Eastern and Southern Africa

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$6.7 million funding, 20 projects, 3 small activities

Regional summary

Africa’s economic performance continues to grow. In 2019, economic growth was estimated at 3.4%, similar to 2018. Rwanda, Ethiopia and Tanzania were among the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. Eastern Africa maintained its lead as the continent’s fastest growing region, with average growth estimated at 5.0% in 2019. The slower than expected growth for the whole continent is partly attributed to the moderate expansion of the continent’s ‘big five’—Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa—which jointly grew at an average rate of 3.1%. The African Development Bank Group has projected that growth will accelerate to 3.9% in 2020 and 4.1% in 2021.

Despite its incredible diversity at a macro level, Africa has a greater proportion of poor people on average than any other region in the world, and the region is characterised by high levels of food insecurity and very low Human Development Index rankings. If the current trend continues, Africa will need to double its efforts to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 1 of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030.

Africa’s urban population has been growing at a very high rate and is projected to reach 56% of the total population (currently 43.8% of 1.34 billion) by 2050. Africa’s demand for food is expected to more than double by that time, driven by population growth, rising incomes, rapid urbanisation, changes in national diets towards greater consumption of higher-value fresh and processed foods and more open intra-regional trade policies. This is compounded by increases in temperature and rainfall reduction associated with climate change, which continue to reduce agricultural production and increase the demand for more land and water. In addition, rural demographics continue to change: growing rural populations, many farms getting smaller and rural youth looking for more lucrative livelihoods in urban areas rather than in traditional farming.

These changes are helping create new opportunities for Africa’s smallholder farmers, whose small farms are transforming to be more like business operations, which in turn brings about new challenges to the agricultural systems.

Agriculture typically accounts for 30–40% of the GDP of African countries and more than 70% of the continent’s poor live in rural areas. While agriculture remains a key driver of the economic growth required to deliver economic transformation for the rural poor, growth in productivity and production have broadly stagnated in the past decade. Unlocking the potential of Africa’s agricultural and food systems requires substantial investment in the agriculture sector and in research to provide the knowledge that underpins growth in agricultural productivity, especially for commercialising smallholder farming.

Countries in the ACIAR Eastern and Southern Africa region

  • Burundi
  • Ethiopia
  • Kenya
  • Malawi
  • Mozambique
  • Rwanda
  • South Africa
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Drivers of regional collaboration

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union in collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities has been at the helm of mobilising the interest and commitment of African Member States and their stakeholders for the transformation of the African agriculture sector.

A major milestone was the adoption of the 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated African Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, in which the heads of states agreed to spend a minimum of 10% of their total expenditure on agriculture and pursue a target of 6% annual growth. Subsequently, the leaders noted the need for monitoring, tracking and reporting on the implementation of the declaration using the CAADP Results Framework.

In response to this, the African Union has introduced a bi-annual review, the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard, which tracks and reports each country’s progress towards achieving the goals and targets of the Malabo Declaration. This important mechanism ensures that there is political will, backed by appropriate actions, to achieve agricultural growth
and transformation in Africa.

The scorecard is presented at the African Green Revolution Forum, a key annual pan-African forum with a goal of accelerating progress on agriculture’s contribution to economic growth and transformation, in line with delivering on the Malabo commitments. The forum has become a premier platform for leaders from across Africa and around the world to advance concrete action plans and share knowledge to tap the enormous potential of agriculture in driving equitable and sustainable economic growth across the continent. Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, in collaboration with several investors, coordinates the forum and produces a report on the forum, the Africa Agriculture Status Report (the AGRA report).

Regional collaboration is crucial to achieving economic development in Africa, and the role of regional and sub-regional organisations is key, including the promotion and protection of foreign investment. The main regional organisations that ACIAR will liaise with include:

  • Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
  • African Union Development Agency–New partnership for Africa Development (AUDA-NePAD).

ACIAR also liaises with a number of sub-regional organisations, which are mainly coordination bodies for research, policy and markets. These include:

  • Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)
  • Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)
  • Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA)
  • Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

Australia’s aid program in Sub-Saharan Africa supports the Foreign Policy White Paper aim of broadening our international influence in support of stability, prosperity and cooperation to address global challenges. African countries are important in global economic and political terms, including in relation to addressing economic growth, trade liberalisation, agricultural productivity and food security. Sub-Saharan Africa is a diverse region: the development context and challenges faced differ dramatically between the 49 countries. Australia’s support to the agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa aims to enhance agricultural productivity and food security to promote growth and improve livelihoods. Australia invests in the research and adoption of new technologies that address food availability, access and nutrition-related challenges for poor rural farmers. These investments focus on areas where Australia has comparative technical, research and agribusiness expertise, supporting practical solutions to enhanced agricultural productivity and growth.

An overview of Australia’s aid program in Sub-Saharan Africa is available on the DFAT website.

The agricultural environments of eastern and southern Africa and those in Australia have much in common—the wet tropics of Rwanda with northern Queensland, the semi-arid tropics of eastern Africa with central Queensland, and the arid rangelands of Ethiopia and southern Africa with the Northern Territory.

Australian agricultural science has expertise that is directly relevant to the African context. For more than three decades, ACIAR has supported projects that mobilised this expertise to deliver sustainable development outcomes in the region. The free-market orientation and effective architecture of agricultural research in Australia are also relevant to African agricultural transformation.

The ACIAR program with eastern and southern Africa fills a niche not addressed by many donors: agricultural research-for-development. The work of ACIAR is highly regarded and remains as relevant now as it was 30 years ago because of its focus on brokering research partnerships between Africa and Australia and its long-term commitment to addressing specific constraints in agricultural production with multiyear projects.

ACIAR currently invests 10% of its annual budget in eastern and southern Africa and directly funds projects in partnership with 11 African countries. However, the ACIAR footprint is much broader considering our contribution to the CGIAR, which has four of its centres located in Africa and, until recently, spent half of its total budget in Africa.

Our ongoing portfolio of projects covers a diverse range of priorities including:

  • improving sustainable productivity in farming systems, including water and natural resource management, food crops, livestock production and disease management
  • investigating the role of trees in farming systems and what constraints are preventing agroforestry from being reintroduced in some of our focus countries
  • improving social inclusion and greater empowerment of women and girls in academic and rural settings
  • fostering more inclusive agrifood and forestry market chains, engaging the private sector where possible
  • building scientific and policy capability.

ACIAR also has a substantial collaboration with the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC focused on Africa—the Cultivate Africa’s Future Fund (CultiAF). CultiAF is in its second phase, supporting nine projects across seven countries.

This program harnesses the complementary interests and skill sets of both organisations to deliver innovative projects researching:

  • the potential of insects as feed for poultry, fish and pig production
  • harnessing under-utilised fish and fish-based products
  • scaling up the supply and utilisation of pre-cooked beans
  • gender-inclusive financing for improved fish processing technologies and youth entrepreneurship
  • climate-smart interventions for smallholder farmers
  • user-driven smallholder irrigation approaches.

A large proportion of ACIAR projects in eastern and southern Africa are regional, operating in more than one country. Additionally, the core of our portfolio is delivered through bilateral country research partnerships (linked to regional impact pathways) and regional collaborations coordinated with sub-regional organisations.

During 2020–21, there are 23 ACIAR-supported projects and programs active in the eastern and southern Africa region.

Table 5.4 Current and proposed projects in the eastern and southern Africa region, 2020–21
Project title Project code Country
Crops    

Mitigating the effects of stripe rust on wheat production in South Asia and eastern Africa

CIM/2014/081

Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Pakistan

Faba bean in Ethiopia—mitigating disease constraints to improve productivity and sustainability

CIM/2017/030

Ethiopia

Protection of stored grains against insect pests

CIM/2017/031

Tanzania

Rapid breeding for reduced cooking time and enhanced nutritional quality in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

CROP/2018/132

Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda

International Mungbean Improvement Network – phase 2

CROP/2019/144

Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar

Demand-led plant variety design for emerging markets in Africa

FSC/2013/019

Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania

Forestry    

Developing integrated options and accelerating scaling up of agroforestry for improved food security and resilient livelihoods in Eastern Africa (Trees for Food Security phase 2)

FST/2015/039

Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda

Livestock Systems    

High quality markets and value chains for small-scale and emerging beef cattle farmers in South Africa (stage 2)

LS/2016/276

South Africa

Integrating approaches for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from forests and livestock in Kenya

LS/2018/202

Kenya

Scoping livestock research opportunities in Africa

LS/2018/205

Ethiopia

Value-adding to existing livestock programs to understand and quantify the implications of greenhouse gas emissions, provide options for emissions reduction and inform in-country policy development

LS/2019/159

Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia

Water    

Transforming smallholder irrigation into profitable and self-sustaining systems in southern Africa

LWR/2016/137

Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe

Virtual Irrigation Academy phase 2: from water monitoring to learning to governance

WAC/2018/162

Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Climate Change    

Supporting greenhouse gas mitigation for sustainable farming systems in the Asia-Pacific and East Africa

WAC/2019/150

Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Vietnam

CultiAF projects    

Scale-up supply of precooked beans for food and nutrition security by leveraging on public–private partnerships in Kenya and Uganda (CultiAf 108855)

GP/2019/115

Kenya, Uganda

Business models for scaling improved fish processing technologies in Malawi (CultiAF 108865)

GP/2019/170

Malawi

Insect feed for poultry, fish and pig production in Sub-Saharan Africa (CultiAf 108866)

GP/2019/171

Kenya, Uganda

The effectiveness of the Metro Agri-Food Living Lab for gender inclusive youth entrepreneurship development in Kenya
(CultiAf 108867)

GP/2019/172

Kenya

Climate-smart interventions for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia (CultiAf 109038)

GP/2019/173

Ethiopia

User driven approaches to make government and farmer-led smallholder irrigation in Mozambique more productive
(CultiAf 109039)

GP/2019/174

Mozambique

Alien invasive fruit flies in southern Africa: implementation of a sustainable IPM program to combat their menaces (CultiAf 109040)

GP/2019/175

Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Harnessing dietary nutrients of under-utilised fish and fish-based products in Uganda (CultiAf 109041)

GP/2019/176

Uganda

Improving agricultural productivity and resilience with satellite and cellphone imagery to scale climate-smart crop insurance
(CultiAf 109076)

GP/2019/177

Kenya

Notes: More details (including project leader, commissioned organisation and partner organisations) are provided in the appendixes. The project list was compiled during July 2020. Additional projects, not listed in this table, may be commissioned during 2020–21.

2020–21 research program

ACIAR supports 23 projects and programs in eastern and southern Africa. The projects address our high-level objectives, as outlined in the 10-Year Strategy 2018–2027, as well as specific issues and opportunities identified by ACIAR and partner organisations.

The following sections briefly describe individual ACIAR-supported projects and anticipated outputs in eastern and southern Africa. The projects are grouped according to research program. Each project description is referenced in a list at the end of this section, which provides the project title and code.

Crops

Demand-led plant variety design has the potential to transform plant breeding for small-scale agriculture and food security. A project facilitated by the Alliance for Agricultural Research and Development for Food Security (see page 21), ‘Demand-led plant variety design for emerging markets in Sub-Saharan Africa’, engages with plant-breeding and university sectors in many countries. Professor Kaye Basford of the University of Queensland leads the project, which in phase 1 identified skills and processes needed for breeders to obtain high-performing plant varieties that meet market demands. Phase 2 of the project provides more plant breeders with access to the program and focuses on implementation of best practice in demand-led plant-breeding programs, using beans (Phaseolus sp.) and tomatoes. The project will also build capacity in demand-led variety design, by strengthening education and training programs for plant breeders across Africa.1

Stripe rust (also called yellow rust) is a common and important disease of wheat worldwide. While fungicides can be used for in-crop control, genetic resistance is more economically and environmentally sound. A project, led by Professor Robert Park of the University of Sydney, has established and equipped a collaborative network of key wheat improvement centres across South Asia and eastern Africa. In its final year, it will consolidate the knowledge base to enable ongoing research and development at the centres. The project has identified markers linked to effective resistance genes, which can be used in pre-emptive breeding and the development of rapid diagnostic tests. The project, set to reduce the vulnerability of wheat to stripe rust in South Asia and eastern Africa, also benefits wheat production across the globe, including Australia.2

A newly established disease, faba bean gall, threatens the ongoing cultivation, viability and existence of faba bean crops in highland areas of Ethiopia. Little is known about the disease and its management is a government priority. A project led by Professor Martin Barbetti of the University of Western Australia has defined the conditions and practices driving the spread and impact of faba bean gall. During 2020–21, the project continues evaluation of integrated pest-management packages and the identification of sources of genetic resistance for developing resistant varieties. The project will also investigate the presence and relevance of other diseases in faba bean.3

A new project aims to deliver genotypes of the common bean that have 30% shorter cooking time, higher zinc and iron content than current varieties, better resistance to Bruchid and Pythium root rot, and adapted agronomic traits. The five-year project will train plant breeders in the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance, coordinated by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, in a new rapid method of plant breeding, based on optimal mating designs. Led by Professor Wallace Cowling of the University of Western Australia, the project adopts recent developments in genetic data collection and analysis to speed up breeding, while maintaining genetic diversity in lines under selection.4

Mungbean is an ideal rotation crop for smallholder farmers. The International Mungbean Improvement Network, established through an ACIAR-supported project led by Dr Ramakrishnan Nair of the World Vegetable Center, helped realise the potential of mungbean to improve cropping system productivity and livelihoods by improving researchers’ access to genetic material, and coordinating and providing technical support to variety development work in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Australia. Phase 2 of the network commences in July 2020, continuing variety development for another five years and extending the network to Kenya and Indonesia, providing access to new genetic material and improved cropping options for smallholder farmers in eastern Africa and South-East Asia.5

Insect pests cause significant damage to grains stored on-farm in many ACIAR partner countries. Inert dusts are used by smallholders to protect stored grains, but their effectiveness is generally limited. Previous ACIAR research in Timor-Leste and Tanzania established the potential of synthetic amorphous silica as a new pest-control technology. Now, a small project in Tanzania, co-funded by Davren Global and ACIAR and led by Dr David Eagling, is investigating how this technology could be deployed. The project will use results from its laboratory study to understand the various insect pests controlled by the silica and to inform the design of equipment to apply the silica, suitable for smallholders in Tanzania.6

Forestry

Locally appropriate agroforestry systems can lift crop yields, and diversify and provide additional income for smallholder farmers. The ‘Trees for food security’ project built on previous research to integrate tree management with value-chain development, better water management and new livestock management. The project led by Dr Catherine Muthuri of World Agroforestry Centre is in its final year. During 2020–21, the project will consolidate and deliver sound scientific information about tree–crop interactions across different climates, soil types and farming systems in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda. The information will guide policies and extension programs and enable farmers to choose the best agroforestry system for their circumstances. The project will also establish cross-sector communities of practice and develop capacity in tertiary educational institutions to enhance adoption of systems.7

Livestock Systems

Livestock management is an important source of farm-level diversification for smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa. Improved linkages between farmers and the private sector provide opportunities for smallholder farmers to improve production system sustainability, product quality and human nutrition. A project led by Dr Heather Burrow of the University of New England builds on previous research in South Africa that helped small-scale farmers to supply pasture-fed beef for sale at selected supermarket outlets. During 2020–21, the project will continue to work with local stakeholders to establish commercially viable value chains, and improve the competitiveness of small-scale beef cattle farmers.8

The operational capacity of the ‘System for land-based emissions estimation for Kenya’ program will be expanded to incorporate full AFOLU accounting (agriculture, forestry and other land use). A project led by Dr Geoff Roberts of the Mullion Group will link an operational livestock model to the existing integrated system to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from forests and agriculture. The knowledge and tools gained from the project supports greenhouse gas estimation work in Kenya, and provides a generic framework and operational example to apply to other countries.9

Livestock management is one of seven priority areas in Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy, in terms of adaptation, resilience building and greenhouse mitigation. The Climate Change and Food Security program of the CGIAR, together with international company UNIQUE Forestry and Land Use, is implementing a three-year project to strengthen capacities for the measurement, reporting and verification of targeted livestock interventions livestock in Ethiopia and Kenya. Within this program, ACIAR will conduct a small research project, led by Dr Dawit Solomon of the Climate Change and Food Security program of CGIAR, to foster improvements in availability and quality of administrative data on livestock production and performance.10

There is an urgent need to consolidate existing evidence and identify gaps in global research to demonstrate the scale of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that occur with more efficient livestock production systems. Using the expertise and capabilities of Australian and New Zealand climate science, Dr Paul (Long) Chen of the University of Melbourne will lead a new project developing methods and models that apply to livestock development projects to quantify real and potential reductions in emissions and determine the opportunities and trade-offs between productivity gain and economic returns. The results will help determine if greenhouse gas offsets can be captured and linked with nationally determined contributions of partner countries, and if there is potential for voluntary carbon-credit trading to diversify smallholders’ income.11

Water

Irrigation has significant potential to contribute to food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, but many irrigation schemes are under-performing and returns on investment in irrigation infrastructure are low. An ACIAR-supported project in southern Africa, led by Professor Jamie Pittock of the Australian National University, works with irrigation schemes supporting more than 15,000 farmers in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Tanzania to increase the productivity and incomes of farmers and make the schemes more self-sustaining. The project will finish in 2021, reporting on the best methods for dissemination of soil and water management technologies and identifying the factors leading to inequity among farmers in water supply and financial benefit from irrigation schemes.12

Smallholder farmers in southern Africa require new irrigation management skills to realise the benefits and potential of available irrigation infrastructure. Phase 1 of the Virtual Irrigation Academy project in Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania developed a system of continual social and institutional learning to improve the profitability and sustainability of irrigated farming. Dr Richard Stirzaker of CSIRO Land and Water leads phase 2 of the project, which will develop the Virtual Irrigation Academy system into a water learning and governance platform to support smallholder farmers and address the information deficits at scheme to national levels. In phase 2, the project will also support activities with irrigation schemes in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, through the project described in the previous paragraph.13

Climate Change

ACIAR will add a new research program to its portfolio in September 2020 to focus and strengthen work towards our strategic objective that addresses climate variability and climate change.

Australia is a world leader in greenhouse gas mitigation research in agriculture. A new project provides the opportunity to transfer this knowledge to assist our partner countries to identify and quantify on-farm management options that reduce emissions from farming practices and help establish national greenhouse gas accounting systems to monitor, report and verify emissions reductions to the same high standard used by Australia. This project, led by Professor Peter Grace of Queensland University of Technology, and co-funded by New Zealand, will work with government and research institutions in Fiji, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kenya to develop expertise to enable those institutions to better support their national governments in meeting current and future nationally determined emissions reduction commitments under the Paris Agreement.14

CultiAF projects

Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) is a partnership between ACIAR and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada that addresses post-harvest management, food processing, nutrition, business opportunities and value chains. The program is one of several established in a longstanding relationship between the two international agencies (see page 21). Phase 1 of CultiAF (CultiAF1) began in 2013 and supported eight projects across five countries in eastern and southern Africa. Phase 2 (CultiAF2) was launched in May 2019. During 2020–21, four projects rolled from CultiAF1 into CultiAF 2 will be completed. Five projects new to CultiAF2 start their second year in 2020–21.

Pre-cooked beans improve food and nutrition security, generate income for smallholder farmers and reduce demand for cooking fuel. However, the supply of beans for processing is limited. Dr Michael Ugen of the National Agricultural Research Organization, Uganda, leads a project that rolls over from CultiAF1, to understand the impacts of scaling up the supply of pre-cooked beans, in terms of gender empowerment, household income, employment, fuel use, household consumption patterns and nutrition. The project has also investigated financially inclusive production, supply and business models to produce public–private partnership management models.15

Successful processing technologies were identified for fisheries in Malawi in CultiAF1. Improved smoking kilns for small fish species and solar tent dryers for larger fish species were found to be environmentally friendly, effective and economically viable fish-processing technologies. However, efforts to scale up these technologies were not successful. In CultiAF2, research led by Dr Levison Chiwaula of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, Malawi, will complete the design and testing of scaling-up strategies that will target women and youth, enhancing their links to formal markets and access to capital.16

Insects present an alternative and sustainable protein source for animal feed in eastern and southern Africa. The scientific basis, technical feasibility and profitability of using insects in animal feed was established in CultiAF1. In CultiAF2, Dr Chrysantus Tanga of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya, leads a project analysing and comparing different approaches to scaling up insect-producing businesses. The research involves 11,070 households and is training 60 small- and medium-size enterprises in mass insect rearing and processing for animal feed.17

Effective training and business counselling interventions were tested during CultiAF1 to support youth-led agribusinesses. During CultiAF2, the scope of the project will be expanded and Professor Francis Wambalaba of the United States International University-Africa, Kenya, will test three components of the Metro AgriFood Living Lab’s youth entrepreneurship model (training, mentoring and funding). The project strives to define what is required to build a successful youth-led business in the agriculture sector and what benefits are derived from training, mentoring and funding.18

Climate change is causing a higher frequency of drought and crop failures in Ethiopia’s dry lowlands, exposing farmers to food shortages and livestock losses due to a lack of feed. Dr Taye Mindaye of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research leads a project, which started with CultiAF2, to develop and implement technologies that reduce the risk of crop failure, increase crop productivity and create new business opportunities for women. The focus is on technologies associated with sorghum production, and include, for example, drought-tolerant varieties and small-scale threshers.19

Inefficiency contrains the performance of government and farmer-led smallholder irrigation schemes in Mozambique. A CultiAF2 project led by Dr Mario Chilundo of University of Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique, aims to equip farmers with the resources and skills to sustain such schemes and identify institutional strategies to support government rehabilitation and expansion programs. The project will combine technical (soil and water management practices), social (business plans and market linkages) and institutional (innovation platforms and water-user associations) innovations and compare changes in their management, productivity and profitability for farmers. Gender analysis and scenario planning will be conducted to inform the design of user-driven, equitable and gender-responsive approaches for schemes that are inclusive of all users.20

High-value horticultural crops are key drivers of economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fruit crops can return higher income than staple crops, and they provide more employment opportunities for smallholders both on and off the farm, especially women. Fruit-fly infestations reduce quality and quantity of fruit, curtailing lucrative export opportunities and increasing the use of synthetic insecticides. Dr Samira Mohamed of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya, will lead a project to adapt and promote the widescale adoption of integrated pest-management interventions in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.21

Nutritional deficiencies are widespread in Uganda’s poor rural and urban communities, particularly in women of reproductive age and children under five years, due to limited access to animal protein and micronutrient-rich foods, especially fish. Dr Jackson Efitre of Makerere University, Uganda, will lead the NutriFish project and work with the fish sector and its associated value chains to address the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups. NutriFish aims to increase the availability, accessibility and consumption of underused fish to improve sustainable food and nutrition security and better the livelihoods of vulnerable groups. It also aims to increase by-product processing through public–private partnerships.22

Crop insurance is an option for farmers to protect their livelihoods against losses, as climate changes and extreme weather events are more frequent. However, very few insurance schemes are suitable for smallholder farmers. The high monitoring and verification costs of traditional insurance, the low demand for index-based insurance and the lack of complementary risk-management options (such as irrigation and drought-tolerant cultivars) are constraints for farmers in Kenya. Mr Amos Tabalia of Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise Limited leads a project to rigorously evaluate insurance packages and promote technologies to make farming systems more resilient. The project will also focus on technologies such as satellite and cell phone imagery to verify crop losses and observe management practices.23

Regional Manager, Eastern and Southern Africa

Dr Leah Ndungu

Research Program Managers

Crops: Dr Eric Huttner
Forestry: Dr Nora Devoe
Livestock Systems: Dr Anna Okello
Water: Dr Robyn Johnston
Climate Change: Dr Veronica Doerr
CultiAF projects: Dr Anna Okello

Current and proposed projects

  1. Demand-led plant variety design for emerging markets in Africa [Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania] (FSC/2013/019)
  2. Mitigating the effects of stripe rust on wheat production in South Asia and eastern Africa [Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Pakistan] (CIM/2014/081)
  3. Faba bean in Ethiopia – mitigating disease constraints to improve productivity and sustainability (CIM/2017/030)
  4. Rapid breeding for reduced cooking time and enhanced nutritional quality in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) [Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda] (CROP/2018/132)
  5. International Mungbean Improvement Network – phase 2 [Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar] (CROP/2019/144)
  6. Protection of stored grains against insect pests [Tanzania] (CIM/2017/031)
  7. Developing integrated options and accelerating scaling up of agroforestry for improved food security and resilient livelihoods in Eastern Africa (Trees for Food Security phase 2) [Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda] (FST/2015/039)
  8. High quality markets and value chains for small-scale and emerging beef cattle farmers in South Africa (stage 2) (LS/2016/276)
  9. Integrating approaches for estimating greenhouse gas emissions from forests and livestock in Kenya (LS/2018/202)
  10. Scoping livestock research opportunities in Africa [Ethiopia] (LS/2018/205)
  11. Value-adding to existing livestock programs to understand and quantify the implications of greenhouse gas emissions, provide options for emissions reduction and inform in-country policy development [Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia] (LS/2019/159)
  12. Transforming smallholder irrigation into profitable and self-sustaining systems in southern Africa [Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe] (LWR/2016/137)
  13. Virtual Irrigation Academy phase 2: from water monitoring to learning to governance [Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe] (WAC/2018/162)
  14. Supporting greenhouse gas mitigation for sustainable farming systems in the Asia-Pacific and East Africa [Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Vietnam] (WAC/2019/150)
  15. Scale-up supply of precooked beans for food and nutrition security by leveraging on public–private partnerships in Kenya and Uganda (CultiAf 108855) (GP/2019/115)
  16. Business models for scaling improved fish processing technologies in Malawi (CultiAf 108865) (GP/2019/170)
  17. Insect feed for poultry, fish and pig production in Sub-Saharan Africa (CultiAf 108866) [Kenya, Uganda] (GP/2019/171)
  18. The effectiveness of the Metro Agri-Food Living Lab for gender inclusive youth entrepreneurship development in Kenya (CultiAf 108867) (GP/2019/172)
  19. Climate-smart interventions for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia (CultiAf 109038) (GP/2019/173)
  20. User driven approaches to make government and farmer-led smallholder irrigation in Mozambique more productive (CultiAf 109039) (GP/2019/174)
  21. Alien invasive fruit flies in southern Africa: implementation of a sustainable IPM program to combat their menaces (CultiAf 109040) [Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe] (GP/2019/175)
  22. Harnessing dietary nutrients of under-utilised fish and fish-based products in Uganda (CultiAf 109041) (GP/2019/176)
  23. Improving agricultural productivity and resilience with satellite and cell phone imagery to scale climate-smart crop insurance (CultiAf 109076) [Kenya] (GP/2019/177)
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