This SRA aimed to optimise Single-Drop Genomics (SDG) technology to detect food borne pathogens. Nucleic acid point-of-care (POC) bioassays that can be performed on-site with minimal equipment, rapidly and at low cost are in high demand. Agriculture is one area that can benefit from the use of low cost on-site assays. This project is also listed as HORT/2014/027.

Accelerating the adoption of Zero-Till seed drills to reduce crop residue burning and boost sustainable food energy and water security.

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New common bean genotypes with shorter cooking time, higher iron, and higher zinc content. Training African plant breeders in a new rapid breeding method.

This project aimed to document the experience of direct-seeded rice (DSR) within the broader farming and social system, in Savannakhet province of Lao PDR. The project also aimed to understand which approaches are more/less successful, the reasons for adoption, non-adoption and disadoption, and possible technical and policy insights and recommendations.

Methodologies and germplasm to better manage Faba Bean Gall disease in Ethiopia.

Enabling small-scale farmers to better participate in local and regional markets by increasing the availability and adoption of high performing plant varieties that meet market demands.

This project aimed to accelerate delivery of two-wheel tractor-based technologies to smallholder farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa, and help them adopt the technology. This improved access to mechanization, reduced labour drudgery, and minimised biomass trade-offs. Sub-Saharan Africa needs sustainable intensification of agriculture. Research for development work is increasing the efficiency with which land, water and nutrients are being used, but farm power appears to be a forgotten resource.

A project aimed at reducing poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable, while safeguarding the environment, and encouraging women to participate. 

This project aimed to increase agricultural production, improve household food security, alleviate poverty and thereby reduce food-aid dependency in rural Zimbabwe through better integrated crop and livestock production and through men, women and youth participating in the market. Almost 12% of rural households in Zimbabwe (more than 1 million people) rely directly on food aid.

This program was part of the Australia Food Security Initiative for Africa. It built substantially on completed ACIAR projects in Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It focused on maize as the main staple and legumes as an important dietary protein source for the rural poor. Combined rainfed maize-legume cropping systems show considerable promise in boosting productivity and helping reverse the decline in soil fertility that is a fundamental cause of low smallholder productivity in the region.

This project studied how socioeconomic factors (including gender), changes in farming systems, climate variability and policies influenced production risks and whether smallholder farmers in Africa adopted technology. Few studies assess how adopting technology affects livelihoods in Africa. Without understanding the economics of farming decisions under uncertainty, technology scaling out interventions and policy decisions will be made based on incomplete information.

This project aimed to increase the adoption of new technologies for sustainable intensification and diversification (SID) in the lowland rice system in north-west Cambodia, towards increasing income for farmers and stronger, more sustainable, and resilient businesses. 

This project worked to refine selected integrated crop-livestock technologies, assess systems approaches to crop-livestock integration, and create institutional capacity with local partners at national, provincial and district levels for establishing local platforms for commercialisation and co-learning. This small project complemented CSE/2009/004 (Farming and Marketing System, FMS) by enriching elements of the FMS activities in selected research hubs in Savannakhet and Champassak Provinces, Lao PDR, with core members of the FMS research team a

Creating more productive, resilient, profitable and sustainable maize-legume farming systems that overcome food insecurity and help reverse soil decline.

Improving the productivity, income and food security of smallholder farming households in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. 

This project aimed to identify mechanisation options and post-harvest technologies to enhance household livelihoods and food security in lowland rice-growing areas. Cambodia and Laos share problems of widespread rural poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Rainfed lowland rice, grown once a year in the wet season, is the backbone of agricultural production, but is largely subsistence-oriented with low productivity, delivering low-quality rice to local consumers. Growing quality rice and non-rice crops would increase household income and reduce rural poverty.

The lowland and upland farming systems of rainfed southern Lao PDR have been identified as having elevated risk of hunger and rising rural poverty. The Government of Lao PDR recognises the south as an agricultural economy in transition, with a need to ensure that the poor participate in and benefit from the transition process. Increasing the supply of food and generating income from these systems is constrained by low fertility soils, weed competition, production and market risk (including drought and flood) and increasing cost of labour.

This project aimed to address the threat to wheat production caused by wheat blast in Bangladesh and South Asia by deploying resistant wheat varieties.  With over 160 million people, Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries. Wheat is the country’s second most important staple food after rice. 

This project aimed to establish and validate a practical and economically viable system that would enable smallholders in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan to harvest mungbean mechanically. High labour costs and labour shortages at harvest time constrain mungbean production in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan. Harvesting costs account for more than half of the crop’s total production costs, preventing expansion at a time when the nutritious legume is in high demand. Rising prices increasingly put mungbean beyond the reach of the poor. 

Identifying specific haplotypes and testing genetic markers in breeding programs to ensure their suitability for reducing chalk.  Chalk is a defect in mature grains of rice which causes the grain to become brittle and susceptible to breakage during the milling process. The incidence of chalk is likely to increase as average global temperatures rise. 

Wheat blast is a devastating disease severely influencing wheat production in the Southern Cone region of South America and has the potential to cause yield reduction of up to 100% under conducive environments.

Enhancing the production and profitability of legumes in the existing cropping systems in Pakistan reverse the decline in legume production. 

Improving agricultural productivity and profitability in Timor-Leste by addressing technical and social impediments to annual crop intensification, and by establishing forage tree legumes and sandalwood as a sustainable income source and land management practice. 

Reducing wheat vulnerability to stripe (yellow) rust in South Asia and East Africa.