New from IFPRI on Southern Africa

Agriculture in Africa -- Telling Facts from Myths

Simone Hill-Lee — Fri, 29 May 2015 20:08:25 +0000

Time:

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Presenter(s):

Contact/RSVP:

Simone Hill-Lee, s.hill-lee@cgiar.org; 202-862-8107

Location:

International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC
Fourth Floor Conference Facility

• Are women in Africa doing all the farming?
• Can Africa’s postharvest loss really be that high?
• Is input use still dismally low? Is land still abundantly available and land rental non-existent?
• Are Africa’s youth exiting agriculture en masse?

More information

For presentations, video and other related materials please visit the World Bank project page

Come and join us at an IFPRI-World Bank conference featuring 15 revealing Ignite-style presentations. The panel discussions are based on research conducted by an international consortium of universities and international organizations led by the Chief Economist Office of the Africa Region of the World Bank, and are intended to scrutinize conventional wisdom about African agriculture. Co-hosts Shenggen Fan, Director General of IFPRI, and Makhtar Diop, Vice President of the Africa Region of the World Bank, will make opening remarks, and the expert panels will reflect on the research findings and their implications.

Registration for this event is now closed. Conference will be streamed in its entirety on this page.

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Achieving Food Security in Africa South of the Sahara Through Food Value Chains

Simone Hill-Lee — Mon, 18 May 2015 19:34:27 +0000

Time:

12:15 pm to 1:45 pm EDT (Please join us for lunch beginning at 11:45 am); Live webcast coming up at the scheduled time.

Presenter(s):

Moderator: Rajul Pandya-Lorch, IFPRI | Welcome: Astrid Jakobs de Pádua, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany | Paul Mwafongo, Embassy of the United Republic of Tanzania | Speakers: Khamaldin Mutabazi, Sokoine University of Agriculture SUA in Morogoro, Tanzania | Ephraim Nkonya, IFPRI | Stefan Sieber, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research ZALF

Contact/RSVP:

RSVP to Simone Hill-Lee - s.hill-lee@cgiar.org, 202-862-8107.

Location:

International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC
Fourth Floor Conference Facility

This seminar will present findings of food and nutrition security research projects in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) funded by German federal ministries. The presentations will highlight results of the projects, share success stories of food value chains, and outline key policies required to achieve food and nutrition security through the value chain approach.

Presentations

Papers

Stefan Sieber will present an overview of German research programs and related projects conducted in SSA. Khamaldin Mutabazi and Ephraim Nkonya will present empirical evidence of both success stories and challenges of the value chain approach in Tanzania, as well as discuss policies that enhance or pose challenges for market development in SSA.

République démocratique du Congo: Fiche d’information sur les indicateurs de la R&D agricole

wgutierrez — Fri, 08 May 2015 17:39:47 +0000

République démocratique du Congo: Fiche d’information sur les indicateurs de la R&D agricole

Malgré la forte croissance au cours des dernières années, les dépenses de R&D agricole de la RDC sont encore en deçà des niveaux requises pour subvenir aux besoins du pays. Le ratio dépenses/PIB agricole est parmi les plus bas en Afrique.

Les effectifs de chercheurs agricoles connaissent également une croissance rapide depuis quelques années, notamment à l’INERA et au CRAA. Cette croissance est due à l’augmentation des chercheurs de niveau licence/ BSc ou master/MSc.

En RDC, les femmes ne représentent que 9 % de l’effectif total des chercheurs travaillant dans la R&D agricole : elles sont donc gravement sous-représentées, d’autant plus que la main-d’oeuvre agricole du pays est caractérisée par une prédominance féminine.

PDF file:

DRCongo-Fr-Factsheet.pdf(553.6KB)

Democratic Republic of Congo: Agricultural R&D Indicators Factsheet

wgutierrez — Fri, 08 May 2015 17:37:33 +0000

Democratic Republic of Congo: ASTI Agricultural R&D Indicators Factsheet

Despite rapid growth in recent years, DR Congo’s agricultural R&D spending remains well below the levels required to sustain its needs; in fact, spending levels as a share of AgGDP are among the lowest in Africa.

Agricultural researcher numbers also grew rapidly in recent years, particularly at INERA and CRAA, although most of this growth occurred among researchers trained to the BSc or MSc levels.

Accounting for just 9 percent of total researchers, women are severely underrepresented in agricultural R&D in DR Congo, especially given that the country’s agricultural labor force is predominantly female.

PDF file:

DRCongo-Factsheet.pdf(529.2KB)

Botswana: Agricultural R&D Indicators Factsheet

wgutierrez — Fri, 08 May 2015 17:06:36 +0000

Botswana: ASTI Agricultural R&D Indicators Factsheet

Overall, the number of researchers holding PhD degrees doubled in Botswana during 2000–2011, and the number of researchers qualified to the BSc-degree level tripled.

Agricultural R&D in Botswana is almost entirely funded by the government. Spending on operating and program costs increased significantly during 2005–2007, but contracted again from 2008, when government funding to many public-sector agencies was cut due to spiraling inflation.

Botswana invests a relatively high share of its agricultural GDP in agricultural research. Nevertheless, such a high intensity ratio is not uncommon in countries with small populations and relatively high per capita incomes. Small countries are not able to benefit from economies of scale to the degree that larger countries can, so basic research infrastructure and staffing constitute greater shares of investment.

PDF file:

Botswana-Factsheet.pdf(467.4KB)

IFPRI Roundtable on Next Harvest II

Simone Hill-Lee — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 16:31:50 +0000

Time:

12:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST (please join us at 11:45 am for a light lunch)

Presenter(s):

Judy Chambers, Director, Program for Biosafety Systems, IFPRI | Patricia Zambrano, Senior Research Analyst, IFPRI | Virginia Kimani, Lead Consultant, Pesticides and Agricultural Resource Centre | Sylvia Uzochukwu, Professor of Food Microbiology and Biotechnology, Biosafety Specialist, Faculty of Science, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti | Muffy Koch, Global Biosafety Specialist | Geofrey Ariaitwe, Plant Genetic Engineer, National Plant Biotechnology Center, National Agricultural Research Laboratories | Jose Falck-Zepeda, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI.

Contact/RSVP:

Please contact Pilar Rickert (202 862-4647; p.rickert@cgiar.org) to RSVP for the live event or for the webinar login information.

Location:

International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, NW, Washington, DC
Fourth Floor Conference Facility

IFPRI’s 2014 report “GM Technologies for Africa: A State of Affairs” identified the lack of standardized and uniformly collected biotech data as a main constraint in assessing the overall state of Africa’s agricultural biotechnology capacity and in the ability to draw policy recommendations regarding countries’ strengths and needs. IFPRI designed and implemented Next Harvest II, a John Templeton funded initiative that gathered detailed information for four of the leading biotechnology countries in Africa: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. The information collected has enabled the systematic evaluation of the status of African biotechnologies in these countries. A panel of participants will give an overview of the results for each country, highlighting their differences and similarities, and will discuss the capacity of the biotechnology innovation system to produce and deliver these technologies, the opportunities and challenges faced, and will give policy recommendations to address current limitations.

Go-to-Meeting available for those unable to join the meeting in Washington, DC. Please contact Pilar Rickert (p.rickert@cgiar.org) for more information.

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Finding a middle ground

Ephraim Nkonya — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 16:07:43 +0000

Adopting integrated soil fertility management (ISFM)—practices that combine organic inputs and judicious amounts of inorganic fertilizer and improved seeds—offers farmers a higher profit and is more sustainable than using inorganic fertilizer. Yet its adoption rates across Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) are among the lowest worldwide.

As I presented at an Ag Sector Council seminar earlier today, a recent study conducted as part of an IFPRI economics of land degradation project has revealed an inverse relationship between profit and adoption rate of most non-ISFM fertility practices (see figure below). In the same study, ISFM was shown to reduce climate-related production risks.

More information

Why are African farmers not adopting ISFM practices? One reason is that agricultural extension agents simply don’t have sufficient capacity to advise farmers on ISFM, climate change, and other global change-related farming practices. In addition, ISFM requires more labor than other practices, and governments are not investing in developing and supporting them.

How can farmers be encouraged to switch? An experiment conducted in Malawi showed that, without exception, all farmers responded to ISFM incentives offered on the condition that they plant agroforestry trees or adopt conservation agriculture. This implies that adoption of ISFM could be increased by:

offering short-term training for agricultural extension agents on ISFM, climate change, and other new farming technologies;
conditioning benefits to easily verifiable organic soil fertility management practices, such as agroforestry, that will more than reduce the current cost of subsidies, yet increase yield and profit; and
promoting agroforestry and other plant-based organic soil fertility management practices to reduce the high labor intensity of ISFM.

Doubling down on a good investment

Rebecca Sullivan — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:19:57 +0000

As the world’s population continues to expand, ensuring that food production can meet the growing demand is an ever-mounting challenge. Climate change, soil degradation, and volatile food prices further threaten food security at a time when increasing agricultural output is paramount.

In the report, Taking Stock of National Agricultural R&D Capacity in Africa South of the Sahara, produced by IFPRI’s Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators, researchers Nienke Beintema and Gert-Jan Stads summarize recent progress in the development of national agricultural research systems in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). The report—presented at the conference celebrating 15 years of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Johannesburg, South Africa this week—also serves as a benchmark for monitoring the implementation of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa, which is being launched at the conference.

More information

Taking stock of national agricultural R&D capacity in Africa South of the Sahara (ASTI Regional Report)
African countries south of the Sahara must double investment in agricultural R&D, report finds (IFPRI Press Release)
ASTI website featuring related data visualization tools

Regional spending on agricultural research and development (R&D) must double if the countries of SSA are to meet the recommended United Nations (UN) and African Union’s target of investing 1 percent of agricultural GDP in public agricultural R&D, not to mention the even more ambitious post-2015 recommendation that low- and middle-income countries ramp up spending on agricultural R&D by five percent from 2015 to 2025.

The report highlights additional challenges to national agricultural research systems:

Low staff retention and qualification levels: Civil service recruitment restrictions, low salaries, and inadequate funding have prevented many public agricultural research institutions from competing for, training, and retaining staff; in addition, a very large share of senior researchers are approaching retirement.
Low female participation: Although female participation in agricultural R&D has increased in recent years, women have less influence on decisionmaking and policy because men continue to dominate in senior research and management positions.
High funding volatility: Volatile fluctuations in agricultural R&D funding exert negative impacts on agricultural research systems by impeding strategic planning, undermining the conduct of research programs, demotivating staff, and eroding prior progress, all of which affect the quality, quantity, and efficiency of research outcomes and their ultimate impact on agricultural productivity and poverty alleviation.
High donor dependency: Significant shares of government funding are generally allocated to salaries, leaving many countries dependent on donor and development bank funding to support the day-to-day costs of operating research programs and developing and maintaining R&D infrastructure; in addition to increasing funding volatility, high dependence on donor funding has the potential to skew national research priorities.

African governments and research agencies are limited in their choice of options to address the many challenges they face in developing their agricultural research systems because of funding constraints. The ASTI report lists various successful policy changes already adopted in certain countries, which can offer valuable lessons for other countries.

“It is critical that African countries invest more in agricultural research to ensure that they can feed their populations,” said Beintema. “Underinvestment, inadequate human resource capacity, poor research infrastructure, and a lack of coherent policies continue to constrain the quantity and quality of research outputs in many countries.”

Taking stock of national agricultural R&D capacity in Africa South of the Sahara

Melanie Allen — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 05:01:56 +0000

This report is a timely input into the ongoing development agenda for Africa South of the Sahara (SSA). The 2013 report on agriculture and food systems by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network released a set of post–2015 development goals, including recommendations that low- and middle-income countries increase their spending on agricultural research and development (R&D) by a minimum of 5 percent per year during 2015–2025, and that they allocate at least 1 percent of their agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) to public agricultural R&D. More recently, the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa was adopted at the African Heads of State Summit, necessitating the development of a continent-wide implementation plan. This report, which summarizes SSA’s recent progress in developing its national agricultural R&D systems, is intended to serve as an important input into, and potential benchmark for, the implementation of the science agenda in SSA and the broader development agenda for the region. The analysis is based on comprehensive primary datasets by Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI), the most recent of which was compiled during 2012–2013.

PDF file:

astiafricasynthesis.pdf(1.9MB)

In a changing climate, information is power

Tue, 04 Nov 2014 19:44:23 +0000

The following story by Alexa Jay was originally posted on the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) news blog.

In a variable and changing climate, information may be the key to unlocking successful adaptation strategies. How can millions of farmers access climate information services that support adaptation to climate variability and change?

Climate information services are a powerful tool in helping farmers adapt to the impacts of climate variability and change, to both protect against drought and extreme events and take advantage of good conditions. A new report presents lessons learned from 18 case studies across Africa and South Asia that have developed and delivered weather and climate information and related advisory services for smallholder farmers, demonstrating that scaling up these services for millions of farmers is possible today. This infographic highlights what kind of information is being provided to farmers, and how it expands the range of management options available.