CSISA Objective 1:Orientation and Planning Meeting

Kathmandu, NepalJanuary 23, 24, and 25th, 2013

1. Familiarize team with CSISA philosophy, thematic focus, and each other.

2. Bring forward new thinking and partnership opportunities

3. Refine key objectives and activities for Bihar / EUP + Odisha

4. Coordinate activities around integrated ‘impact pathways’ and set priorities accordingly (weighted now towards kharif)

5. Translate impact pathway logic to achievable work plans with clearly defined activities, milestones, and responsibilities

6. Review strategy for M&E, data mng., and communications

Meeting Objectives

Project Goal: To increase food, nutrition, and income security at scale in South Asia through sustainable intensification of cereal-based systems

Four countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan

Duration: Phase I: 2009-12; Phase II: 2012-15

•Donor-driven shift in priorities in Phase II to Bihar / EUP, Odisha, and Bangladesh

•Transition support for Phase I hubs in Punjab, Haryana, and TN.

Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia

CSISA’s 10-year vision of success aims to increase the incomes of 6 million farm families by $350 pa by 2018 through widespread adoption of efficient and productive agronomic practices, marked increases in the cultivation of high-yielding and stress-tolerant cereal cultivars, better access to information, and progressive policies and strengthened markets that stimulate the same with results-oriented public and private investments. In Phase II, CSISA remains committed to its original 10-year target of assisting millions of farmers to achieve a substantial increase in yield and profitability. …the project endeavors to reach 2 million farm families by the end of Phase II.

The IMPACT challenge: catalyzing durable change with millions of small and medium-scale farmers

CSISA: A ‘big tent’ initiativeIntegrating disciplines and organizations

• Participatory development of sustainable, productive, and profitable agricultural technologies + support services and knowledge systems (Objective 1)

• Future-oriented process-based research (Objective 2)

• Breeding for high-yielding and stress-tolerant cereal varieties (Objective 3 and 4)

• Policy analysis and evidence-based ‘road maps’ (Objective 5)

• Strategic partnerships (public + private sectors) to increase the scale and longevity of interventions

• Strengthen markets and business development, especially SMEs.

• Capacity development through training and mentorship

Top-down focus on research + technologies (little impact)

What distinguishes CSISA: occupying the ‘messy middle’, science-led + outcomes oriented

Bottom-up focus on community engagement (don’t scale + inappropriate tech)

CSISA works to bridge the best of both approaches

2002......................

Peter Jennings, FLAR, 2005

Yiel

d to

n/ha

Variety revolution(semi-dwarfs – 2 t / ha)

350 new varieties released

Agronomic Revolution(management gain 2 t / ha, )

Creation of FLAR

.......................1968 1995

The rice revolution in South America

Ag transformation can be accelerated…

Fragmented land-holdings

Labor shortages

Erratic climate systems

Poor market linkages

Wide-spread resource degradation

Diverse set of production challenges and drivers of change.

CSISA technical entry points

Water productivity

Labor scarcity

Soil degradation

Climate resilience

Yield Profitability

Conservationagriculture (CA)

*** ** *** *** * ***

Site-specific nutrient management

** ** ** ***

Scale-appropriate mechanization

*** ** ** ** ***

Laser land leveling *** * * ***Elite germplasm ** ** *** **System intensification(more crops/yr)

* ** *** ***

Post-harvest storage ***Improved livestock feeding

** *** ***

Strengthened seed systems

* * ** ** **

OPERATIONAL MODEL FOR GOING TO SCALE IN CSISA PHASE II

INNOVATION + DURABLE PRODUCTS + SUPPORT TO CHANGE AGENTS

•There is no universal template for agricultural development

•Blending scientific rigor with participatory, demand-lead approaches to technology development is a must.

•Technologies alone are typically insufficient (markets, capital, risk, communications …).

Axioms for success in Objective 1

•An asset transfer scheme

•A competitor with the national research programs

•A substitute for the formal extension system

CSISA works to complement partners and to unite them towards common goals… a ‘catalyst’ for change.

What’s CSISA isn’t

Introductions and (brief) Q&A

Constituents of change to catalzye the adoption of innovative

technologies

sResearcher

developed technologi

esFarmer adoption

How do technologies move?

The status quo isn’t good enough….

‘del

iver

y’

1. Non-technological barriers

Laser land leveling and needs-based irrigation can reduce irrigation water use for rice…..

BUT…

Current market signals and business models are often not aligned with conservation and constrain adoption of innovative technologies.

or =

2. Supporting innovation with commercially- available toolsOut-migration, difficultterrain in Nepal hills

Excess rice residue and air pollution in Punjab

Public-private partnerships

Seeder for mobile ‘garden-type’ roto-tiller

‘Turbo happy seeder’ for heavy residues

3. Getting the message right

Increase net profitability of $100 - $250 ha-1 for wheat.

Courtesy Dr. Kamboj, Haryana

‘Sustainability’ doesn’t sell (fortunately, it doesn’t have to)

4. Taking cues from the private sector: raising awareness with social marketing and media campaigns

5. Utilizing modern ICTs for efficient knowledge dissemination and site-specific management

Courtesy of Roland Buresh, IRRI

2. Compute field-specific guideline

Model hosted on the cloud

1. Acquire field-specific information from farmers

Web Smartphone

3. Provide customized field-specific guidelines in local language

Multi-format output

10.0

10.2

10.4

10.6

10.8

11.0

11.2

11.4

11.6

11.8

12.0

Yr-1 Yr-2

Laser Traditional

Rice-wheat yield (t ha-1)

Yield gains with significant savings of water (~20%) and diesel for pumping ($25 ha-1) under gravity-controlled irrigation management

Source: H. Sidhu, CSISA/Ludhiana

6. Making polices ‘smart’ to spur investment

Market segmentation / willingness to pay studies to improve the design and efficacy of policies programs….

7. Understanding how farmers innovate

What information and services are valued, actionable, and profitable?

Literacy / numeracy: how must information be conveyed?

When must it be provided?

Opportunity costs?

Uncertainty?

Risk?

…..

8. Value chain interventions for strengthening input and output markets (when needed)

Great crop, but wheredoes he sell it?

9. Strengthening the capacity of change agents that already reach large numbers of farmers

limiting the role of project-based social mobilization, and increasing theefficacy of government investments through PPPs (and public-public too)

Dealer ‘Shakti’

10. Democratizing technology access through custom services and new entrepreneurs

Service providers are the primarytraining target for many CSISA- supported technologies, notfamers directly.

Simplifies training burden (reachingthousands to affect millions)

Reduces $ barriers to innovation

11. Aligning with other initiatives

Taking advantage of the investments, community presence, and socialmobilization of other programs. Including our own (e.g. STRASA)

We can’t ‘go it alone’

But, one strong partnershipis worth 100 mediocre ones

And, dysfunctional partnershipsare negative equity….

Iterative prioritization of strategic entry points

Theory of change (aka ‘impact pathways’)After establishing goals, how do we achieve them?Steps to Create a Theory of Change (adapted from www.theoryofchange.org)

1. Identify a long-term goal.2. Conduct ‘backwards mapping’ to identify the preconditions necessary to achieve that goal.3. Identify the interventions required to create these preconditions.4. Develop indicators for each precondition that will be used to assess the performance of the interventions.5. Write a narrative that integrates the various moving parts in your theory.

**If a plausible theory of change for specific goals cannot be identified and executed within the timeframe of the project, those goals should be dropped or given low priority.

Release of elite seeds

Wide-spread cultivation of elite seeds

?

Innovative and adapted technologies as starting, not end points…

Change typically requires not one thing, but many….

IMPACT PATHWAY EXERCISE:

1.Choose a primary outcome that supports CSISA’s goals

2.Identify three or four intermediate outcomes that contribute to the primary outcome

1.Define project-supported activities that support the intermediate outcome

Example primary outcomes:•Rice-fallows are brought into winter cultivation in flood-prone areas

•Smallholders gain access and employ laser land leveling

•Farmers transition to ZT wheat or directly-sown rice

•Mechanical harvesting and threshing are widely adopted

Thank You

BUT PLENTY OF INGENUITY.MANY ROADBLOCKS….