Impact of the breakthrough pigeonpea genome mapping on poor farmers

The International Crops Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and several partners, including China’sBGI-Shenzhen, have mapped the genome of the pigeonpea. The pigeonpea, or toor dāl in India, is an important food for millions of small farmers in semi-arid regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Often dubbed “poor man’s meat,” pigeonpeas are high in protein and amino acids, and flourish in dry, hot regions. The new knowledge of its gene sequence will be used to breed more productive, disease- and drought-resistant varieties of pigeonpea. This video from ICRISAT elaborates on the breakthrough and some of its implications.

New Unit Plan for Sale

This unit plan includes two big books, a shape book, a pattern book, and a finger play poem with language and art activities. This unit is language based, and includes lesson on reading, writing, singing, fingerplays and art. There are basic vocabulary lessons for Fall, Thanksgiving, and colours. There’s 35 pages of instructions and blackline masters.

Click on the photo above, or click here to get your own copy.

Guidelines for Non State Actor participation in CAADP processes

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme’s Development Partners Task Team (CAADP DP TT) Non-state actors range from anyone from farmers, donors, consultants, NGOs and other groups taking action to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).  


The paper by Ian Randall, “Guidelines for Non State Actor participation in CAADP processes”  proposes structures and processes to ensure how non-state actors can participate and contribute fully in CAADP and the growth of African agriculture at the country, regional and continental level to boost participation from all parties involved in the process of agricultural improvement.


Another paper, “Creating Strong Stakeholder Engagement in Feed the Future: Suggested Strategy and Guidelines,”  highlights the need to engage civil society in all stakeholder dialogues, in order to enhance resource mobilization and the efficiency and effectiveness of all development outcomes.

Reference:

Guidelines for Non State Actor participation in CAADP processes (2011; 1.31MB) These guidelines are written for all stakeholders committed to building broad and effective coalitions to lead the transformation of African agriculture. This includes Non State Actors themselves, Government bodies, and Development Partners.

French version>>>
Recommended Interventions to boost Non State Actor participation CAADP processes (2011; 214KB) Companion Document to the Guidelines for Non State Actor participation in CAADP processes.
French version>>>
“Creating Strong Stakeholder Engagement in Feed the Future: Suggested Strategy and Guidelines,” 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This brief is in response to a State Department request for civil society input on methods and mechanisms for stronger stakeholder engagement in the Feed the Future Initiative. It is part of an ongoing exchange on Feed the Future (FtF) topics between the InterAction community and officials at the State Department and USAID


Related:

10th November 2011. A dialogue platform bringing together stakeholders involved in Kenyan Agriculture, mainly drawn from Non Governmental Organisations, Civil Societies and Private sector to engage Kenyan government develop and harmonise agricultural pilicies in Kenya.

In Remembrance...

Friday, November 11, is Remembrance Day here in Canada.  Like Vetran's Day, in the United States, it is a day to remember those who have fought for their country.  Poppies are the symbol of remembrance for many countries.

 

In our class we made two art projects this week.

Both of these ideas came from Gail, at That Artist Woman.  She is a Canadian, and an Art Teacher in a primary school.  Her work is fabulous.  She's so creative.  Click here to hop on over and check out her blog.

During World War I, a Canadian Soldier, and Doctor, named John McRae, wrote a poem about the devestation he was witnessing.  His poem, In Flander's Fields, has become an essential part of teaching about |Remembrance Day.  Children all over Canada memorize and recite it on the days leading up to November 11, every year.

When I saw this idea on Gail's blog, I knew I wanted to whip out the watercolours, but I decided to simplify it for my Grade 2's.  First the children watercoloured the field with green paint, and the sky with blue.  The children made the smaller crosses by drawing them and cutting them out, but they were having so much difficulty with this, that I altered the activity.  I cut out thin strips of white paper and had the children snip them to a long and a small length, and then glue them together like a cross.  

As a Teacher in the public school system, I am always a bit leery of crosses or other religious symbols in my lessons.  BUT, seeing as the poem specifically talks about the white crosses on Flander's Fields, I knew it would be OK in this context.

The 'poppies' were made with a punch - I need a better poppy shape for next year - and the title was one I made in MS Word, and copied on to yellow paper.  The children cut them out and glued them on. 

Next we made these large poppies.  The background is a mixed media collage.  The children 'painted' on some white glue and attached ripped pieces of black paper and newspaper.  When the paper was covered, they then painted over the entire thing with white glue again.  When it dried it had a nice shiny texture with no loose ends.

The poppies themselves are about 7 inches across.  I made some tracers for them when I used to teach kindergarten, many, many years ago.  I decided that the Grade 2's could use a bit more of a challenge than simply tracing and cutting.  So first they sponged over a 8 x 8 piece of purple construction paper.  They used mostly red, with a bit of white.  I love how this gives texture to their work.

When it was all dried, the added the title in the same manner as the Flander's Fields activity.

When it was all done, I hung them out in the hallway. 

I'm so proud of them, they did a great job don't you think??

Video-mediated farmer-to-farmer learning for sustainable agriculture

From June to September 2011, Agro-Insight conducted a scoping study for SDC, GFRAS and SAI Platform on the production, dissemination and use of farmer training videos in developing countries, with a focus on sustainable agriculture. Literature was consulted, the internet screened, experts and users consulted and a global on-line survey launched in English, French and Spanish.

The survey was announced via various listservs, websites and blogs (Association for International Agricultural and Extension Education; CTA; eRAILS; PAEPARD; FARA-net; FFSNet; KIT; LinkedIn Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development; Prolinnova E-group; Swiss Forum for Rural Advisory Services; and various regional farmer platforms such as ROPPA, PROPAC, EAFF).

The on-line survey, with more than 500 respondents, indicated that research institutes, universities and NGOs are better linked to professional networks and hence more easily reached through the internet than extension services, radio stations and farmer organizations. Although feedback from the food industry was relatively low, most SAI Platform members were represented.

• There is a general consensus that farmers need good agricultural training videos, but they do not browse the web in search of them. For watching videos they rely mainly on outside agencies.
• Farmers would watch videos on their own with their family or neighbours if video disc distribution mechanisms were in place. And they are willing to pay for video discs and video shows.

Only about 20% of all respondents have never used video to train farmers and have never searched the web for agricultural videos. Many of those didn’t know where to look for videos, hadn’t found videos on the right subject or hadn’t found videos in their local language.

“I have viewed many agricultural videos in YouTube no doubt they were interesting. But I found that they were not relevant to the conditions of the farmers where I am involved in capacity building.” A. Thimmaiah, National Organic Program, Bhuta

About 85% of the respondents found local languages very important for farmer training videos. To ensure that videos are sharable and of use to the global community of extension service providers and farmers, producing many poor quality local language videos is not cost-effective. The zoomingin, zooming-out (ZIZO) approach shows how to make regionally relevant and locally appropriate videos. Organizations are willing to translate and use videos made in other countries if they are relevant and of good quality, and if video scripts are available. Lower quality videos serve intermediaries only and are rarely used to actually train farmers. The five priority areas for new video productions are: crops and trees, water management, plant health, soil health and farmer organizations.

The report compares the pros and cons of key models of farmer-to-farmer video production and dissemination, and discusses the implications for future capacity building and how each model could contribute content to a global web-based platform.

Most (82%) public and private service providers are keen on the idea of a new web-based platform devoted to agricultural training videos only. Many people opposed including advocacy and opinion sharing, but suggested a type of a discussion forum for users of the platform to exchange experiences on video production and use.

To reach farmers with agricultural videos, a new web-based platform is required, but not sufficient. Efforts to link people with different professional backgrounds and to establish regional and national communication, translation and video disc distribution mechanisms have to be established.

A new not-for-profit organization, called Access Agriculture, is proposed to facilitate content creation and sharing of agricultural training videos through its web-based platform and an evolving network of linkages and experts. Institutional set up and operational models for Access Agriculture have been discussed with SDC, GFRAS and SAI Platform, but are not included in this report.

Innovation with Impact: Financing 21st Century Development

4 November. Gates presented his “Innovation with Impact: Financing 21st Century Development” report (pdf) to world leaders in Cannes attending the G20, outlining the steps that should be taken to bring about a fairer, more equal planet.

Outlining the value of international aid, and the lives saved by advances in innovation, he said:

“In the past 50 years, a billion people were saved from starvation by advances in agriculture. Health has improved in stunning ways, thanks to innovations like vaccines. In 1960, 20 million children under the age of 5 died. In 2010, fewer than 8 million children under 5 died. The world population more than doubled during this time, which means the rate of death has been cut by over 80 percent.

“Aid generosity has played an important role in these successes.”

On the importance of aid and the need for governments to maintain Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in straitened times, he added:

“Times, some people will say rich countries should cut their ODA. They should not. Not only because they have made promises, but also because important pieces of the development agenda won’t be addressed without assistance. ODA spurs innovation by funding pilot projects that poor countries would not undertake themselves…

On innovation:

“Key innovations like new seeds and vaccines – and new ways to deliver them to the poorest – can multiply the impact of the resources we’re already devoting to development. We’ve made a big difference, but we can improve the basic tools of development by making them cheaper, easier to use, and more efficient – or by inventing wholly new tools.
“One of the newest resources for development – and potentially one of the most transformative – is rapidly growing countries’ capacity for innovation. Countries like Brazil, China, India, and Mexico are in a great position to work closely with poor countries because they have recent experience in reducing poverty, as well as enormous technical capabilities.”

The inspirational, life-saving examples of innovation and international cooperation cited by Gates in the field of agriculture include:

• A new variety of rice, specially bred to survive underwater, being grown by farmers in flood-prone areas of India where crops are regularly wiped out by standing water. In the next six years, up to 20 million farmers will plant the new varieties.
• Going back three decades, Brazil has been working with Japan to help poor farmers inMozambique grow soybeans.
• China has recently launched the “Green Super Rice” partnership, to help develop adapted varieties of rice with 15 poor countries in Africa and South Asia. Africa already accounts for approximately one-third of global rice imports and demand is growing – so helping African farmers increase rice production is critical for food security on the continent.

Gates concludes his report by saying:

“Scientific and technological innovations will allow us to solve problems that cause significant misery and hold societies back. A malaria vaccine, for example, would change the economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa. Better seeds for the crops that poor people rely on – cassava, maize, millet, rice, and sorghum – would feed billions, improve nutrition, and guarantee food security for the world.

“Another kind of innovation – a fundamental shift in the way we think about development – will provide amazing opportunities. It used to be that the world was, roughly speaking, one-third rich and two-thirds poor. Now, the absolute number and the proportion of dynamic, healthy, highly educated countries are much higher.

“That has been good for everybody, because it means a more prosperous and stable world. It also means that there are now more countries that have more to give to development. When I see the mix of countries around the G20 table, I am excited about our ability to capitalise on this… We can do much more to promote innovation for development.”

Tigray: Then and Now

1 nov 2011. Salim Amin, son of legendary Kenyan videographer Mo Amin, ventures to Tigray Ethiopia -- the place hardest hit by the 1984 famine; the place his dad captured his most iconic footage; and the place that has since been the site of smart, long term investments by governments, donors, and local communities. Drought is still a fact of life in Tigray - but famine is not. These programs have built resilience to drought and put communities on a path out of poverty. Salim meets locals who survived the 1984 drought, but are now successful farmers utilizing better techniques and infrastructure. Tigray is living proof of what long term agricultural programs can accomplish and show that famine does not have to be an inevitability.