past 9 years, we have been meeting the Malawi Breeder and Foundation seed requirements at a rate of approximately 100 MT Foundation Seed and 12 MT Breeder Seed per season. This seed volume is enough to plant 1,250 ha of land to produce certified seed each season. Assuming 0.1 ha per farmer in Malawi due to their small plots, the scheme alone has been able to supply the seed requirements of 156,250 farming households each year. Taking cognizance of the fact that the major source of seed for groundnut farmers is another farmer, this number of farmers reached can easily be multiplied 5-fold as a result of farmer-to-farmer seed supply. The scheme operates as follows: ICRISAT selects out-growers and gives those seed on credit, funded by the Revolving Fund; then at the end of the season the farmer sells the produced seed to ICRISAT. ICRISAT pays the farmer the contract price per kg of seed using the money from the Revolving Fund; ICRISAT then sells the seed to seed companies and/or NGOs. Proceeds received from buyers go back to replenishing the revolving fund. ICRISAT tries to sell seed to only those organizations that will further multiply the seed though some NGOs give away seed to farmers in certain areas and seed companies may sell some of the seed directly to farmers or through agro-dealers. In many instances the farmers or NGOs who procure this source seed for further multiplication. Through the input subsidy program, government provides farmers with vouchers to purchase seed and farmers purchase seed from seed companies and pay using cash plus the voucher (subsidy is partial) or, farmers purchase seed from agro-dealers and pay using cash plus the voucher. The agro-dealer collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to the government who pays the value of the vouchers to the agrodealer. Finally, the seed company collects the redeemed vouchers and gives them to the government who pays the value of the vouchers to the seed company Progress of Phase 1 45
Page 1 and 2:
Tropical Legumes II Project TROPICA
Page 3: TROPICAL LEGUMES II Tropical Legume
Page 6 and 7: Seed Production and Delivery System
Page 8 and 9: Enhancing Pigeonpea Productivity an
Page 10 and 11: NARES NASFAM NASSPA NPT NSC NSO NSS
Page 12 and 13: TL II was implemented in 10 target
Page 14 and 15: country governments in agricultural
Page 16 and 17: Table 1-2: continued Variety code (
Page 18 and 19: Table 1-3: Seed production and deli
Page 20 and 21: As stated earlier in this chapter,
Page 22 and 23: Table 1-5: Graduate degree students
Page 24 and 25: Ndjeunga J, Ibro A, Cisse Y, Ben Ah
Page 26 and 27: Project background Groundnut is one
Page 28 and 29: Table 2-2: Performance of ICGV 0035
Page 30 and 31: Table 2-6: Performance of ICGV 9111
Page 32 and 33: Table 2-11: Results of 255 paired c
Page 34 and 35: Table 2-16: Groundnut seed of vario
Page 36 and 37: Infrastructure facilities For effic
Page 38 and 39: Project sites Tamil Nadu The presen
Page 40 and 41: In Karnataka, the PDKV model was pr
Page 42 and 43: Training course A total of four tra
Page 44 and 45: Background The yield of groundnut i
Page 46 and 47: Table 3-2: Groundnut production tre
Page 48 and 49: In order of importance, the largest
Page 50 and 51: Table 3-5: Results of pair-wise com
Page 52 and 53: Finally, the variety choices are co
Page 56 and 57: Figure 3-2: The Malawi model of the
Page 58 and 59: Tanzania TL II has contributed to t
Page 60 and 61: Annex 3-2: Performance of Virginia
Page 62 and 63: Annex 3-4: Regional elite groundnut
Page 64 and 65: 54 Engaging Smallholder Farmers | T
Page 66 and 67: The European Union still remains th
Page 68 and 69: Table 4-2: Proportion of households
Page 70 and 71: Table 4-4: Amount requested, amount
Page 72 and 73: Table 4-6. Comparison of groundnut
Page 74 and 75: The use of other inputs (credit, in
Page 76 and 77: A PVS evaluation was launched in pi
Page 78 and 79: Table 4-10: Locations and contact f
Page 80 and 81: Table 4-11: Mean pod yield (kg per
Page 82 and 83: 99511 (Table 4-12). Most important
Page 84 and 85: Table 4-15: Evaluation of groundnut
Page 86 and 87: A 10-day intensive training worksho
Page 88 and 89: Seed production of all classes A to
Page 90 and 91: Testing seed marketing strategies A
Page 92 and 93: as Nigeria that will face the great
Page 94 and 95: 100 Million hectares 80 60 40 20 0
Page 96 and 97: 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 00 03
Page 98 and 99: In Niger, changes in cowpea product
Page 100 and 101: irregular rainfall early in the cro
Page 102 and 103: Table 5-4: Cowpea breeding lines se
Page 104 and 105:
Cowpea varieties released The proje
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Table 5-8: Number of days to flower
Page 108 and 109:
Evaluation for phosphorus-use effic
Page 110 and 111:
Figure 5-8: Reactions of some culti
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ASS6 ASS64 ASS110 ASS56 Figure 5-9:
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Figure 5-10: Meeting of farmers’
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The best approach to spread the imp
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declining soil fertility, increasin
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In Nigeria, the small seed pack app
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112 Engaging Smallholder Farmers |
Page 124 and 125:
Phase I Social Sciences research in
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The consequences are that the impro
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about half of area share of land al
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Figure 6-3: Average area (ha) per h
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single lingering bottleneck on whic
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In Kenya, the small seed pack appro
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Summary, process gains and people r
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Fast-Tracking and Technology Genera
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Figure 6-6: Distribution of PVS sit
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Table 6-12: Yields of fast track bu
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Table 6-15: Farmer evaluation of in
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While the fast track entries were r
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Technology generation Mechanistic s
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60 50 Rainfall Pan evaporation Maxi
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Table 6-22: Yield under drought ind
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Number of degree training students
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Number of NARS technicians trained
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Rain-out shelter in CIAT-Colombia T
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Impact assessment and enhancement P
Page 162 and 163:
Annex 6-2: TL IIEthiopia: decentral
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Page 166 and 167:
farmers for enhancing their awarene
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• Designing, testing and implemen
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Andhra Pradesh The overall sample s
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Prakasam district: Crops grown in P
Page 174 and 175:
Constraints in adoption of chickpea
Page 176 and 177:
Cost-benefit analysis for chickpea
Page 178 and 179:
Identification of farmer-and-market
Page 180 and 181:
Table 7-6: Breeder Seed of differen
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Capacity building Knowledge empower
Page 184 and 185:
Table 7-15: Training of local seed
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• In addition to yield, maturity
Page 188 and 189:
Introduction Chickpea is grown in E
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Chickpea seed access The first majo
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Grades and standards About 75% of t
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Table 8-6: Varieties used in PVS tr
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private sector lacks the incentive
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• LZARDI-Ukiriguru: Land along wi
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• Establishing functional legume
Page 202 and 203:
Table 9-1: Farmers’ preferred var
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Table 9-3: Baby trials conducted in
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Table 9-5: Reaction of pigeonpea li
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TL II focuses on farmer-participato
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Production of Breeder, Foundation,
Page 212 and 213:
Mahaboobnagar and Ranga Reddy distr
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(Table 9-9 Continued) Particular To
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Chichewa) and Tanzania (Swahili). O
Page 218 and 219:
Available technologies Although imp
Page 220 and 221:
and Chitedze in Malawi showed that
Page 222 and 223:
Table 10-6: Various classes of qual
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Awareness activities Farmers’ fie
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Annex 10-1: Target locations for pi
Page 228 and 229:
Adoption studies Adoption studies f
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3.5 Yields (Tonnes/hectare) 3.0 2.5
Page 232 and 233:
Table 11-1: Preferred soybean trait
Page 234 and 235:
The up-scaling program signals the
Page 236 and 237:
Across districts, TGx 1740-2F out-y
Page 238 and 239:
Table 11-9: Communities and famers
Page 240 and 241:
Table 11-14 Average performance of
Page 242 and 243:
Table 11-15: Release notes of the t
Page 244 and 245:
In Nigeria, across locations mean p
Page 246 and 247:
Table 11-21: Grain yield (kg per ha
Page 248 and 249:
Progress in selection of Bradyrhizo
Page 250 and 251:
the major soybean producing localit
Page 252 and 253:
Seed Production and Delivery System
Page 254 and 255:
Table 11-29: Quantity (MT) of Found
Page 256 and 257:
utilization and marketing. In Niger
Page 258 and 259:
Annex 11-2: Tobit Model estimate of
Page 260:
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