Researchers proffer recipe on how to scale out agricultural technologies

Researchers from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and HarvestPlus have proffered some solutions on how to scale out agricultural innovations and create impact at the farm level.

They are drawing from experiences and lessons learned from past agricultural projects.

This comes at a time when interest in agriculture is back and science-driven agriculture is on top of the agenda of several national governments and is being seen as part of the solutions to development constraints in sub-Saharan Africa.

The researchers recommended that for agricultural innovations to create impact at scale, researchers must adopt the use of innovation platforms—working with multi-stakeholder groups—to effectively catalyze engagement with partners and ensure participation of important actors.

At a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa to mark the 15^th anniversary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the team of scientists also identified the application of innovative communication and dissemination approaches such as the use of  champions and novel information and communication tools (ICT) in outscaling innovations among target beneficiaries.

According to them other measures that could ensure dissemination of knowledge and catalyze technology adoption include: Encouragement of counterpart support/funding (not necessarily cash) by partners to get buy-in and to sustain interest and continuity; Development of an exit strategy at the beginning of the project for continuity and sustainability at the end of the project; Understanding what the beneficiary audience really wants and needs: that is, agricultural innovations should be grounded on audiences’ requirements and based on local knowledge and contexts for them to work.

Dr Alfred Dixon, Head of the Partnership Coordination Office at IITA and Project Leader of the Cassava Weed Management Project, said the strategies shared came at an opportune time when donors and policy makers are looking for methodologies to tackle hunger and poverty and ensure sustainability and impact of projects and programs.

According to him, researchers must do things differently to achieve positive results and impact at the farm level.

“It is no longer business as usual. Our research must benefit the poor farmers and this should be at scale,” he emphasized.

Paul Ilona, Country Manager for HarvestPlus in Nigeria reechoed the need for advocacy through engagement with policymakers and the development of an enabling environment for policy formulation.

He stressed that such approaches influence and facilitate the adoption of agricultural innovations.

The event drew lessons from presentations made on the IITA Business Incubation Platform (BIP) with focuses on aflasafe and Nodumax; Cassava commercialization in Africa; Maize revolution in West Africa; Support for Agricultural Research and Development in Strategic Crops (SARD-SC) in Africa; Dissemination of vitamin A cassava and maize; and Yam for Income and Improvement in Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) model.

Vitamin A cassava as a game changer to “Africa’s best kept secret”

The bio-fortified cassava which is rich in vitamin A is becoming widespread in Africa, driven by increasing awareness of its health and nutrition benefits.

The variety is changing the description of cassava – a root crop often referred to as “Africa’s best kept secret.”

Consumed by over 300 million people in Africa, cassava has been marginalized in several debates because of myths and half-truths about its nutritional value and role in farming systems.

The greatest burden of the crop is the stigma of being considered an inferior, low-protein food that is uncompetitive with the glamorous crops such as imported rice and wheat.

“But the perception about cassava is changing… with vitamin A cassava, we are not talking just about a crop that is rich in starch but about a crop that has one of the vitamins that are most important for human Development,” said Dr Wolfgang Pfeiffer, Deputy Director (Operations), HarvestPlus at the recent Crop Meeting in Abuja.

Popularly called yellow cassava, vitamin A cassava was bred by a coalition of partners, including International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike, and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and released in Nigeria in 2011.

 

The first wave consisting of three varieties was disseminated to hundreds of thousands of farmers across the country.  Farmers’ adoption of the varieties is on an impressive scale and the appeal for the varieties has fuelled their spread for research trials to other African countries including Republic of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Ghana.

“Demand for the varieties is up and we have engaged farmers for multiplication,” Pfeiffer explained. “Our strategy is to get planting materials available to farmers so they can consume these nutritious varieties and improve their health.”

Vitamin A deficiency is a malady in Nigeria affecting about 20 percent of pregnant women and 30 percent of children under 5 years, elsewhere in Africa the statistics are no better. A lack of or a deficiency of vitamin A lowers immunity and impairs vision. This can lead to blindness and even death.

Paul Ilona, Country Manager, HarvestPlus Nigeria, estimated that about 2 billion people suffer from hidden hunger in which vitamin A is an integral part.

He said that HarvestPlus and its partners were working on several staples to address hidden hunger, adding that in general the organization had worked with partners to release bio-fortified crops in 27 countries including those in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.