THE

SPECIAL ISSUE, 3 March 2012BULLETIN

African Development Bank green lights US$63M multi-CGIAR Center R4D initiative

For the first time-ever, a single project will allow for continental coverage of the food security challenges of Africa.

The African Development Bank has approved a US$ 63.24 million fund package for the implementation of a 5-year, multi-CGIAR Center project dubbed “Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa” (SARD-SC). It is a research, science, and technology development initiative aimed at enhancing the productivity and income derived from cassava, maize, rice, and wheat – four of the six commodities that African Heads of States, through the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), have defined as strategic crops for Africa.The project, which will run until

2016, will be co-implemented by three Africa-based CGIAR Centers: the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). IITA is also the Executing Agency of the project.Another CGIAR Center – the

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) – a specialized technical agency, will support the other three Centers.The notice of grant approval was

received by Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of IITA, on Friday, March 2. It was signed by Dougou Keita, Manager of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Division 2 of the Bank. The SARD-SC Project comes at

an opportune time when food security and nutrition are high on the national agenda of the Bank’s Regional Member Countries (RMCs),

as rising food prices push millions of people into extreme hunger and poverty. The SARD-SC allows – for the first time ever in a single project – a continental coverage of the food security challenges in Africa.Its overall goal is to enhance food

and nutrition security and contribute to poverty reduction in the Bank’s low-income RMCs. Its target beneficiaries are individual farmers and consumers, farmers’ groups including youth and women, policy makers, private sector operators, marketers/traders, transporters, small-scale agricultural machinery manufacturers, and institutions.The Bank’s low-income RMCs

include Benin Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Is first-ever single project to allow continentwide coverage of food security challenges in Africa

The project is expected to contribute towards addressing the current shortfall in food supply in these countries and beyond by working across the full value chain of each crop and addressing both food costs and employment creation. Through its value chain approach, SARD-SC will also contribute to crop-livestock integration based on the use of the commodities’ by-products. The well-tested, IITA-espoused

research-for-development model adopted in this project can deliver stellar results as most of the successful technologies, models, manpower, and knowledge to be mobilized in SARD-SC are already available from the implementing CGIAR Centers and national partners. SARD-SC will produce regional public goods that may be used not only in the target RMCs but also in other countries in Africa.

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Funding for cassava research for development in Cameroon is having a positive impact with farmers recording increases in yield, fewer pests and disease pressure, improved livelihoods and more money in their pockets.From 10 tons per hectare, farmers

with improved varieties are now harvesting between 25 and 30 tons per hectare of cassava, according to Cameroon’s state project on roots and tuber crops that is popularly known as Programme National de Development des Racines et Tubereules (PNDRT).“The progress we have today in

cassava is a result of the investments we have had from organizations such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development,” says Dr. Rachid Hanna, Country Representative for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) during the visit by the IFAD President, Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze to IITA’s station in Cameroon yesterday, March 2. In an interview with journalists on

the sidelines, the IFAD President called on the government of Cameroon and the private sector to leverage on the gains made and scale up the technologies to farmers.According to him, ‘Cameroon has

the potential to feed itself, if only the country could tap its land and agroecological resources.’ While commending IITA and

PNDRT for the results made in cassava improvement and agriculture in general, Nwanze described cassava as a crop for now and the future.Historically, attempts to increase

cassava productivity have been challenged by pests and diseases such as the African root and tuber scale, cassava green mite, cassava mosaic virus disease, cassava anthracnose disease, cassava bacterial blight and root rots.Hanna said IFAD funding has

helped researchers to develop and disseminate cassava varieties with multiple resistance and/or tolerance to pest and disease constraints and to disseminate natural enemies under the IITA-biological control program

Cameroon reaps benefits of investments in agricultural research for development, IFAD head cites IITA role

IFAD President, Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze (left, in white shirt) listening intently to the testimony of a woman cassava farmer at the IITA-Cameroon research farm on Friday, March 2.

to tackle some of the pests.The deployment of these improved

varieties by researchers from IITA in partnership with the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), universities, PNDRT, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has raised the country’s cassava production to 3 million tons.Besides yield increases, the

improved cassava varieties provide the farmers with a menu of utilization with some purely for processing into products such as high quality starch and gari; and multipurpose varieties that can be used for high quality flour, baton de manioc, as well as boil and eat. Many of these varieties also address the specific needs of farmers such as good taste, leafiness, ease of peeling, and root peel color.To tackle postharvest losses in

cassava which were partly sparked by the increase in productivity, IITA and PNDRT in 2010 developed and deployed cassava chippers to farmers in 25 pilot villages in the main cassava producing zones of Cameroon. Fabricators in the country were also trained to manufacture the chippers locally. These machines facilitated the processing of cassava, and eased drudgery that is associated with cassava manual chipping.Hanna explained that the machines

helped in reducing the burden faced by farmers especially women who are saddled with the primary responsibility of processing the root crop. In follow-up surveys, users highlighted the ease of use of the chippers and good chips’ quality. Men also expressed considerable interest in the use of the chippers. Today, several non-governmental

organizations, community based organizations and farmer associations are emulating and replicating this technology.In the future, Hanna said IITA

and its partners intend to introduce yellow cassava varieties rich in beta-carotene to farmers to tackle malnourishment caused by deficiency in vitamin A.According to him, plans are

underway to make this happen in the shortest possible time.He also urged the government

of Cameroon to encourage the utilization of cassava in food products such as bread as being done in Nigeria and Tanzania.