Sustainable Intensification of Maize Legume cropping

systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa

SIMLESA The Why, How and Where

Geographic focusEthiopia

Kenya

Malawi

Mozambique

South Africa

Tanzania

Mulugetta Mekuria; Prasanna B, Rodriguez D , Shiferaw B, Wall P,

Dixon J,Dimes J, Potgieter A

Problem settingWhy SIMLESA and Origins of Program idea• Persistent hunger & poverty in east and southern Africa

* droughts and famine* food (price) crisis …. which persists* global financial crisis (GFC)

• History of Australian contributions to food security since the middle of the last century:

* establishment of FAO; and ongoing support* establishment of CGIAR; and ongoing support

• Current widespread concerns in Australia over negative effects of food price crisis on hunger and poverty

* initial contributions through multilateral institutions • During 2008 additional budget allocations sought forspecific food security

programs in Asia and Africa (including one part focused on maize-legume

systems

Clusters of food insecuritySIMLESA Countries

http://apsrunet.apsim.info/simlesa/

Potgieter, Davis and Rodriguez, 2010

Low productivity of maize-legume cropping systems

Lack of functioning input and output value chains

Poor availability of improved seeds

Scarce agricultural research capacity

Why are we where we are?

Dual Challenge to SSATo double food production, and significantly increase incomes

and livelihood opportunities, while• Ensuring resilience and sustainability of farming systems on

essentially the same land area, • Adapting to climate change and the increases in costs of

fertilizer, water, and labor.SIMLESA goes right to the heart of this challenge

More productive, resilient and sustainable

smallholder maize-legume practices,

tactics and strategies

SIMLESA aims at increasing farm-household food security and productivity, in the context of climate risk and change, through the development of more resilient, profitable and sustainable

maize-legume farming systems

Mainstreaming Gender, M&E , Spill overs, Scaling out and capacity building

Socio-economic characterization

Input and output

value chain

Whole farm resource allocations

Improved range of maize and legume varieties available for smallholders

30% increase in maize and legume yields and 30% reduction in risk500,000 households over the next 10 years

3 IsINTEGRATION (SYSTEMS)

INNOVATION PLATFORMS

IMPACT ORIENTATION

Program Leader

v

Farmer-to-farmer exchanges SIMLESA, 2010

Baseline surveys, and SE studies

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Arumeru Karatu Hanang

Reported Farmers' Sources of Income

other

craft

petty trade

beer brewing

self-employment

remittance

hiring-out labour

livestock sales

vegetable sales

crop sales

Farming systems modelling

Researcher and extension

training

Researcher managed trials

On-farm trialsFarmer-

managed trials

Farmers experimentingCommunity

awareness meetings

Governance and Organization

Project Steering Committee

Project Management: CIMMYT

EIAR Ethiopia

KARI Kenya

MoAMalawi

IIAM Mozambi

q

MoATanzania

ASARECA CIMMYT

ICRISAT-TL2

Australian Partners

South African Partners

Objective 1: Major achievements-2010

Household baseline survey• Baseline survey completed in all the five countries and on-going in Malawi

• Interviewed 4600 farm households randomly selected

• 29 districts located in two agro-ecological zones and maize-pigeon pea, maize-beans, and maize-groundnuts , maize-soya beans cropping system

• More than 580 villages

• Community survey data collected from these villages

Ethiopia

Kenya

Malawi

Moz

ambi

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Achievements in Objective 2 (CA)• Ethiopia: Second season 2011/2012 progressing vey Field days ongoing• Kenya and Tanzania Season two crops mid season stage-

Field days being organized• Malawi and Mozambique-First Season results reported

Field Day –Hawassa –Ethiopia16 August 2011

Objective 2: Establishment of on-farm exploratory trials by farmers

Country Farmer groups # of Exploratory trialsEthiopia 9(12) 47 (58 in Year2)

Kenya 8 48

Tanzania 8 48

Malawi 6 36

Mozambique 6 36

Total 37 215

• Innovative relay & intercrop cropping systems tested for Queensland

• Stress characterisation for Queensland

• 2 NARS trained on BNF

• More than five congress publications submitted

Achievements in Objective 2 (CA)

Field Visit Kenya 16 June

Ethiopia Kenya Malawi Mozambique Tanzania

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Selian H308Selian H208SAH779SAH638SAH636

OPVs Melkassa 2Melkassa 6QGibe 2Gibe 3

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ZM523 ZM623 ZM309 ZM721

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Identification of pre-release (within NVMTs) or newly released hybrids and OPVs with potential suitability for the targeted farming system

Objective 03

Farmers’ assessment of newly released and pre-released maize varieties • Assessment was done for newly released varieties, pre-released

varieties, and farmer maize varieties • Evaluation involves socio-economists, maize breeders and

agronomists in collaboration with farmers and extension staff

Capacity building• Graduate level training/scholarships -AusAID and ACIAR

– 5 PhD enrolled in 2011 in Austrian Universities– 30+Msc,3 PhDs registered in local Universities– 2012 Candidates being selected

• Specific short term training in – CA Principles for research ,extension, NGO,staff and

farmers– socio economics, M&E, Impact assessment for NARS– breeding and seed systems – Gender Mainstreaming– APSIM

• Vehicles for all NARS, Laptops, moisture meters, digital cameras, jap planters, GPS units

For SIMLESA to succeed, it must draw on appropriate component technologies

• CA based practices• Drought tolerant maize• More productive legume varieties• Postharvest technologies• Improved integration of livestock options• Cell-phone managed insurance approaches

The Challenge:How do we combine them so they

optimize food security, incomes, resilience and sustainability?

For SIMLESA to succeed, it must align with realistic value chains

• Seed supply• Fertilizer supply• Equipment for CA based

technologies• Postharvest technologies• Insurance providers• Price information providers• Traders and processors

…Do you know them? Are the

appropriate providers involved?

 

What are we targeting? – Farms that strongly base their food and income

security on maize and legumes What do we do? –

Interventions that maximize farm-level productivity, income, resilience and sustainability in these

farming systems, based on farmers own resources and long

realistic value chains.

How do we work? – Innovation systems approach which means strong partnership with relevant actors     

Looking at the bigger picture: