Presented by Mateete Bekunda at a Seminar, Selian Agricultural Research Institute, Arusha, 3 May 2013

1. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
Mateete Bekunda
Farming Systems Agronomist
East and Southern Africa Project
Seminar Presentation
Selian Agricultural Research Institute, Arusha
03 May 2013

2.  Provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for small holder families,
particularly for women and children, through sustainably intensified
farming systems that sufficiently improve food, nutrition, and income
security and conserve or enhance the natural resource base
 Identify demand-driven sustainable intensification options that are
socially acceptable, economically feasible, and environmentally sound
 Combine and adapt these options to address constraints and exploit
opportunities
 Evaluate their effectiveness at multiple scales
 Catalyze ongoing sustainable farm intensification
Program purpose

3. Which locations
Guinea –
Savannah
Ethiopian
Highlands
East and
Southern
Africa

4.  Whole farm productivity
 Natural resource management
 Connect to markets & input suppliers
 Nutrition and poverty, especially women and
children
 Economic & environmental resilience
Program outcomes

5. Maize
Horticulture
Livestock
Legumes
Marketing
Milling/packaging
Post-harveststorage
Production
Extension
Equipment/fertilizer
Seeds&Breeds
Strong, formalized linkages
Value chain context
INPUTS PROCESSING & MARKETS

6. The Research Framework

7. Research output 1: Situation
Analysis and Programme-wide
Synthesis. Includes the activities
that are necessary to ensure that
project activities are able to
characterise and stratify target
communities effectively so that
promising interventions are
identified and inappropriate
interventions rejected.

8. Research output 2: Integrated
Systems Improvement. This output
is delivered via a broad approach of
participatory technology
development and / or identification.
This requires projects to allow for
the identification of existing sound
practices within communities that
might be more widely propagated,
the adaptation of these and other,
exogenous innovations and the
more effective combination of
innovations from multiple sources.

9. Research output 3: Scaling
and Delivery of Integrated
Innovation. The first two
outputs will generate
integrated technology
combinations that are more
effectively targeted on
farmer’s real development
needs. This third output
recognises that, even where
such technology
combinations can be
identified, the approaches
used for scaling them out
may not always be effective
and seeks to redress this
shortcoming.

10. Research output 4:
Integrated M and E Process.
The programme will aim to
wrap the three process-
oriented outputs in a firm M
and E framework.

11. • ADOPTION rates for any innovation (combinations of technologies and management practices
and knowledge) are enhanced by targeting on the demand from and capacities of potential
adopters
• INTEGRATION: Innovations with components that mutually reinforce whole farm
performance/productivity produce greater and more sustained benefits than the joint adoption of
equally effective single purpose technologies and practices
• TRADE-OFF: Effective targeting of innovations also reduces the negative impacts of trade-offs
between farm productivity and environmental sustainability and helps to identify potential “win-
win” options for SI
• SEQUENCING: Adoption of innovations that lead to SI is affected by the sequence in which the
component technologies, practices and knowledge are integrated and applied
• SCALABILITY: A research approach based on targeting and evaluating SI-related innovations, in
context, increases the relevance of findings from action research sites and enhances their
scalability to similar strata elsewhere (i.e. to similar development domains and households
typologies in other locations)
Research design: hypotheses

12. Research Implementation:
Multi-discipline Research Teams at each Action Site
Example: Babati sub-humid maize-based Research Team (2012/13)
Lead Scientist Institution Research Subject*
Mateete Bekunda IITA Principal Investigator
Job Kihara CIAT Biophysical constraints to crop/livestock
production (seminar subject for today)
Dan Makumbi &
Jean C Rubyogo
CIMMYT,
CIAT
Improved food and feed crop varieties
Ben Lukuyu ILRI Improved fodder species
Stephen Lyimo &
Mateete Bekunda
SELIAN, IITA Efficient application of fertilizers and
intercropping
Fen Beed IITA Mycotoxin contamination along crop value chains
Adebayo Abass IITA Post harvest technologies and management
*Within each research package are several other disciplinary researchers

13. Some useful links
• List of all the tools: http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/comms_tools
• Our wiki: http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/
• Our calendar: http://goo.gl/2m56L or http://africa-
rising.wikispaces.com/Calendar
• Our outputs on CG Space:
http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/16498
• Our presentations on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/africa-
rising
• Our pictures on FlickR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africa-rising
• Our website: http://www.africa-rising.net
• Soon, YouTube, Yammer
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