ESA Planning Meeting Nairobi, 18 April 2013 – Jane Wamatu CRP 1.1 Dryland Systems Highlights on ICARDA Work Plans 2013

Participating Programs  BIGM: Biodiversity & Integrated Gene Management  DISIPS: Diversification & Sustainable Intensification of Production Systems  SEPR: Social, Economic & Policy Research  IWLM: Integrated Water & Land Management

BIGM Activity Improving Productivity and Rural Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in the Bale Highlands of Ethiopia through Integration of Pulses in the Crop-Livestock Production Systems

BIGM Activity Activity Identifiers  Target Region(s): East Africa – Ethiopia  Benchmark Area: Bale Highlands  Action Sites: Sinana, Gasera, Agarfa, Goro and Goba  System Level Outcome: Dryland agrobiodiversity  Strategic Research Themes : Food security, nutrition, NRM (SRT 3)  Outcomes Sought:  Adoption of productive faba bean, field pea, lentil and chickpea for improved nutrition and income  Sustain wheat-based production system  Constraints addressed:  Narrowing yield gaps

BIGM Activity Activity Identifiers  Hypothesis addressed:  The introduction of improved food legume production technologies will increase productivity by more than 50% and increased productivity of wheat through soil health and reduction of cost of production by reducing herbicide use to control grassy weeds  Outputs:  1537 farmers participated in the action research and scaling up activities on food legumes  High yielding and disease resistant faba bean, lentil, field pea and chickpea varieties identified that fits bimodal rainfall of Bale highlands  Some faba bean varieties were susceptible to rust (Uromyces fabae) disease in the small rainy which was not considered important in the main rainy season where technology development usually targets

BIGM Activity  Outputs:  Two field days organized where farmers researchers, NGOs, Extension staff and Zone and district administrators participated.  Technical backstopping and training to farmers (1167 trained) and extension staff (30 trained) on seed system and legume production technologies Partnerships  Participating CRPs: CRP 3.5 (part. on-farm variety evaluations) CRP 3.7 (straw quality evaluation)  NARES: Ethiopian Institute of Agriclutural Research Oromia Agricultural Research Institute Farm Africa  Communities: 10 Peasant Associations

BIGM Activity Capacity Building  Farmers, extension staff and researchers trained Cross-Cutting Themes  Gender:  Female farmers will benefit from increased pulse production thus improve livelihoods  The straw will help to increase milk and other animal products and increase the income of farmers, mainly female farmers  Nutrition:  High yielding food and feed legume varieties will improve nutrient intake of the participating households and animals  Through increased animal products mainly milk, malnutrition in small children will be reduced

DSIPS Activity Improving Productivity and Rural Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in the Bale Highlands of Ethiopia through Integration of Pulses in the Crop-Livestock Production Systems

DSIPS Activity Activity Identifiers  Target Region(s): East Africa - Ethiopia  Benchmark Area: Bale Highlands  Action Sites: Sinana, Gasera, Agarfa, Goro and Goba districts  System Level Outcome : Sustainable management of natural resources  Strategic Research Themes: SRT 3  Outcomes Sought:  Baseline data on the quality, quantity, management and utilization of crop residues for feeding of livestock in selected areas  Identification of dual purpose food-feed pulse varieties  Constraints addressed:  Scarcity of feed resources especially during dry seasons

DSIPS Activity Activity Identifiers  Hypothesis addressed:  Utilization of crop residues would improve feed availability and nutritive value of available feed  Outputs:  Dual purpose pulse varieties of pulse crops identified  Feeding strategies using pulse crops developed Partnerships Participating CRP: CRP 1.1 Participating CGIAR Centers: ICARDA and ILRI NARES: Sinana Agricultural Research Center (SARC) Communities: Various farmers in the selected districts

DSIPS Activity Capacity Building  Two researchers from Sinana Agricultural Research Center will be trained on Livestock feed laboratory analysis & techniques at the ILRI campus, Addis Ababa

SEPR Activity Diffusion and Impact of Improved Varieties in Africa (DIIVA) – A National Project

SEPR Activity Activity Identifiers  Target Region(s): Sub-Saharan Africa  Benchmark Area: Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Jordan  Action Sites: Sinana, Gasera, Agarfa, Goro and Goba districts  System Level Outcome: Livelihoods of smallholders  Strategic Research Themes: SRT4  Outcomes Sought:  Build varietal release dataset for improved barley, faba-bean, lentil and chickpea varieties in the three sub-Saharan countries  Build a baseline database on the strength (in terms of research personnel and budget) of research programs for the above four crops in the national (NARs) and International agricultural research systems (IARs)

SEPR Activity Activity Identifiers  Outcomes Sought:  Generate authoritative estimates of the adoption of improved barley, faba-bean, lentil and chickpea varieties in Ethiopia by conducting national surveys in Ethiopia  Solicit expert estimates of adoption for all three countries for all four crops in a systematic way  Compare the expert estimates with actual adoption figures for Ethiopia.  Identify factors that enhance/deter the adoption of improved crop varieties in Ethiopia  Assess if there are obvious differences between adopters and non- adopters  Provide reliable values of parameters for a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model being built for Ethiopia aiming at estimating the impact of CGIAR research in the country

SEPR Activity Activity Identifiers  Constraints addressed:  Knowledge gap among scientists, policy makers and extension personnel regarding the adoption of improved varieties  Absence of reliable values of CGE parameters for impact analysis  Hypothesis addressed:  There is no significant difference between expert estimates and actual figures of adoption based on national surveys  There is congruence between breeder’s breeding objectives and farmers preferred traits

SEPR Activity Activity Identifiers  Outputs:  Varietal release database established for all four crops in the three sub- Saharan countries  Database on the strength of NARs and IARs for the research programs of the four crops in all three countries established  Expert estimates of all four crops in the countries solicited  Two national surveys (one for barley and faba-beans and the other for lentil and chickpeas) completed, all the data digitized and data cleaning completed  Actual adoption estimates for barley generated

SEPR Activity Partnerships  Participating CRP: CRP 1.1  Participating CGIAR Centers:  CIP  IFPRI  Standing Panel for the CGIAR Impact Assessment (SPIA)  NARES  Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)  Communities:  22 communities in 44 district  24 zones in 3 major barley, faba-bean, lentil and chickpea producing regions of Ethiopia

SEPR Activity Capacity Building  Graduate students  Research centers: Use of gendered participatory tools and gender analysis Cross-Cutting Themes  Gender/Youth:  The whole project is targeting women and youth

IWLM Activity Gondar

IWLM Activity Activity Identifiers  Target Region(s): West Asia & North Africa (WANA), Ethiopia  Benchmark Area: Morocco & Ethiopia (rainfed), Egypt & Iraq (Irrigated), Jordan & Syria (rangelands)  Action Sites (ESA region): Gondar, Ethiopia  System Level Outcome : Food security, environment and poverty  Strategic Research Themes: SRT 1,2,3,4  Outcomes Sought:  Uptake of improved practices and technologies by benchmark communities, water and land productivity improved, Degradation halted and more interest of policy makers attained in environmental issues

IWLM Activity Activity Identifiers  Constraints addressed:  Nonfarm and low rainfall, drought, low capacity of stakeholders, inefficient water management, lack of sufficient data, low interest of policy makers, uncontrolled grazing of rangelands, land tenure problems and inequity in decision making among gender  Hypothesis addressed:  Participatory identification of natural resources management issues, involvement of communities and stakeholders in planning research, implementation of research in full partnership with all stakeholders will, if associated with needed capacity building and appropriate policy changes, lead to sustainable improvement in water and productivity, reduced degradation of natural resources and eventually improve livelihoods.

IWLM Activity Activity Identifiers  Outputs:  Higher income of local communities, more sustainable and/or productive production systems, better capacity of individuals and national institutions, higher resilience of the ecosystems and improved policies in agricultural production Partnerships Participating CRP: CRP 5, CRP 7 Participating CGIAR Centers: ICARDA and IWMI NARES (ESA region): Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research Advanced Research Institutes: ICBA, BOKO-Austria, Texas A&M, UC Davis, Utah State University, AUB, AUC Communities: 12 communities in all benchmark sites

IWLM Activity Capacity Building  Graduate students (4 PhD, 10 MSc)  Research centers: 5 training courses on water management, soil conservation and agronomy for 32 NARES  Extension: One training course Cross-Cutting Themes  Gender:  Women participation in implementing activities and training at the benchmarks especially in those related to livestock and value addition  Youth:  Training and graduate studies targeted at the youth