Tap IITA, DDG Ken Dashiell tells Zambian partners

Dr Ken Dashiell during his seminar presentation at UNZA in Lusaka, Zambia.

On 15 October, Dr Ken Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships and Capacity Development, kicked off the Southern Africa Research-for-Development Seminar Series, appealing to Zambian partners to “tap IITA’s expertise to reinforce the capacity of national agricultural research institutions to help Zambia’s agriculture sector reach its full potential”.
Dr Dashiell aired this message during his seminar-presentation titled “The University of Zambia (UNZA), Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), and IITA: A partnership to develop agricultural solutions to hunger and poverty in Zambia”, which was held at the Omnia Lecture Hall 2 of the School of Agriculture of UNZA in Lusaka. More than 60 participants comprising of students, staff, and representatives from UNZA, ZARI, IITA, government, and private seed companies attended the seminar.
During the seminar, the DDG also laid out IITA’s plans to expand its capacity develeopment and partnership efforts in Southern Africa. This includes increasing the number of students being trained by its scientists in the region, developing new agriculture-related training areas geared towards people with little or no formal education, linking with rural and urban schools to help them develop appropriate agriculture curriculum, and conducting training of youths to empower them to be agri-entrepreneurs.
He also emphasized the three essential components for these efforts to create impact. He said, “We need to mainstream gender in research and dissemination, develop appropriate capacities, and upscale technologies.”
“Definitely, IITA cannot do this alone. Therefore, I would like to highlight the importance of the partnership that we have with UNZA, ZARI, the private sector, and the government of Zambia. Together we would be able to achieve our common vision of reducing poverty and improving food security not only for Zambia and the Southern Africa region, but more so for the entire continent,” he added.
“And with the establishment of our Southern Africa Research and Administration Hub (SARAH) facilities a year from now, we would be able to more effectively deliver our R4D mandate in the country and in the region,” Dr Dashiell said. IITA-Zambia broke ground for SARAH on 12 September.
“I would also like to laud this collaborative Southern Africa R4D Seminar Series. This initiative will definitely become a centerpiece platform for UNZA, ZARI, and IITA to exchange and share expertise and information in the field of agricultural research and entice future agricultural researchers and scientists. I am confident that we will have more partners on board as this seminar series rolls on,” Dr Dashiell emphasized.
Dr Mick Mwala, Dean of UNZA’s School of Agriculture, shared the DDG’s views, saying that “on the part of UNZA, we will definitely be calling on IITA for support, not only for our students but also for our faculty and staff. I thank IITA-Zambia for having some of our students under its scientists’ wings, but I am also looking forward to seeing more being trained by IITA in the future.” 

CIALCA partnership highlights contribution of research to bringing stability in Africa’s Great Lakes Region

The Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) and the CGIAR Research Programme on the Humid Tropics today opened the first international conference to examine the challenges and opportunities for intensifying farm production in sub-Saharan Africa’s humid tropical regions.

Although good rainfall and temperatures allow cropping most of the year, small farm sizes, persistent civil conflicts, poor infrastructure, and political instability have made it difficult for Central Africa’s small farmers to eke out a living. The region has some of the highest rates of food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

“When CIALCA first started, we thought this was the best opportunity to highlight that science can contribute to peace,” said Nteranya Sanginga, a Congolese scientist and Director General designate of IITA, which will lead a major global CGIAR research program for the humid tropics that builds off of CIALCA’s work.

“Achieving food security in CIALCA region is a big challenge,” said Sanginga. “If we don’t find solutions to food security under the current constraints, we will face major challenges and increased conflict over food, land, and other natural resources in the next few decades.”

During the opening plenary, CIALCA partners and representatives of the Rwandan government highlighted the success of several projects that are delivering results for farmers and national food security. In 2007, 20 out of 30 districts in Rwanda were reported as being food insecure. Today, as a result of increased public investment in agriculture and country’s National Crop Intensification Program, all of Rwanda’s districts are now food secure. In addition, the country is exporting surplus crops to neighboring countries and is the only country in the region not dealing with food crisis.

Rwanda’s Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Ernest Ruzindaza, noted the importance of linking research knowledge to the needs of farmers on the ground and taking a more systemic approach to ensure food security and eradicate poverty.

“CAADP is here to support African countries in their push to support agriculture, but agriculture alone cannot solve the problem of poverty. Other rural development programs are need and agriculture is a key player,” he said.

http://cialcaconference.org/2011/10/24/cialca-partnership-highlights-contribution-of-research-to-bringing-stability-in-africa%e2%80%99s-great-lakes-region/

Can agricultural research help eradicate famine?

Every day, we see images of refugees fleeing a drought-ridden Somalia, crowding into camps along the country’s borders, desperate for food and shelter to stay alive. Tens of thousands of people have already died in the region, livestock, essential to the wellbeing of the local populations, suffer the same fate. Yet, as more than half a million children teeter on the brink of starvation, we ask ourselves “what could we have done to prevent this?” And, even more importantly, “how can we prevent this from happening again?”

No matter how severe, droughts do not have to lead to famine. Droughts are natural events, famines are not. Famines happen when countries and regions are not equipped to deal with extremes in weather. This current famine results from an extended drought and political instability, but it also reflects the long term vulnerability to food insecurity that is endemic in the Horn of Africa. As Oxfam recently pointed out, food aid alone does not help people to withstand the next shock: “Much greater long-term investment is needed in food production and basic development to help people cope with poor rains and ensure that this is the last famine in the region.” We at the CGIAR, the world’s largest partnership of international agriculture research, could not agree more.

Recent research by our climate change, agriculture, and food security research program has identified future “hotspots” of climate vulnerability-- areas where climate change impacts on food security are expected to become increasingly severe by 2050. Not surprisingly, some of the same countries being affected by the current drought where identified in the report as “hotspots” for climate-induced food insecurity.

Meeting the challenges of ensuring food security for the world, especially those is more remote and marginal locations and the poor in both rural and urban locations, as well as averting future famines, require us to act with an urgency. We must develop new ways of thinking more holistically about natural resource and farmland management, as well as revitalized water management practices, and the development of drought-tolerant crop varieties and hardier livestock breeds. Investment in such research is highly cost-effective: for every US$1 dollar invested in international agricultural research, US$ 9 dollars worth of additional food is being produced in developing countries.

What more can we do to ensure our research helps avoid future famines?

Good research is not enough
Even the best agricultural research can only realize its potential if it is used on the ground. For this to happen, it must be delivered under a benign policy environment, into agricultural systems with sufficient infrastructure and access to viable and predictable markets, and with the extension support needed to secure farmer adoption. Because of this, we need to work closer with funders, local and regional governments, national research institutions, universities, non-governmental organizations, aid agencies, farmers, civil society organizations and private sector companies. Only by mobilizing such collective strength, can we find and deliver the effective solutions at the scale needed to avert future famines and food crises.

The way ahead: working in partnership for better research outcomes
The good news is that agricultural research finds itself in a new era of opportunity. Rapid scientific progress has been made in genetics, ecology and information technology, offering a multitude of new ways to improve agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability. The CGIAR is using the latest scientific approaches and technologies in a series of new global research programs aimed at improving food security and the sustainable management of the water, soil, and biodiversity that underpin agriculture in the world’s poorest countries.

What is more, the reformed structure of the CGIAR opens the door for stronger collaboration and partnership with other research and development actors. The 11 new research programs approved in the last year, bring together the broadest possible range of organisations, combining the efforts of multiple CGIAR centres with those of many and diverse partners from across the research and development spectrum. Working in partnership on such a large scale, makes this new CGIAR effort unprecedented in terms of its size, scope and expected impact on development.

The work of the aid agencies is vital to provide the emergency aid that is desperately needed right now, but even aid agencies this time appeal for more to be done. We at CGIAR are doing our best to ensure that such famines never happen again. I was once told that the CGIAR is the best kept secret in agricultural research. We must make sure that our work remains a secret no longer, because agricultural research really is the key to better global food security and a sustainable, famine-free future.

Lloyd Le Page
Chief Executive Officer, CGIAR

https://sites.google.com/a/cgxchange.org/consortium/home/what-s-new/canagriculturalresearchhelperadicatefamine