Building seed business hubs around women and youth in Tanzania
Working with private seed companies, ICRISAT is helping integrate more women and youth into seed production enterprises in Tanzania. Recently we supported the efforts of the seed company Mbozi Highlands (MHEG), to enhance the production, promotion, marketing and adoption of new high-yielding varieties of groundnut and sorghum in the country. This was by designing and...
Special training sessions initiated for young women and hearing-impaired youth in Ghana
To unlock the potential of youth in agriculture, we need targeted, inclusive interventions that appeal to specific and diverse groups of youth, especially female and differently-abled youth. Towards this goal, customized training sessions for young women, and hearing-impaired youth from the Wa School for the Deaf were conducted in Ghana recently, focusing on behavior change...
Revival of groundnut production continues to change lives of smallholder farmers in northern Nigeria
In a remarkable turnaround, farmers in Northern Nigeria organized themselves into innovation platforms, and with support from the Tropical Legumes (TL) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, turned into successful groundnut seed producers in 2011. The impacts of those actions are felt even today, with farmers continuing to adopt improved variety seeds and good agronomic...
Legumes: a climate-smart option to address Africa’s dependence on costly food imports
Africa’s exposure to climate change, Covid-19 and volatile global commodity markets is increasing the risk of hunger and unrest. Can investments in the domestic production of food legumes like chickpea and soybean help? The economics of hunger and agriculture in Africa According to the United Nations, the Covid-19 pandemic has the potential to double (to...
African project highlights importance of legume crops on World Pulses Day
COULD legumes be the key to food production sustainability and climate change resilience? They consume less than half the non-renewable energy of traditional cereals, they can survive harsh conditions like drought and they improve soil health by fixing nitrogen. On this, World Pulses Day, February 10, Dr Christopher Ochieng Ojiewo, principal scientist at ICRISAT (International Crops...
Higher quality seeds can help beat Africa’s ‘hunger pandemic’
Vaccination efforts across the globe encourage hope of an imminent end to the COVID-19 health crisis. But the food security crisis that the pandemic has deepened cannot be alleviated quickly and will require lasting solutions. Well-adapted and nutrient dense crops like millet, sorghum, groundnut, chickpea, pigeonpea, cowpea and common bean, collectively called dryland cereals and legumes, are like a vaccine...
Cues to making crop improvement in Africa gender responsive
A cluster of activities are helping make The Accelerated Varietal Improvement and Seed Delivery of Legumes and Cereals in Africa (AVISA) Project’s crop improvement efforts gender-responsive. The activities include: Gender responsiveness in product profiling, Youth transitions in the drylands and Gender dynamics in seeds systems (G-SEED). Gender responsiveness in product profiling According to Dr Tawanda...
Breaking barriers to uptake of improved sorghum in Burkina Faso, one social media post at a time
A small number of farmers pioneering seed production of a novel sorghum variety in Burkina Faso are also breaking new ground on social media. Turning the spotlight on Soubatimi, the new sorghum variety, they have shown a way around one of the biggest roadblocks to Africa’s uptake of game-changing improved crops– unawareness. “Right from our...
Towards sustainable seed systems in eastern and southern Africa
The AVISA project has rolled out its seed systems strategy in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda with an aim to increase ESA’s varietal turnover rate and boost adoption of improved varieties. Digital seed roadmaps, increasing private seed sector and community seed producer participation, innovating digital tools and building business cases for the crops are part of...
Giving Africa’s new crop varieties a data boost digitally
To increase adoption of new improved varieties in Africa, a webinar was recently organized under the aegis of the AVISA project to familiarize seed system stakeholders with SEEDx, a mobile application developed by ICRISAT that facilitates data-driven decision making. Dr Chris Ojiewo, AVISA project Co-Principal Investigator, outlined SEEDx and informed that it allows real-time capturing...