EMRC Said Silim ICRISAT Food Security

R&D for Science Based

Improvement of African Agriculture

Dr. Said Silim

Director, ICRISAT-ESA

AgriBusiness Forum 2010 | 3 – 6 October 2010 | Kampala, Uganda.

• Several positive developments suggest Africa is on the road to

greater food security and economic growth

• Africa GDP to grow 5.5 - 6% in 2010: AfDB

• Growth in agriculture and economy in most countries higher than

population growth rate

– Malawi transformed itself to a net exporter of maize

– Rwanda increased its food production by >15 percent in 2007 and

2008

– In Tanzania, supporting farmers with vouchers to purchase seeds and

fertilisers enabled 700,000 smallholder farmers to produce five million

tonnes of maize.

• Africa's agricultural sector has the potential not only to feed its

own people but to become the breadbasket of the world

The good news – Africa on move


• Despite abundant natural resources African agriculture remained stagnant for decades

• Since 1970, the population of sub-Saharan

Africa has more than doubled

• Poor soils and seeds, lack of finance and

markets, and weak policy support remain

major hurdles

• These have been compounded by climate

change

• IFPRI estimates that Africa will need $32 to

$39 billion of investment annually to realise

the full economic potential of its farm sector

But there are challenges


• Require demand driven

research with high impact

factor

• Conducive policy environment

• Connecting smallholders

to markets

Linking farmers to export

markets for pigeonpea

gets them a higher share

of the final price.

Innovative approaches are required

75

61

42

32

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Urban exporter

Rural open-air retailer

Urban open-air retailer

Urban supermarket

Percent

Farmers' share of final price


• Helping smallholders to

adapt to new conditions

and become more

productive

– Improving awareness and information can significantly increase adoption of new varieties


14

38

2726

43

12

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

All farmers Aware farmers Adoption gap

%

Adoption rates for new varieties

Pigeonpea Groundnuts


• Institutional innovations for

facilitating technology adoption

and market access

Farmer organizations (e.g., PMGs in

Kenya) found to improve farm-gate

prices by 20-25%

Elisa kits for Aflatoxin detection with

NASFAM facilitated fair-trade certification for groundnuts

Farmer groups and innovation

platforms for crop-livestock marketing

in Zimbabwe improved market outlets

for livestock and inputs



• Reducing risk and vulnerability,

especially to extremes in weather

Precision conservation farming -A

viable option for areas with less than

700 mm rain/year

Reduced risk of crop failure even

without timely planting and

weeding

150,000 households supported in

2009 in Zimbabwe with partners in

Protracted Relief Program



• Understand how crop value chains

work, and entry points for

improving them

• Devise profitable crop

management – improved variety

synergies (a la Green Revolution)

• Add higher-value products to the

mix

• Do not overlook input supply

chains and market output

channels!

R4D through value chain approach


• Assist farmers to grow their way out of

poverty through market oriented

agriculture

• Attaining a whole new level of

resource access, stability, security and

productivity

• Employ a systems perspective to

ensure that all issues along the

pathway are addressed holistically

through complementary, strategic

partnerships

IMOD– A new way to conduct research

Source: Innovation systems approach - SSACP


IMOD- A new strategy for R4D


• Improve staple crop yields to ensure food security

and generate marketable surplus

• Generate cash from surpluses by building market

linkages

• Cash enables input purchases, raising yields in a self-

reinforcing investment cycle

• Once farmers are connected to markets and can

invest, they widen their strategy to include higher

value crops

• Conducive policy environment

The IMOD Pathway


Thank YouWebale Nyo

Apwoyo TwatwalAsante Sana

Merci Beaucoup

Documents

EMRC Said Silim ICRISAT Food Security