Category: Central Africa

By Nsimire Mireille

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in partnership with Institute of Agricultural Science of Burundi (ISABU) and Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) have launched a new project titled ‘Fighting Cassava Brown Streak Disease and Cassava Mosaic Disease through the deployment of new resistant germplasm and clean seed in Rwanda and Burundi’.

The Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) are a major threat to cassava production in both Burundi and the eastern part of the neighbouring DRC.  Of concern is the CBSD which was reported in the region in 2009 and is spreading rapidly.

The four-year project seeks to increase cassava productivity in Rwanda and Burundi through the development and deployment of CBSD/CMD resistant cassava varieties, as well as establishing a system to produce and disseminate high quality and virus-tested planting materials to farmers. The project is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and led by IITA with the national cassava research programs at ISABU and RAB, from Burundi and Rwanda respectively as the major partners.

The launch workshop brought together stakeholders from the two countries to get to know each other, and to understand the project better and was held at IITA-Kalambo station in Bukavu from 15 – 18 May 2017. It was officiated by the regional hub director, Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe who was represented by the officer in charge of IITA- Kalambo station, Dr. Chris Okafor.

Speaking at the workshop, Silver Tumwegamire, the project leader, said the expected outcomes of the project in the two countries included a 50% increase in cassava productivity for 20,000 cassava farmers through the introduction of high yielding and disease-resistant varieties, and establishing a sustainable system for dissemination of certified early generation seed (pre-basic and basic) of the best varieties.

The project builds on the experiences and lessons from the just concluded New Cassava Varieties and Clean Seeds to combat CMD and CBSD project (5CP in short) implemented in five countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. It will make use of the new improved cassava varieties selected under the 5CP project that showed high levels of tolerance to the two viral diseases.

The meeting also brought participants from other IITA led projects including the 5CP and Action to Control Cassava Brown Streak Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (CBSD-DRC)] to share their experiences and lessons to allow the new project team to learn from them and incorporate the lessons in their project as well to identify areas of synergies. The CBSD-DRC is led by Dr. Nzola Mahungu who is also the country coordinator for DRC.

James Legg, IITA virologist shared experiences and lessons on the development of a pilot clean seeds’ system for cassava in Tanzania under 5CP.  He outlined the requirements and approaches of developing clean seed systems to produce virus-tested cassava pre-basic’ seed.

Regina Kapinga, Head of Advocacy and Resource Mobilization at IITA gave a presentation on the importance of ensuring the project was aligned and mainstreamed to the priorities of the two countries for greater efficiency, effectiveness and impact!

“We need to ensure our activities are relevant to the countries we work in. we also need to systematically track the progress we are making in contributing towards the countries’ economic growth through agriculture,” Kapinga said.

Mahungu, CBSD-RDC project leader shared the objectives of the nearly similar project he was leading in DRC.  This was to maintain sustainable cassava productivity through the development and promotion of appropriate cassava varieties, resistant to CBSD and other biotic constraints, and disseminate approaches for the integrated management of cassava diseases and pests to contribute to increased food availability, income generation and sustainable livelihoods. In addition, presented the one year work plan activities.

The workshop concluded with a visit to the virology Laboratory at IITA-Bukavu where  Clerisse Casinga, a researcher at IITA – Kalambo shared with the participants a CBSD study conducted in D.R. Congo with supervision of IITA’s James Legg and Rudolph Shirima, in 2016.

The Scaling-up Improved Legumes Technology (SILT) project partners held a workshop to conceive manuscripts in the content of SILT, to develop guidelines for selection of effective dissemination approaches of SILT and to design the SILT outcome evaluation.

The Seminar was held at the IITA Central African Hub offices at ICIPE campus Nairobi with the participation of Fredrick Baijukya, Paul Dontsop, Renee Bullock and Irene Mvena from IITA; James Watiti, Monica Kansiime, Silvia Silvestri from CABI; and Karen Hampson and Godlove Nderingo from Farm Radio International (FRI).

Speaking at the end of the seminar, IITA’s Fredrick Baijukya said the workshop was successful and they had achieved all the objectives on the agenda.

“We now have the outlines for the 4 manuscripts on how we want to write them and the same for the guidelines for selecting extension communication methods” says Baijukya.

The group developed the outcome evaluation questionnaire, the activity which is planned to take place in August this year. The team also came up with titles for the manuscripts and the guidelines for the selection of effective dissemination approaches that are slated to be submitted by March 2018.

SILT is a three-year project funded by IDRC to produce geographically-specific information campaigns, targeting small-scale farming families, delivered just ahead of the legume planting seasons. It is jointly implemented by CABI, AFAP, IITA, FRI and a number International and National organization for scaling agricultural technologies

Read more about SILT http://africasoilhealth.cabi.org/about-ashc/ashc/silt/

 

The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) team met in Ibadan, Nigeria on 24 and 25 April 2017 to discuss approaches, tools and strategies that can support scaling in ACAI. The workshop brought together two teams, that together seek to support scaling in IITA.

The ACAI team aims to promote cassava agronomy at scale, while the Scaling Readiness team supporting research for development(R4D) projects in achieving their scaling objectives.

The workshop provided a forum for the Scaling Readiness team to improve the validity and applicability of their tools to better support R4D projects like ACAI in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their scaling strategy. ACAI has been selected as one of the four projects that the Scaling Readiness team will collaborate with developing and calibrating the tools.

“Developing Scaling Readiness tools with ACAI is crucial for ensuring that the data and analysis have high validity in terms of informing scaling strategies. ACAI is committed to making their products and approaches work for farmers, governments and private sector, and their leadership is very supportive in developing and testing the tools” says Dr. Marc Schut who is co-leading the Scaling Readiness work. Mr. Murat Sartas, who has introduced the Scaling Readiness concept in the agricultural research for development domain, goes even further in mentioning that he expects that “eventually Scaling Readiness will be used to monitor and evaluate impact of research for development interventions at project, research program and institute level.”

According to Dr. Pieter Pypers, Senior Agronomist ACAI, the Scaling Readiness work will help ACAI to identify and overcome scaling challenges that had not been anticipated otherwise as well as expand the thinking about ACAI innovations and their use. Dr. Abdulai Jalloh, project leader, extols Scaling Readiness for agricultural innovation as a necessary and timely approach for ACAI that will offer insight in better ways of scaling ACAI innovations and drive the project towards impact.

The Scaling Readiness concept has been spearheaded by Dr. Marc Schut, Prof. Cees Leeuwis and Murat Sartas who fulfill (joint) positions with IITA and Wageningen University. The Scaling Readiness work is supported through the CGIAR Research Program on Roots Tubers and Bananas (RTB), which seeks to accelerate the scaling of RTB innovations – such as those developed under the ACAI project – to improve livelihoods across the world.

More information about Scaling Readiness can be accessed:

Twitter: @ScalingReady

ResearchGate:  Enhancing Scaling Readiness of Root, Tubers and Banana (RTB) Innovations

Two statistics courses were organized for IITA staff and partners in DR Congo on 25 January to 5 February. The first―a refresher course on Statistical Analysis System (SAS), was organized for IITA-Kinshasa researchers. The training provided detailed hands-on exposure to the basic procedures for appropriate data analysis as well as the provision of SAS software for participants. The second course on Biostatistics was intended for grantees of the Projet de Recherche pour l’Innovation Agricole (PRIA). PRIA seeks to revitalize development-oriented agricultural research in the country.

About 18 grantees from the universities, Institut National pour l’Etude et la Recherche Agronomiques (INERA), and NGOs participated in the training courses which facilitated by IITA’s Biometricians Sam Ofodile and Sam Korie. In addition to the statistical courses, Ovegho Okome, IITA Project Administrative Officer, discussed the Institute’s financial reporting and accounting procedures.

The PRIA project is entirely funded by the DR Congo Government and managed by IITA, and covered by a memo of understanding signed in Kinshasa in June 2013. Since it started in December 2013, PRIA continues to provide competitive research grants to Congolese researchers
working with INERA, local universities, NGOs, and private organizations to
carry out innovative agricultural research in the food, livestock, and fish farming sectors. To date, about 44 of such research grants have been attributed to DR Congo researchers. These small grants were selected out of 300 applications.

A recent assessment on IITA improved cassava varieties released in the Moba region of DR Congo has shown that the crop contributes significantly to food security for households in the region. The varieties were introduced in 2010 during the first phase of the USAID-funded Development Food Assistance Program (DFAP) implemented by IITA and Food for the Hungry International (FH).

Prior to the introduction of the improved varieties, Moba residents had battled food insecurity for more than four months every year. In addition to ensuring constant food on the table of Moba households, the new cassava varieties have also increased average root yield from a paltry 2 tons/hectare to about 20 tons/hectare since 2010.

Kande Matungulu, IITA scientist based in DR Congo, said the breakthrough was a result of novel agro-technologies developed by IITA. He also added that “IITA and FH efforts succeeded in reducing food insecurity in the former Moba region, now known as Tanganyika Province.”

Paul Dontsop, IITA Impact Economist based in DRC, said “During the first phase of DFAP, IITA and FH did a very good job both in North Katanga (Kalemie and Moba) and South Kivu (Walungu). More than 30,000 households were directly involved in project implementation. If we consider the fact that the average household size in those areas is about six, we are talking about 180, 000 people helped directly by the project.”

To further spread the gains from this breakthrough, proposal development for a second DFAP phase, built on the good results and the lessons learned from phase one is ongoing.

IITA and AGROBIOTEC Lab in Bujumbura, Burundi, organized a hands-on training for field technicians in DR Congo on post-flask management of tissue culture banana on 22-26 June.

The training was organized in the framework of the partnership project with Food for the Hungry International (FH) DR Congo under the USAID/DFAP project. Participants came from FH, Institut National d’Etude et Recherche Agronomique (INERA), Université Catholique de Bukavu (UCB), and IITA Kalambo.

The purpose of the training was to strengthen partners’ capacity to produce and introduce healthy planting material to rehabilitate bacterial wilt (BXW)-infected fields in Eastern DR Congo. BXW has devastated banana fields in Eastern DRC, rendering producers redundant with limited income sources.

The training was led by Emmanuel Njukwe of IITA Burundi and facilitated by Rishirumuhirwa Théodomir of AGROBIOTEC Lab in Burundi and Niyongere Célestin of ISABU. Training modules included banana breeding for new and improved varieties, preparation of ex-plant, aseptic culture, rooting and weaning for field establishment.