Sharing West Africa experiences and lessons learnt from the national science-policy platforms for informed policy planning in Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso.Piloting and up scaling efficient management and utilization of land and water resources

1. Strengthening Inter-region
collaboration : Needs and
Opportunities
Ramadjita Tabo and WCA Team
Asia Regional Planning Meeting
ICRISAT-Patancheru,
May 4-5, 2016

2. • Climate Change and Adaptation
• Legumes Improvement
• Cereals Improvement
• Soil/Water/Nutrient Management
• Crop and Systems Diversification
• Mali Agribusiness Incubation Hub
(MAIH)
• Impact Assessment
• Communications and Public
Awareness
Outline

3.  What effective ways to test CSA technological
options by farmers
 How to develop pathways for the scaling up of
climate-smart agriculture
 How to effectively mainstream gender in CSVs’
activities
 How to implement modeling and develop
quantitative outputs
South-south learning between Africa (West & East) and Asia about
climate-smart villages approach and implementation

4. Sharing experiences about science-policy fertilization
processes
• Transferring Nepal’s LADA (Local Adaptation Plans for Action) processes to
West Africa: Especially with reference to effective decentralization of climate
finance towards local authorities
(https://ccafs.cgiar.org/publications/deconstructing-local-adaptation-plans-
action-lapas-analysis-nepal-and-pakistan-lapa#.VyZF3sbJ_X4)
• Sharing West Africa experiences and lessons learnt from the national
science-policy platforms for informed policy planning in Senegal, Ghana,
Mali and Burkina Faso

5. Embedding quantitative assessments of climate impacts
and adaptation benefits into bottom-up transformative
scenario planning processes:
• Building stronger systems prospectives from state-of-the-art
biophysical modeling and socio-economic foresighting methods
(learnings from AgMIP and ASSAR projects) - South Asia <> West
Africa

6. WCA Groundnut Improvement
• Effort is being made to enhance genetic gain for traits
of interest by:
» Establishing a breeding pipeline for traits of interest
(hybridization, observation nursery, yield trials)
» Identifying representative test environments for target
environments to reduce GxE interaction and
phenotyping errors
» Digitizing field data collection
» Institutionalizing BMS (breeding management system)
& BPAT (breeding performance assessment tool),
» Utilizing both main & off-season to speed up generation
advance,
» Collaborating with other regional and continental
programs including germplasm exchange and
molecular breeding

7. WCA Groundnut Improvement (Cont’d)
• The program has been working with
both India and Malawi programs.
• India & Malawi programs have been
good sources of breeding materials
for release in WCA
• Collaboration needs to be maintained
and strengthened with the India &
Malawi programs in the following
areas:
– Technical
– Resource Mobilization and capacity
building

8. WCA Groundnut Improvement(Cont’d)
• Strengthen and develop mechanisms for shuttle breeding
between the three programs to reduce the breeding cycle
– the identification of phenotyping sites in each region for traits
of interest (drought, rosette, aflatoxin, ELS, LLS, etc)
• Access to the Genebank at Patancheru.
– Our Genebank at Niamey has to work closely for germplasm
exchange and it needs to be supported by the genebank at
Patancheru. Additional staff is required at Niamey.
• Exchange/ sharing of improved/elite/ advanced breeding lines
and MABC (Marker Assisted Back cross) lines with combination of
traits viz.,
– early maturity
– multiple stress tolerance (Foliar disease, GRD, Aflatoxin,
drought)
– improved nutritional quality (high oil, Fe and Zn ) under
desirable agronomic background

9. WCA Groundnut Improvement (Cont’d)
• Continue collaboration on Regional and
International Nursery/ Trials
• Collaborative molecular work with the Genetic
Gain Research Program for accelerated breeding
for enhanced genetic gain.
– Regular interaction and working closely with the
program will be very important.
– Accessing the molecular laboratories both in
Patancheru & Nairobi should be possible with
subsidized cost for our molecular work.
• Possibilities exist in collaborating evaluating
transgenic lines with GRD/Aflatoxin Resistance
provided regulatory environments permit.

10. WCA Cereals Improvement
-Molecular tools for rapid Crop Improvement:
 Marker Assisted Selection
(MAS) for accelerated
varietal development with
enhanced resistance
 High-precision field
phenotyping through
appropriate experimental
plot design, field plot
layout, and electronic data
capturing and analysis
 Genotyping of mapping
populations, Genetic
analyses and QTL mapping

11. Exchange of Genetic material
 Access to hybrid female
parents with A2 and A5 that
we need for diversifying our
source of sterility as the main
source we are using is A1
cytoplasm in WCA from India.
 Access to mini core collection
for specific traits with
identified QLs of important
traits such as midge resistant,
anthracnose resistant, stay-
green for use in WCA.
 Harvest Plus/Biofortification
(Fe/Zn)

12. Capacity Building, Project Development and Use of
Research Equipment
 Joint supervision of
students {e.g. Myriam
Adam (WCA) and
Vincent Vadez
(Patancheru}
 Training on data
management/analysis
(Abhi in Patancheru
training in WCA on
BMS)
 Joint operation of NIRS
facility at ICRISAT Mali
and existing laboratory
at Patancheru
 Joint CN e.g. on
'Utilization of sorghum
BCNAM populations

13. Soil/Water/Nutrient Management
• The successful efforts of watershed management
Bhoochetana in West and Central Africa in selected
sites
• Spatial scale groundwater management
• Monitoring and modelling
• Watershed characterization to improve NRM
• Tailor made short term training programs

14. Bhoochetana in West and Central Africa
Collaborative work in:
• Piloting and up scaling efficient
management and utilization of land and
water resources
• Science based productivity enhancement
• Large scale adoption of integrated
hydraulic, agronomic and soil
management practices
• Micro-nutrient application
• Establishment of women self-help groups
to improve the involvement of African
women in agriculture

15. Spatial scale ground water management
• Improving ground water access
and use
• Off-season production of high
valued crops
• Policy formulation on efficient
water withdrawal and use

16. Monitoring and modelling
• Monitoring high resolution and
best quality data to support
decision making
• Biophysical and economic
modelling incorporating system
components

17. Watershed characterization to improve NRM
Target groups
• Breeders
• Social scientists
• Hydrologists
• System modelers
• Planners
Crop type / intensity
Tracking adoption of NRM technologies
Abiotic stresses
Mali
Land use / land cover
Impact assessment
1) 1 - 50
2) 51 - 100
3) 101 - 150
4) 151 - 200
5) 201 - 225
Watershed
prioritization
Biomass (g/m2)
LGP / planting dates
Biomass

18. Training on Modelling & Systems Research
• Training is an associated support to
modelling in system research.
– Training of scientists (ICRISAT, NARS, other
partners)
– Training of local end users of DST.
• Needs of inter-regional collaboration for
– Development of Decision Support Tools (DST)
– Support in resource person for training
(scientists)
• A good example is the training modelling course
organized in Niamey (Sept 2015).
– An advanced crop modelling with APSIM) and,
– An Integrated Assessments tool (IAT), which
combines outputs from a range of models and
expert knowledge to gain enhanced
understanding of bio-economic behavior of
mixed smallholder systems

19. Mali Agribusiness Incubation
Hub (MAIH)

20. Challenges &
opportunities

21. Yes We Can Create Change: Mali Agribusiness Incubation
Hub
IER,IPR,ICRISAT,FASOKABA,
AfriRice, CORAF
ICRISAT,
FASAKOBA

22. Launch of Mali Agribusiness Incubation Hub
Feb 22-23,2016

23. Leveraging South-South collaboration: India-
Africa
• Food processing agribusiness incubator in Mali through
IAFS-II was proposed; project can be revived and MAIH
can be involved as nodal incubator.
• Technology Transfer from Indian NARS (ICAR-ABI) to
African Agri Business
HURDLE TECH MEAT PICKLE-IVRI
FISH KURE- CIFT
MEAT SALAMI
EXTENDED
WITH VEGETABLES-IVRI

24. • This year, we are conducting impact
assessment of different technologies, and
we will need to:
• Harmonize methodologies and tools for
impact studies.
• Synthesize impact and adoption studies.
Impact assessment

25. Information and Communications
Technology-ICT
 Use of ICT for Communication for
Development: India has lot of experience in
this area that could benefit delivery of
technologies to farmers.
 Development of joint partnerships
proposals - Mobile phone companies
and online platforms.

26. Capacity building & Career Development
 Professional training up to 6 and 12 months
(for IT and communications unit-Africa Vs
India )
 Exchange visits (Africa Vs Asia Staff) for 6 to
12 months)

27. Thank You/
Merci!
ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium