Opinions from FARA

Saturday, 3 March 2012

FARA Weekly Update

Please find below a summary of announcements received in the week of 27 Feb. -3 March 2012. Thank you

News and Events

Press release: New genomic resources for maize breeding
Empowering Women in Agriculture
Biennial Updates: Second Announcement and sample abstract

Opportunities for training, scholarships and fellowships

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Research, submissions open for Volume 1,Issue 1,Feb. - April, 2012
ITOCA CEPD 2012 Short Course: Marketing for the Information Professional
West African Network on Organic Agriculture Research Training
Online Course March 2012 Adaptation. CSDi Solution-Oriented Program Examples for Community Challenges in DRR, CBA and Rural Development.
Formation Internationale " Comment Relier les Agriculteurs aux Marchés en Afrique" Bamako, Mali, Avril 9-13, 2012

Job Vacancies

1. Avis de recrutement charge de suivi de projets pilote redd & adaptation

2. Postdoc Position in Geography - Namibia - Switzerland

3. Call for applications:

a. Graduate Research Program on Climate Change and Agriculture. Download application form.

b. Graduate Research Program on Climate Change and Biodiversity. Download application form

New Resources

1. New EIARD policy briefs:

a. Making ARD more “pro-poor”, improving the accessibility and relevance of ARD to the poorest.

b. Capacity development for agricultural research for development.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Agriculture innovation systems: An investment sourcebook

by: The World Bank

Agriculture and Rural Development Series
English; Paperback; 680 pages; 8.5x11
Published February 21, 2012 by World Bank
ISBN: 978-0-8213-8684-2; SKU: 18684
Research, education, and extension investments, while usually necessary, are often insufficient alone to bring knowledge, technologies, and services that enable farmers and entrepreneurs to innovate. Efforts to strengthen research systems and increase the availability of knowledge have not increased innovation or the use of knowledge in agriculture at the pace or the scale required by the intensifying and proliferating challenges confronting agriculture. Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook contributes to the identification, design, and implementation of the investments, approaches, and complementary interventions most likely to strengthen agricultural innovation systems (AIS) and to promote innovation and equitable growth. The Sourcebook provides a menu of tools and operational guidance, as well as good practice lessons, to illustrate approaches to designing, investing in, and improving these systems.

Managing the ability of agriculture to meet rising global demand and to respond to the changes and opportunities will require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation—not business as usual. Experience indicates that aside from a strong capacity in R&D, the ability to innovate is often related to collective action and coordination, exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop business, and an enabling environment. While consensus is developing about what is meant by 'innovation' and 'innovation system,' no detailed blueprint exists for making agricultural innovation happen at a given time, in a given place, for a given result. That said, the AIS approach, which looks at these multiple conditions and relationships that promote innovation in agriculture in specific contexts, has moved from a concept to a subdiscipline with principles of analysis and action.

Drawing on approaches that have been tested at different scales in different settings, this Sourcebook emphasizes the lessons learned, benefits and impacts, implementation issues, and prospects for replicating or expanding successful practices.

The Sourcebook reflects the experiences and evolving understanding of numerous individuals and organizations concerned with agricultural innovation, including the World Bank. It targets the key operational staff who design and implement lending projects in international and regional development agencies and national governments, as well as the practitioners who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. The Sourcebook can also be an important resource for the research community and nongovernmental organizations.

Upcoming forum 5-16 March 2012: ICT and agriculture in the context of "green growth"

Upcoming forum 5-16 March 2012. This year's Sustainable Development Network (SDN) Forum, titled Green Growth for All, was held at the World Bank headquarters in late February. Panel discussions and training sessions focused on operations centered on green growth. The sessions highlighted the profound threats and opportunities created by both climate change and increased environmental awareness, making a discussion on "green growth" in agriculture urgent and critical.

Information and communication technologies hold real promise to meet these threats and opportunities in two particular areas: 1) as tools for land use planning and management, and 2) as risk management tools for climate change adaptation.

Given the importance of green growth in the agriculture sector—and the potential for ICT to contribute—ARD is hosting the second e-forum on “ICT Innovation for Green Growth” in partnership with FAO and the e-agriculture community. This forum will explore how ICT is being used to reduce the climate effects that stem from agriculture. It also explores how ICT can increase climate-smart agricultural practices. Subject matter experts, who will respond to questions and provide insights on this topic, include:

Bruce Campbell: Director of Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security Program (CGIAR)
Marjory-Ann Bromhead: Adviser on Natural Resource Management (World Bank)
Ademola Braimoh: Soil scientist and GIS Specialist (World Bank)
Rodomiro Ortiz: Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding (Swedish University of Agriculture Sciences)
Elizabeth Dodsworth: Global Director for Knowledge Management (CABI)
Eric Seuret: Technology Consultant (Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture)
Pierre C. Sibiry Traore: Remote Sensing Scientist & Head of GIS (ICRISAT)
Pai-Yei Whung: Environmental Adviser (World Bank)

Please go to this website to participate in the forum from March 5-16:
http://www.e-agriculture.org/forums/current-forum

This forum will serve as a continuation of the on-going debates during SDN week and at the World Bank, and will be linked to the content of the "ICT in Agriculture" Sourcebook.

Jamal Saghir, Director of the Sustainable Development Department (Africa Region) at the World Bank, highlights the importance of climate-smart agriculture in addressing climate change in Africa specifically in the following video:

Friday, 24 February 2012

Announcement: Curriculum Development for postgraduate Organic Agriculture Research and Training in West Africa

The “Institutional Capacity Building for Organic Agriculture in West Africa” project is a West African Network for Organic Research and Training. It is financed by the European Union and Implemented by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States Secretariat under the EDUKINK programme. The partners in this network share their expertise and resources to enhance the prospects for a successful organic agriculture sector in the wider West African region.

Specifically the network partners train graduates, farmers, extension officers and civil society organisations to develop a viable organic agriculture sector. The project partners also facilitate and undertake research that underpins organic production, embed organic agriculture into the curriculum in West African universities and develop locally appropriate standards, regulations and technologies for West African organic production. The composition of the partnership reflects the different stages of development of organic agriculture in West Africa and deliberately includes both Francophone and Anglophone countries.

DVC (A), Prof. Toyin Arowolo (2nd Right) receiving
Dr. Missiako Kindomihou (Standing), Miss Koura Tatiana
(Left) and the Coordinator (WANOART), Prof. Isaac
Aiyelaagbe in his office.

A workshop and training session on curriculum development will be held in Nigeria 6 -13 March 2012at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB). This will involve partners, participants from other HEIs and other important stakeholders, such as future employers of organic agriculture graduates, government agencies for higher education, and government agencies in the agricultural sector. An outcome of the workshop is expected to be an outline common curriculum for organic agriculture in tertiary institutions in West Africa, which will facilitate further teaching collaboration and exchanges. In addition, teaching materials including posters, slides, DVDs, and monographs will be developed. Access to markets will be a major issue in sustainability of organic agriculture in West Africa.

Defragmenting Africa: Removing Barriers to Trade in Africa

February 7, 2012. Washington. With African leaders now calling for a continental free trade area by 2017 to boost trade within the continent, a new World Bank report shows how African countries are losing out on billions of dollars in potential trade earnings every year because of high trade barriers with neighboring countries, and that it is easier for Africa to trade with the rest of the world than with itself.

According to the new report―De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration

in Goods and Services―regional fragmentation could become even more costly for the continent with new World Bank forecasts suggesting that economic slowdown in the Eurozone could shave Africa’s growth by up to 1.3 percentage points this year. As the authors write, “while uncertainty surrounds the global economy and stagnation is likely to continue in traditional markets in Europe and North America, enormous opportunities for cross-border trade within Africa in food products, basic manufactures and services remain unexploited.”

The reports says this situation deprives the continent of new sources of economic growth, new jobs, and sharply falling poverty, factors which accompanied significant trade integration in East Asia and other regions. The cross-border production networks that have spurred economic dynamism in other regions, especially East Asia, have yet to materialize in Africa.

Obiageli Ezekwesili

“It is clear that Africa is not reaching its potential for regional trade, despite the fact that its benefits are enormous—they create larger markets, help countries diversify their economies, reduce costs, improve productivity and help reduce poverty.” says Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili, The World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, and a former Nigerian Minister of Extractive Industries. “Yet trade and non-trade barriers remain significant and fall most heavily and disproportionately on poor traders, most of whom are women. African leaders must now back aspiration with action and work together to align the policies, institutions and investments needed to unblock these barriers and to create a dynamic regional market on a scale worthy of Africa’s one billion people and its roughly $2 trillion economy."

In one notable example of trade barriers, report co-editors Paul Brenton and Gozde Isik of the World Bank describe how the South African supermarket chain Shoprite spends US$20,000 a week on import permits to distribute meat, milk, and plant-based goods to its stores in Zambia alone. For all countries it operates in, approximately 100 (single entry) import permits are applied for every week; this can rise up to 300 per week in peak periods. As a result of these and other requirements, there can be up to 1,600 documents accompanying each truck Shoprite sends with a load that crosses a border in the region.

Paul Brenton is Lead Economist (Trade and Regional Integration) in the Africa Region of the World Bank.

Gözde Isik is an Economist (consultant) in the Africa Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit and co-editor of the recently released book De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services.

Full Book English | French
Introduction
Part 1. Facilitating Cross-border Trade in Goods and Services
Part 2. Removing Non-tariff Barriers to Trade
Part 3. Integrating Services Markets

Related: 14/02 Interview with Marcelo Giugale World Bank’s Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programs for Africa
“Imagine the benefits of allowing African doctors, nurses, teacher, engineers and lawyers to practice anywhere in the continent, but responsibility for making this happen lies with countries first and foremost,” says Marcelo Giugale, the World Bank’s Africa Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management. “The final prize is clear: helping Africans trade goods and services with each other. Few contributions carry more development power than that.”

In a superb special World Bank video produced for the new report, women traders on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries in the Great Lakes region describe how they routinely encounter violence, threats, demands for bribes, and sexual harassment, at the hands of the large numbers of customs and other government officials at the border. As one egg and sugar trader from Goma says on the video: “I buy my eggs in Rwanda; as soon as I cross to Congo I give one egg to every official who asks me. Some days I give away more than 30 eggs!”

Congo Film w/ English Subtitles Original

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Bill Gates and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame attended IFAD’s annual meeting

Microsoft Corp. chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates
gestures during the (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

23 February 2012. ROME. IFAD, International Fund For Agricultural Development Annual Governing Council at Rome's IFAD headquarters.

Bill Gates announced nearly $200 million in grants from his foundation.

He called on the trio of U.N. food agencies to improve coordination among themselves and to insist that the countries receiving food aid, agriculture technology, know-how and other assistance show what they have accomplished with periodic reports he likened to "report cards" or "score cards."

Among the projects receiving funding from Gates is one to monitor the effects of agricultural productivity on a region's population and environment. Other grants will build on existing projects, including the release of 34 new varieties of drought-tolerant maize and delivering vaccines to tens of millions of livestock.
Gates has embraced high-tech — and to some critics controversial — solutions for boosting agriculture, including supporting genetic modification in plant breeding as a way to fight starvation and malnutrition. In separate remarks to reporters, he suggested critics should ask farmers in poor countries who have adopted such techniques in plant breeding, "do you mind that it was created in a laboratory?"

Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, said his country is striving to rebuild its economy with coffee and tea production, which are significant sources of foreign exchange. Nearly two-thirds of the population live below the poverty line. But in the past five years progress has been made, Kagame said, noting that the country’s gross domestic product has grown at an average of 8 per cent.

Kagame urged the international community to “be bold and try what has not been done before. We must learn from what has worked and adapt these models to suit smallholder farmers. The reality in most developing countries is that smallholder agriculture remains the source of livelihood and food supply. Every farmer counts.”

Friday, 17 February 2012

AfDB-IFPRI stakeholder consultation on agricultural biotechnology in Africa

15-16 February 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. in June 2011, the AfDB Group commissioned IFPRI to conduct a comprehensive and evidence-based study on agriculture biotechnology in Africa to assist African countries to address their agriculture and food security problems.

This consultation meeting discussed the findings and recommendations of the study for broad stakeholder validation, prioritize key areas which need to be addressed, and identify and agree on roles, responsibilities and resources needed to implement priority actions.

Some of the main recommendations from the study included the need to enhance support for the following: data collection, capacity building; renewed cooperation on biotechnology with sub-Saharan African countries, and outreach and communication to the public at large. In this regard, the report is an important step in the right direction.

Approximately 80 representatives of development organizations, senior African policy makers, private sector officials, scientists, researchers, and farmers organizations participated in the meeting.

Related: In November 2011, FARA hosted the 1st Pan-African Conference on Stewardship of Agricultural Biotechnology

Related: A lively [still ongoing] debate on fara-net in February resulted in an exchange of a number of reports on the GMO theme:

Vitale, J.D., Vognan, G. Ouattarra,M. and Traore, O. (2010). “The CommercialApplication of GMO Crops in Africa: Burkina Faso’s Decade of Experience with BtCotton,” Agrobioforum, 13(4): 320-332.
The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (2011) Complete Text of The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa (765K PDF)
Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa's Development. Report of the High-Level African Panel on Modern Biotechnology. (2007) Full text of this publication is available
A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001-2011) (2011)
How to engage with farmers over GM crops, Obidimma Ezezika and Justin Mabeya, SciDev, 22/02/2012

Addressing Climate Change Challenges in Africa: A Practical Guide towards Sustainable Development

This manual (272 pages) aims to translate available climate science and current international climate policies into the tools for practical action in Africa, in the context of sustainable development. In this regard the guidebook focuses on the potential climate change impacts on key sectors in Africa and appropriate adaptation and mitigation options. It outlines the governance, technological, financial and capacity building opportunities available to the continent to work effectively towards sustainable development.

The manual is self-contained and stands alone, but provides guidance to intended users to other relevant materials in the form of links and annexes. The primary audiences for the guidebook are policymakers, decision makers, practitioners from public and private sector, civil society organizations, environment and climate change negotiators and experts.

Organization:

UNEP

Partner(s):

African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, African Union Commission

ENG

Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Land tenure and international investments in agriculture

Recent literature that estimates the magnitude of land grabbing and/or explores what is driving it, how it is affecting small-scale farmers and what can be done, include “Land tenure and international investments in agriculture” (by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition, 2011), “Land and power: the growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land” (Bertram Zagema, 2011), “Land grabbing in Africa and the new politics of food” (Future Agricultures policy brief 41, 2011) and “The great land grab: Rush for world’s farmland threatens food security for the poor” (S. Daniel and A. Mittal, 2009). Land grabbing in Africa: a review of the impacts and policy responses (Oxfam, 2011)

Literature that presents alternatives to international land acquisitions include the “Access to land and the right to food” report (O. de Schutter, 2010), “Responding to land grabbing and promoting responsible investment in agriculture” (IFAD, 2011) and “Alternatives to land acquisitions: Agricultural investment and collaborative business models” (edited by L. Cotula and R. Leonard, 2010). Both the “Development” journal (volume 54, issue 1, 2011) and “The Journal of Peasant Studies” (volume 38, issue 2, 2011) have dedicated a special on land grabbing, and the website of the “International Conference on Global Land Grabbing” (held this year by Future Agricultures) contains articles that cover several aspects of the topic. “A historical perspective on the global land rush” (by the International Land Coalition, 2011) relates the current wave of land grabs to the past legacy of colonisation and neo-liberal reforms.

The African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI) amassed a huge amount of invaluable data

In 2006, the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation provided Farm Radio International a grant to support the 42-month African Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI), starting in 2007.

After two cycles of carefully planned and delivered, radio program campaigns involving 25 African radio stations in five countries, the AFRRI project amassed a huge amount of invaluable data. It demonstrates clearly that well-designed and produced radio campaigns using participatory methodologies can have a significant impact on the adoption of improved technologies by small-scale farmers on a large scale throughout the broadcast area of each radio station.

The data also demonstrate that such uptake of technologies can be even greater when innovative use of other ICTs, such as mobile phones and the Internet, is combined with the radio broadcasts. We call the methodology we designed and tested a Participatory Radio Campaign (PRC).

What Farm Radio International has learned from the AFRRI project can benefit other development communication initiatives. They have produced three reports that describe in detail what they did, how they did it, and what they learned. They are about Participatory Radio Campaigns, radio-based Market Information Services, and how new ICTs can make radio stronger.