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From Informing To Engaging: What Users of CGIAR Research Information Are Asking

Ask A Question Dialogue Box

As you know, the CGIAR Research Map (http://ongoing-research.cgiar.org/) provides information about research projects that are carried out by the 15 CGIAR Centers in order to enhance information and knowledge sharing while significantly reducing the time taken to search for project information across the various Centers.

Through the ‘Ask a Question’ dialogue box found at the bottom of each project fact sheet in the Research Map, the Map has moved beyond informing users of agriculture information of what is happening ‘where, when and with whom’ to engaging them.  Users can send messages to project scientists and make comments about the research projects through this dialogue box.

This new feature in the Research Map, designed to increase the level of interaction and collaboration among users of agriculture information has seen over 50 inquiries being sent to various projects. From technical support, project reports, internship opportunities for students, various scientists details requests to conversations leading to developing new partnerships, the ‘Ask a Question’ box has vast advantages and shows the enthusiasm of CGIAR scientists to share their information and knowledge, collaborate and even learn from others partners.

Below are some of the inquiries and the various responses by the scientists

Project Title:Promotion of Exports of Organic Bananas in Ethiopia and Sudan (Bioversity) 
Qn: We are a tissue culture firm based in India, and have been approached several times from private buyers in Sudan for tissue culture banana varieties of elite clones such as Grand Naine and Robista. We would like information on the banana market, import regulation and the growers in Sudan. Is it possible for CGIAR to share information with us?

Ans: The project in Sudan is being implemented with the Horticulture Sector Administration of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Khartoum and I am copying this reply to the National Project Manager, Dr. Salah Bakhiet (salba54@yahoo.com). Please follow up with him for more specific information, but I can inform you that this project has previously purchased tissue culture plants from Du Roi in South Africa and the import process is relatively straightforward. The local market is dominated by Dwarf Cavendish, produced on relatively small holdings, by traditional means, but there are a number of investors interested in expanding banana plantations for export, so I think there is growing demand for good quality planting material. I understand that there are also some start-up tissue culture labs in the country looking to produce seedlings; it is possible that they would be interested in collaborating with you.

Michael Bolton (m.bolton@cgiar.org)

Frequently Asked Questions on Food-Feed Crops

Collective Action supported a Food-Feed Crops in Eastern and Southern Africa proposal development workshop held on the 24-25 of February. This workshop was attended by various scientists from different CGIAR Centers including: CIP, ICRISAT, ILRI, CIMMYT who shared their interest, experiences and perspective in food-feed crop.

The below Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) gives an overview on these important crops.

1. What are food-feed crops?
Food-feed crops are crops that provide grain for human nutrition and fodder for livestock from the crop residues such as the straws, stover and haulms. A name often used synonymously is dual-purpose crops.

2. What is the importance of the crops in agriculture?
Food-feed/dual purpose crops play a key role in small holder crop-livestock systems since they provide food for humans and fodder for livestock at the same time. So no additional land and water are required for fodder production since these needed to be allocated anyhow for the primary product, the grains. Food-feed/dual purpose crops are therefore highly resource use efficient. Crop residues provide the major feed resources for small holders.

3. Who can grow these crops?
Essentially every farmer but they are particularly important for resource poor small holders

4. Who are the potential beneficiaries of these crops?
Basically everybody starting from the farmer and livestock producer to fodder traders and feed processors

5. Examples of food-feed crops?
Maize, rice, wheat, sorghum, millets, groundnut, cowpea etc.

6. Where can I find more information and research about food-feed crops?
For more information on food-feed crops and the workshop as well, contact Michael Blummel (m.blummel@CGIAR.ORG) a scientist at ILRI.

A food-feed crops search in Ongoing Research, the CGIAR Research Map will list some of the projects working on this area of agriculture.

What Kind of CGIAR Research is in Northern Africa?

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, ICARDA recently updated the Research Map with 52 research projects in the Ongoing Research. ICARDA is one of the 15 CG Centers whose main areas of research is North Africa (CWANA) region, with research in countries like Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco as well as areas in Central and West Asia including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and others.

ICARDA has a global mandate for the improvement of barley, lentil and faba bean and serves the non-tropical dry areas for the improvement of on-farm water-use efficiency, rangeland and small-ruminant production (http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/Mission.htm).

Among the research areas that the projects work in include, Agrobiodivesity, Water Management, Policy & Institutions, Crops, Climate Change and others. Search projects by ICARDA from the custom map below to find out more information about this Centers work and also what other CGIAR Centers are doing in similar regions in the Ongoing Research.

Agriculture and Rural Development Day at the Cancún Climate Change Conference

Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was held for the second time during the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which took place earlier this month at Cancún, Mexico. The day-long event, which drew hundreds of participants including policy makers, farmers, scientists and journalists, aimed to put agriculture on this year’s climate change agenda. In her opening speech, Inger Andersen, CGIAR Fund Council Chair and Vice President of Sustainable development, World Bank talked about the intersection of agricultural development, food security and climate. She proposed agriculture as a solution that was a triple win of increased food security, resilience and reduction of emissions. The success of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in promoting the spread of Evergreen Agriculture in Africa was cited as an example of a climate-smart agricultural technique that can both increase crop yields and help to reduce carbon emissions.

In support of such initiatives, the organizers of ARDD 2010 called for much more local action to help the rural poor adapt to climate change impacts and the use of climate finance to realize agriculture’s substantial potential for capturing carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In presenting the official summary of the day, Lindiwe Sibanda, Chief Executive Officer of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network, appealed to climate change negotiators to recognize explicitly the critical links between agriculture and forestry and to create an agricultural work program under the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) as a first step toward meaningful inclusion of food security in any post-2012 agreement.

By the end of COP16, the collective push for including agriculture in a climate change deal had achieved small but important successes. The Cancún Agreements recognize agriculture and food security as areas deserving priority consideration in a footnote to the ‘Outcome of the Work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention’. Unfortunately there was no decision on a work program on agriculture on the SBSTA, proving correct fears that it would be held hostage by the uncertain state of broader negotiations and by a number of small technicalities at the 11th hour.
The Cancún Agreements did, however, call for a SBSTA work program on REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) that addresses drivers and methodologies, as well as exploration of REDD+ financing options under the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action. The links between agriculture and deforestation are such that this decision ensures some support for continued work on agriculture in the climate change context. Indeed, participants at Forest Day 4 (FD4), proposed several options to increase agricultural intensification whilst reducing net annual rates of deforestation including: increasing production efficiencies; promoting multifunctional landscapes; directing REDD+ financing to increase efficiencies in agronomic practices; and shifting extensive production systems to low carbon landscapes.

The thorny issue of agricultural intensification and its effect on deforestation was addressed at an official COP16 side event held jointly by the organizers of ARDD 2010 together with those of FD4. It was concluded that efforts to produce more food from less land must form part of an integrated package of interventions (including practices such as conservation agriculture, agroforestry and integrated pest management) aimed at achieving multiple benefits in rural landscapes. To pursue such an approach in spirit and in practice, it was suggested that the forestry and agriculture sectors should perhaps organize a ‘Landscape Weekend’ rather than two separate events at COP17 in South Africa.

For more details of ARDD 2010, see http://www.agricultureday.org/

For more details of Forest Day 4, see http://www.forestsclimatechange.org

For details of the first Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD 2009) held at COP15, see http://bit.ly/hAon9J

Rwanda launches Irrigation Master Plan – September Collective Action News

Rwanda’s economy mainly depends on the agricultural sector, particularly food crop production. Poverty reduction therefore largely depends on efforts made on the modernisation of this sector.

Although Rwanda possesses considerable water resources, they are not evenly distributed. For example, while water is abundant in the marshlands, facilities for storing it elsewhere for irrigation purposes are lacking. Farming during dry seasons is thus limited in most parts of Rwanda. Agriculture and livestock in the eastern parts of Rwanda, where rainfall is lowest, are especially affected. This situation created a need for a full, efficient and sustainable exploitation of water resources that can help to ensure the sustainable production of food, cash, export and industrial crops.

One of the best options of achieving food security and improving people’s living conditions is through the use of modern irrigation technologies. It is from this recognition that the government of Rwanda commissioned Ebony Enterprises Limited, an Israeli firm, for the development of an Irrigation Master Plan (IMP) to facilitate the management of water resources, promote irrigation and improve food security. Ebony subsequently partnered with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) to undertake this task in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) and Rwanda Agricultural Development Authority (RADA). The aim of Rwanda’s IMP is to develop and manage water resources to promote intensive and sustainable irrigated agriculture and improve food security in Rwanda. Specifically, the objective of the IMP is to provide Rwanda with a planning tool for rational exploitation of its soil and water resources as represented by the respective domains (see Figure 1) at both national and district levels. This tool is intended to lead to an increase in crop production for local consumption, as well as to promote production of high-value crops.

In order to produce the IMP, ICRAF developed a flow chart matrix that identifies potential irrigation areas and water sources by mapping biophysical and socioeconomic parameters. Details of this work are provided in the IMP document which was launched on the 17th September 2010 in a ceremony graced by the Right Honourable Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda and the Honourable Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes Kalibata. In her remarks, Hon. Kalibata, commended ICRAF and Ebony for a job well done. A number of organizations from diplomatic missions, international research institutions, local NGOs and the community were represented during the launch of the IMP.

View full article

 

 

Developing Africa’s Agricultural Markets – June Collective Action News

In May 2009, 150 of the world’s leading market experts gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to consider how governments, donors and other stakeholders could improve Africa’s national and regional agricultural markets. Their goal was to identify and recommend priority actions for achieving more efficient and effective markets that would contribute to poverty reduction and economic development throughout the continent.

The Conference, organized by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, (AGRA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), comprised a wide range of representatives from the African agricultural value chain.

Participants considered interventions that have improved African markets as well as actions and policies that have undermined them. Overall, the experts concurred that no single institution or group of special interest stakeholders could resolve the array of problems afflicting Africa’s agricultural markets. Participants called for a range of efforts that would dramatically scale up proven interventions and test new ideas and approaches that would unleash the capacity of African agriculture to improve livelihoods and drive economic growth.

Among the many recommendations made for priority action was the need to encourage innovations that improve market efficiency and more fully integrate small-scale agro-entrepreneurs into marketing processes. Another recommendation was to support the provision of financial services to small-scale agro-enterprises and smallholder farmers – especially women – and the channeling of “smart subsidies” for farmers and small agro-businesses through private sector input suppliers in order to create market demand.

Download full article

Ongoing Research Map & the Cali, Columbia knowledge share fair May 2010

Huber 1991, notes that many organizations do not know what they know because they have weak systems for locating and distributing their knowledge.

The CGIAR is making great efforts to conquer this, one way is by the use of CGMap Ongoing Research in Africa, a map of projects being carried out by the CGIAR.
The map was selected as an entry for the Knowledge Share Fair in Cali that is currently taking place, one of the objectives of the share fair is to encourage sharing and learning from each others’ good practices.

In part, this is why this innovation was selected.

What knowledge sharing tools and methods did you use in your project or initiative, and how?

The system was upgraded from the initial desktop application to an interactive web database (February 2009), allowing for multiple users from across the globe to input and access research information.

The software used to design the Map (Linux, MySQL and Sympony) and agile software development allowed for iterative development to incorporate new changes coming from user feedbacks throughout the development phase while at the same time providing a cost efficient method. This choice of software also created a platform that allows for co-ownership of information among various information contributors where each was given rights to update, edit project information and invite other contributors. Further with the option for users to send messages to project scientists directly from the system, the door to online collaboration has been much widened.

Finally, newsletters, seminars, email messaging and social media tools like blogs were utilised to reach different audiences.

What were the main challenges and issues (what worked and what didn’t work) and how these were addressed? If you worked in collaboration with other organizations, please provide your reflections on this aspect as well.

Big numbers of disparate information management system in the CG with little or no integration between them resulted in centers working independently for a long time. Trying to build a system that can accommodate the varying differences and standardizing this information was the greatest challenge. By involving different key people and users in the centers in the development of the tool and distributing user roles, tremendous steps have been made to overcome this challenge.

Through collaboration with the ICT-KM Program of the CGIAR we have been able to apply the latest technology to build the system and apply a wide range of expertise support bringing in a rich and wide exchange of ideas which facilitated the speedy delivery of the system.

With the tremendous development and growth of ICTs and their use in knowledge sharing it is important that we have mechanisms that can be able to re-use this information, aggregate it and provide opportunities for synergy in agriculture development. As opposed to have 15 CGIAR websites providing similar information, Ongoing Research Map provides all this information in just one website  http:\\ongoing-research.cgiar.org

Highlights from GCARD – April CAN

“Millions of people around the world are enduring lives of hardship and misery today. We are collectively and personally responsible for this tragedy. I am personally ashamed…However, I believe that here at the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD), we have begun the process to put the structures, activities, and programs in place that will enable us to end poverty in this world.” These were the words of Dr. Monty Jones, 2004 World Food Prize Laureate and new Chair of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), during an emotional closing address of the first GCARD conference held in the last week of March 2010 in Montpellier, France.

GCARD is a biennial conference organized by GFAR in collaboration with the CGIAR to create a framework for global agricultural research to make development impact. In support of the on-going process of CGIAR reform, the recent GCARD meeting was also aimed at developing a new architecture for CGIAR centers to work interactively and integratively in partnerships with stakeholders in agricultural research. Participants included researchers, policymakers, farmers, donors, and members of civil society from every region of the world.

Under the CGIAR reform process, the ‘Strategic Results Framework’ (SRF) defines the CGIAR research outcomes and objectives, from which the Mega Programs are being developed. The Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) was enriched with ideas from GCARD participants on how best to undertake results-oriented research that will address major global challenges. These ideas will be used to inform the final version of the strategy and to shape the Mega Programs. Also discussed were themes which GFAR had earlier identified as crucial in the formation of architecture for agricultural research for development (AR4D). The need to revitalize and reform the way partnerships are managed at all levels was strongly emphasized. The inclusion of gender in all programmes was stressed as “non-negotiable.” There was also a strong call to strengthen the capacity for national agricultural research and AR4D. A bottom up approach to research that puts farmers and food providers at the center of agricultural research at the international, regional and national levels was also stressed.

Click on the image to access the full article

Regional partnerships to strengthen the seed industry

For this issue of Collective Action News, the spotlight is on Alliance for the Seed Industry in East and Southern Africa (ASIESA) initiative. While addressing the constraints to developing a vibrant commercial seed industry in East & South Africa, the initiative aims at improving the use of quality seed in the region.

The newsbytes, among others highlights the Global Futures project launch in Washington and you can now find an updated list of IWMI’s research projects (24) carried out in the region in CGMAP Ongoing Research in Africa.

Click on the newsletter to read the article

REGIONAL COLLECTIVE ACTION: ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

It has been three years since the establishment of Regional Collective Action in Eastern and Southern Africa, and in this issue of Collective Action News we look back at the achievements to date.

The goal of the Regional Collective Action program is to foster the emergence of a coordinated, cohesive program of agricultural research in Eastern and Southern Africa that produces clear economies of scale and scope at low transaction costs, to successfully address regional priorities. Collective Action involves a network, which includes the fifteen CGIAR Centers, sub-regional organizations, FARA, regional networks and voluntary partners (primarily from national agricultural institutes and universities) in order to add value to ongoing and future agricultural research in the region.

The two most visible outputs – the CGIAR Research Map for Africa and this newsletter – have been highly praised. The Research Map (http://ongoing-research.cgiar.org/) allows access to up-to-date information about the research projects undertaken by CGIAR centres throughout Africa. It is a collaboration between Collective Action, the ICT-KM Program of the CGIAR, CGIAR centres and over 250 scientists who have contributed their research information. . The newly released map gives users the unique opportunity to carry out a more specific and targeted query based on different key fields, link the data to project outputs and other relevant documents while allowing project managers to have complete ownership over their information.

Fifteen issues of Collective Action News (see all back issues here) have been published since 2008. The newsletter aims to alert agricultural researchers and professionals in Africa to the importance of collective action in research. It does so by highlighting successful cases of collective action, and has reported on collective research on food prices, crises response, urban farming and agricultural markets among other topics. It is distributed to an estimated 9,830 recipients including agricultural researchers in CGIAR centres, staff in partner organisations, donors, and government policy advisers.

In terms of collaborative research, the Collective Action program is expressed in four Flagship Programs, each coordinated by a CGIAR scientist, namely: (1) Integrated natural resources management (led by ICRAF); (2) Policies, institutions and information for achieving impact at scale (led by ILRI); (3) Conservation and enhancement of agricultural biodiversity for improved agricultural production (led by Bioversity); and (4) Improving impact of emergency response on agricultural livelihoods in highly stressed and unstable systems (led by ICRISAT). Recent reflections by Flagship Coordinators suggest there have been useful insights in engendering collective action through low key, low cost consultation processes, and that the use of the Flagships as platforms for consultation will continue to be especially important as the CGIAR goes through its process of change.

Click on the article to access the full news.

Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development – Nairobi

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and CGIAR Collective Action in East and Southern Africa, will  hold  a  Policy seminar on Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development on 27 January at ILRI Nairobi, Kenya.  The Key speaker will be David Spielman one of the authors of the study, and chief guest will be Carlos Sere.

Overview
Learning from successes in agricultural development is now more urgent than ever.  Progress in feeding the world’s billions has slowed, while the challenge of feeding its future millions remains enormous and is subject to new uncertainties in the global food and agricultural systems.

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, embarked on a project to identify and assess interventions in agricultural development that have substantially reduced hunger and poverty; to document evidence about where, when, and why these interventions succeeded; to learn about the key drivers and factors underlying success; and to share lessons to help inform better agricultural policy and investment decisions in the future.  Following a rigorous review process, the project ultimately identified 20 proven successes in agricultural development, several of which highlight policies, programs, and investments in sub-Saharan Africa.  This event will present what worked, why it worked, and what we can learn from these successes.

Click here for more on million fed.

Agriculture and Rural Development in the Copenhagen Climate Change Talks – December Collective Action News

The recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) held in Copenhagen from 7th to 18th December 2009 ended with much disappointment because it failed to produce a legally-binding agreement. However, it was not all bad news: as reported in this issue of Collective Action News, there were some noteworthy successes for agriculture and rural development, and for forestry.

One of the 12 points of the Copenhagen Accord calls for the immediate establishment of a mechanism to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries for reducing emissions and enhancing sequestration from forests in developing countries (REDD+ = Reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries). REDD+ was highlighted at Forest Day 3 in Copenhagen, an event hosted by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. Agriculture nearly made it into the REDD+ agenda (as so-called REDD++). As late as November, draft negotiating text still had reference to emissions in agricultural systems, but this text was removed in the final days. This situation gives us plenty of work in 2010
– demonstrating how a system of meeting emission targets in farming landscapes can work, and getting such systems into the agreement that may come at COP16, to be held in Mexico in November-December 2010.

Forestry was firmly on the agenda at COP13 in Bali two years ago. Not so for agriculture, which has been late coming into climate change negotiations. But at COP15, agriculture was given a major stimulus. The Copenhagen Accord endorses the decisions of the Ad hoc Working Group on Longterm Cooperative Action that opens the door for agriculture. The text on agriculture recognises the impact of climate change on food security, the need for adaptation and mitigation in agriculture, and requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (which provides advice to the UN Climate Change Conference on scientific, technological and methodological matters) to establish a programme of work on agriculture. The next year or two will see a flurry of activity on agriculture, to
bring it firmly into the negotiations.

Click on the article to download the full report.

Copenhagen climate change conference and Agriculture

Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2009 will be held on 12 December in Copenhagen, coinciding with the United Nations Climate Negotiations (UNFCCC COP-15). With a focus on “The road after Copenhagen: priority strategies and actions for ensuring food security and rural development in the face of climate change”, the event will bring together policy makers and negotiators, rural development practitioners, producers, civil society and the agricultural and climate change scientific community to highlight the importance of agriculture in climate change and to identify the ‘no-regret’ priorities for agriculture and food security where the world needs to take action.

Find out more about Agriculture and Rural Developments to be held on on Saturday, December 12, and Forest Day 3 which will take place on Sunday, December 13 in the CGIAR’s Rural Climate Exchange blog.

Disaster Risk Reduction: Addressing the longer term issues – October CAN

The Horn of Africa is currently dealing with the aftereffects of one of the worst droughts in a decade. Although the recent onset of the rains has brought respite to many parched areas, food security continues to deteriorate throughout the region. Worse, meteorologists predict a period of intense rainfall due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, which could trigger massive flooding in several countries before year-end. Analysts are concerned that heightened vulnerability levels in many drought-stricken communities will exacerbate the impact of flooding. In this issue of CAN, we report on the ways in which research by CGIAR centres – through Disaster Risk Reduction – is enhancing the ways in which relief and development agencies respond to natural hazards such as drought and floods.

In the Horn of Africa, more and more people are affected each time a drought occurs. Drought is becoming more frequent, allowing less time for recovery in between droughts, and increasing the vulnerability of local populations. Emergency food security interventions implemented in response to drought tend to involve the distribution of seed, water, fodder and veterinary inputs. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that, by the mid-1990s, more than US$10 million per year was being spent on procuring seed for emergency projects in the Greater Horn.

Click on the image to access full article.

Rising food prices in eastern and southern Africa revisited: Lifting trade barriers is still the answer

In the August issue of the Collective Action News, we revisit food price trends across eastern and southern Africa, a topic we focused on in our first issue, in July 2008, just after the global food price crisis had peaked. We also draw attention to policy responses to the food price crisis, and provide an outlook for food prices in ESA for the rest of 2009.

Although the Global Food Price Index (FPI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) fell between June 2008 and February 2009, global food prices have been rising slightly since then. Changes in the Global FPI were matched by a persistent increase in FPIs in countries belonging to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), except for Malawi and Comoros, which have experienced very volatile FPIs. On average, the prices of white maize, beans, milk, and non-tradable food items such as bananas, potatoes and yams all increased between January 2007 and January 2009.

White maize is the staple grain in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and some parts of Ethiopia. In Uganda, it is grown mainly as a commercial crop for export to the region. Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, and Tanzania have all seen substantial increases in maize prices from early 2007 – and there were no signs of decrease as of March 2009, apart for Zambia. The prices in these countries seem to be linked, perhaps due to cross-border trade and shortfalls of maize production within East Africa. For the season ending March 2009, maize supply in Kenya was constrained by reduced imports from Tanzania and Uganda during 2008/09 due to tightened markets in those countries as well as a trade ban in Tanzania – which led to prices almost 120% above normal. Similarly, from January 2007 to January 2009, bean prices have risen in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Tanzania…Read more

Priority actions on agricultural markets? Not easy at a market of ideas! – May Collective Action News

This month we bring you news from a major review of work on improving the functioning of agricultural markets in Africa.

Sponsored by AGRA – the Alliance for a green Revolution in Africa and organized on their behalf by the International Livestock Research Institute – the international conference showcased the incredible breadth and depth of what has been going on in the region. This presented a huge dilemma for us at Collective Action News – should we wait until the official proceedings of the Conference are published to report outcomes, or should we report what we had witnessed at the conference? We decided not to wait so that you, our readers, are made aware of what was on offer and can proactively engage with the organizers on any issues that interest you…Read more

Climate and agriculture in East Africa: The future is mixed – April Collective Action News

The April issue of Collective Action News, addresses climate change and its impacts on agriculture in East Africa. Our lead story–the work of Phil Thornton and co-workers – is part of a larger research project called the Climate – Land Interaction Project (CLIP). Linkages between land use/cover and climate change are being examined through various methods, and two-way interactions between land use and regional climate systems are being quantified at multiple scales in East Africa.

The issues newsbytes, all related to the topic of climate change and agriculture, feature work from no less than six Centres!

For more on this content go to;  http://www.ilri.org/regionalplan/documents/Collective Action News Issue 7. April 2009.pdf

Food price rises: Global smiles, regional frowns?

 

 

 

The March 2009 issue of Collective Action News revisits the issue of food price trends in the region and notes a divergence between global and regional trends.The authors in their latest report examine trends for a number of commodities, but maize is the one that currently provides the most clues for why regional prices appear to be only loosely coupled to global trends.

Even as the general trend is one of rising prices in the region, the charts show that there are considerable differences among countries. The observed pattern reinforces the earlier message that promoting regional trade and a better integrated regional market holds promise for addressing the food price crisis still stalking the region…Read more

The full report can be accessed at http://www.asareca.org/resources/reports/resp2food_pr_main.pdf or by contacting either j.karugia@cgiar.org or m.waithaka@asareca.org the lead authors of the report.

Research database for eastern and southern Africa

Getting an overview of the research that the 15 international agricultural research centres of the CGIAR are doing is now an interactive and easy process thank to the first ‘CGIAR research map’ which has been developed in collaboration with the ICT-KM’s CGMap project.

The map is one of the innovations that the Regional Plan is using to make research information publicly accessible to all CGIAR staff and other key stakeholders in the region in order to facilitate information sharing, promote partnership opportunities and collective action. The map seeks to answer the question: ‘who is doing what, with whom and where’ within the region.

Through this innovation one can access geographical overview of where research projects are carried out and related project information which includes project Partners, Medium Term Plans projects, main agricultural research areas and scientists contact details. In addition the map allows participating scientists to update their project information directly online and in real time.

The map can be accessed at;
http://ictkm.cgiar.org/cgmapTemplate/ESA_map.html

Connecting the dots: Online maps for improved access to information on agricultural research projects –
The main feature in February 2009 Collective Action News talks about the history and future developments of the map.

For more information email e.katingi@cgiar.org