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Mapping CRPs activities in
drylands: strengths, gaps
and opportunities
17 April 2015
CGIAR Consortium Office
Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
Introduction
This report provides a brief inventory of ongoing research activities in drylands across the
entire CGIAR Research Program (CRP) portfolio. Its aim is to help inform Fund Council
discussion on the future of the Dryland Systems (DS) CRP research activities. For this purpose,
key documents including CRP Extension Proposals for 2015-16, Annual Reports 2013 and
2014, and the CRPs Program of Work and Budget (POWB) for 2015, have been consulted and
reviewed. Changes in the leadership, governance and overall direction of the DS CRP since its
inception in 2012 have made the task more complex but key relevant observations emerge.
Specific details on the distribution of research activities relevant to drylands are set out in
Annex 1, where details for each CRP and its engagement either with DS CRP or drylands is
provided. A detailed description of gaps and opportunities is set out in Annex 2 and what
follows is a synopsis of the key findings.
Key findings
There are good examples of strong collaboration between DS and six CRPs: Dryland Cereals
(DC), Grain Legumes (GL), WHEAT, Livestock and Fish (L&F), Water Land and Ecosystems
(WLE) and Genebanks CRP.
These collaborations are built around the following two main thematic areas:
Genetic diversity, abiotic stresses and common research platforms
In drylands, four commodity CRPs: Dryland Cereals (DC), Grain legumes (GL), Livestock & Fish
(L&F) and WHEAT, are working on abiotic stress-related traits to improve crop tolerance to
drought, salinity, heat or low nutritional soils. For the Dryland Cereals (DC) CRP, drought
tolerance is a breeding priority for their four crops in the countries and regions targeted by
the Dryland Systems CRP. The Dryland Cereals CRP is also involved in integrated crop
management activities synergistically implemented with DS. The Livestock & Fish (L&F) CRP
has a major focus on feed and fodder demand in drylands. The Grain legumes (GL) CRP focuses
on allele deployment to discover breeding lines with high drought tolerance, better
nutritional quality and low or nil aflatoxin. Both GL and DC have established common research
platforms for grain legumes and barley in the largest dryland area in India where these crops
are used in rotation for sustainable Natural Resources Management. Based on an increased
demand for precision phenotyping, the WHEAT CRP is establishing evaluation platforms for
drought and/or heat tolerance in dryland-countries. In Morocco, one of these collaborative
platforms is being implemented between WHEAT, GL, DC, DS and CRP Genebanks, in order to
maximize efficiency and synergy in breeding-related activities. The new dryland-adapted
varieties will be scaled-up and out to similar agro-ecosystems through closer collaboration
with DS.
Integrated soil-water management practices
Addressing the resilience of dryland systems largely depends on soil health and watermanagement practices. DS is actively collaborating with CRP Water Land and Ecosystems
(WLE) on two of their Flagship Projects (FPs): FP1 on sustainable land and water management;
and FP2 on integrating ecosystem solutions into policy and investment.
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
Regarding water-management, synergistic efforts between DS, dryland-crop CRPs and WLE
are focused on micro-irrigation, micro-dosing of balanced fertilizers or rainwater catchmentbased systems (e.g. Khadins) to limit soil erosion, increase vegetation cover and improve
socio-economic conditions of desert dwellers.
Gaps and Opportunities
There is an opportunity to bring more clarity and strategic thinking to the development of a
coherent portfolio of activities in dryland areas under the overall umbrella of Dryland
Systems. The following opportunities have been identified:
a) Increasing synergy between CRPs to better co-ordinate system-based research
activities through the establishment of joint action sites and scaling up at regional level
(for example from Morocco to NAWA or from Ethiopia to ESA).
b) Enhanced research leadership and coherence for DS at the whole portfolio level;
convening workshops to draw together the different research components operating
across CRPs.
c) Improving multi-stress and multi-crops testing based on detailed catalogues on
varieties and ideotypes provided by commodity CRPs.
d) Improving seed quality delivery through collaboration between the commodity CRPs
and DS by targeting seed-quality production sites in dryland countries.
e) Addressing nutritional quality in integrated agro-ecosystems to allow the commodity
CRPs and the Agriculture for Nutrition & Health (A4NH) CRP to develop full system
packages for joint research with DS.
f) Enhancing connections between the Geospatial Science, Technology and Application
system (GeSTA) founded by DS and GIS tools managed by other CRPs with the aim of
implementing a joint decision tool to coordinate dryland research activities.
g) Improving DS’ knowledge of commodity CRPs value chains in order to work more
efficiently on value chains interaction and complementarity (rather than more
discrete and independent value chains activities).
h) More focus on systematic whole farm systems analyses (including bio-economic
modelling tools, total factor productivity, risk evaluation)
i) Engagement and introduction of new science particularly at the interface of
climate/water/soils and genetics.
j) Recognition that systems approaches are data intensive and that this will require new
collaborations and expertise.
Conclusions
1) Currently much of the work relevant to dryland areas occurs in six CRPs, in addition to
the Dryland Systems CRP, these are: Dryland Cereals, Grain Legumes, WHEAT, Livestock
& Fish, Water Land & Ecosystems and Genebanks CRP.
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
2) Opportunities exist for further collaboration in the following areas: development of
multi-purpose food and feed species for human and livestock consumption through
stronger collaboration between L&F and Agriculture for Nutrition & Health CRP (A4NH).
For mixed-cropping, more emphasis needs to be placed by DS on integrating
multipurpose woody perennials and fruit bearing plant species in dryland agroecosystems jointly with CRP Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA). Further work between
CRP Policy, Institutions and Markets (PIM) and DS should include joint development of
research methods and models, data sharing at policy, institution and market levels.
Furthermore, the expertise of the CRP Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security
(CCAFS) on vulnerability assessment and risk management will need to be integrated into
DS under climate‐change scenarios.
3) Operationally four CRPs DS, DC, GL – and part of L&F exhibit strong complementarity
and synergy with respect to: :
(i)
Embedding systems based approaches into commodity CRPs.
(ii)
Identify joint dryland sites for variety and agronomic management testing,
(iii)
Integrate legumes, livestock and fodder in low input systems
(iv)
Plan joint national and regional targeting for scaling-up outcomes adoption
These observations may be pertinent to CRP portfolio design
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
ANNEX 1: Provides a detailed account of CRPs research activities relevant to drylands
Dryland Cereals (DC)
Through its FP2 (Improved Varieties and Hybrids), DC and the UC Davis are targeting key traits
for Barley in dryland areas including drought tolerance, high productivity and disease
resistance. Supportive modern approaches are being developed with the USDA-ARS, North
Dakota on barley genomics research and possible applications with a world-leading brewing
industry and USAID on the development of malt barley. The main objective of this initiative is
to benefit small malt barley producers in key dryland-country targets (Ethiopia, India and
Morocco). Similarly, in ESA region, barley improved multiple-use hybrids and varieties with
resistance to Striga, midge, and drought will be advanced towards release. For Pearl millet,
diverse breeding populations will be established and/or improved for target ecologies in WCA
where conventional and molecular breeding technologies are combined for accelerating
genetic gain for grain yield, biomass, stover quality, Striga resistance, and tolerance to low
phosphorus and drought. For Sorghum, identification of diversified grain- and fodder-yielding
varieties and hybrid parents will continue for post-rainy sorghum, a crop that maintains stable
acreage and production in India. In addition to grain and fodder quality, breeding targets will
continue to include tolerance/resistance to shoot fly, stem borer, aphids, charcoal rot, and
drought.
DC FP3 (Integrated Crop Management) aims at implementing and assessing synergistic
activities with DS and L&F in dryland areas. Demand for feed and fodder is increasing growth
of barley, pearl millet and sorghum in several of the already mentioned targeted dryland
regions, necessitating more rigorous interactions and partnerships with both CRPs and the
feed sector.
Grain Legumes (GL)
GL FP3 (Trait deployment) focuses on allele deployment for discovering breeding lines with
high drought tolerance, better nutritional quality and low or nil aflatoxin. Drought and low-P
tolerant cowpea varieties have to be obtained and drought tolerant groundnut cultivars are
planned to be adopted for dryland areas in India, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali,
Niger, Senegal, Malawi, Uganda and Mozambique. Adoption of drought tolerant soybean
cultivars is expected to increase grain yield in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Nigeria. With
specific reference to India, the establishment of a common platform for both grain legumes
and barley at Bhopal is highly strategic, as the region is representative of both crop groups. In
addition, this area in the State of Madhya Pradesh is the largest dry land area for the
barley/legumes crop rotation and allows researching sustainable inter-cropping strategies.
Madhya Pradesh and the adjoining state of Rajasthan together have the largest dryland area
for barley in India, where legumes and barley are also used in rotation for sustainable NRM.
Based on a well-documented request from DC in agreement with ICARDA’s barley breeder,
the CO recommended last year a specific budget (150K) for setting up a breeding platform for
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
barley in India (Bhopal) where 278K were also allocated to Grain Legumes to support the CRPs
research and development activities on lentil and Kabuli Chickpea. The outputs of this
research platform (new dryland-adapted barley and legumes varieties) could be scaled-up
and out in a more systemic approach (e.g. shuttle breeding) to similar dryland agroecosystems in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan, probably improving a closer
collaboration with DS.
WHEAT
In the context of WHEAT FP3 (Global partnership to accelerate genetic gain in farmers field),
field-based precision phenotyping platforms for drought and/or heat tolerance will be
implemented in Morocco and Sudan (in 2015) and India, Pakistan and Turkey (in 2016). With
regard to the Turkey platform, investments include also winter wheat (IWWIP, a joint
enterprise between the Government of Turkey, CIMMYT and ICARDA) and rust-related R&D
at Izmir and Konia. ICARDA also decided to place its winter wheat breeder at its Ankara office
(instead of Uzbekistan), which is in the interests of consolidating IWWP‐related investments,
though this requires some field equipment for research stations close to Ankara. CIMMYT and
ICARDA, in close coordination with host country Turkey, will fully complement their winter
wheat-related investment plans. Moreover ICARDA decided to maintain some operations in
Sanliurfa with similar agro-ecology as Tel Hadya in Syria (for barley and wheat breeding) At
least 42 varieties from IWWIP been released in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
In Morocco, WHEAT and 3 other CRPs are currently functioning (Grain Legumes, Dryland
Cereals and Dryland Systems) and last year, in the context of the ICARDA’s Investment Plan
approved by the FC, the Directors of these CRPs and the CO concurred that a new single
integrated research platform focused on genotyping and molecular breeding capabilities
would be an excellent support for these programs and for the NARS partners as INRA
Morocco. Such a platform would have a higher performance level than the individual
equipment requests made by each Centre/CRP and would, at the same time, fulfil the
individual demands of each CRP. Therefore, last year the CO recommended funding such a
synergistic investment in equipment (800K) and an additional investment (828K) for a
genebank, assuming that the presence of 3 crop commodity programs would facilitate
synergies with this second genebank (in addition to the 782K for the first one in Lebanon).
Finally, it is hoped that the co-location of this genebank, the recently funded geno/phenotyping laboratories (Rabat) and the new precision phenotyping facilities planned to be
set up by WHEAT during its Extension Phase will create scientific synergies among the
commodity CRPs for developing and applying modern molecular breeding protocols and
approaches for specific dryland traits.
In Ethiopia, drylands offer a wide range of agro-ecologies including the arid, semi-arid and dry
sub-humid and cover about 75 percent of the total land mass. More than 10 CRPs are
operating in this country where WHEAT is planning to put in place (i) facilities for pathogen
detection and breeding, (ii) pathology greenhouses and (iii) a laboratory for Septoria
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
detection. In addition, Grain legumes and Dryland Cereals are respectively developing key
breeding activities on faba bean and local barley varieties.
These 3 countries will probably be key action sites for scaling-up and out key research for
development activities included in WHEAT FP4 (Sustainable intensification of wheat-based
cropping systems) in close collaboration with Dryland Systems. Challenges like “biomass &
system productivity reduction” or “increased competition for biomass and poor soil/water
management causing land degradation” could be tackled from Morocco to North Africa, from
Ethiopia to Eastern Africa and from Turkey to Central Asia / Caucasus. Unfortunately, Turkey
is not mentioned as targeted country in the DS POWB for 2015 and there is no budget
allocated for the previously mentioned research activities (see “Budget summary” page 8).
WHEAT FP4 is also about farmers closing the yield gap to contribute to regional food
availability and price stability. FP4 focuses on managing for profitability, inclusive growth, and
environmental quality. In dryland areas, WHEAT FP4 will work on innovation aiming at
reducing soil degradation in marginal wheat areas. Productivity and risk management options
will be tested with farmers, with emphasis on developing scalable knowledge products and
decision support systems, such as those linked to remote sensing and cell phone technologies.
L&F (Livestock & Fish)
L&F FP2 (Animal Genetics & Breeding) aims to select new species and breeds, and new traits
to be included in targeted programs to improve adaptability. This FP also assesses
dissemination, multiplication and delivery options for improved breeds, and assess on-farm
performance of improved breeds. For dryland areas L&F works actively on three key topics (i)
to implement systems, strategies, available genotypes and institutional arrangements for best
use of animal genetic resources (AnGR) in Tanzania, Senegal (Dairy), Ethiopia (chicken),
including the phenotypic and genetic characterization of heat tolerance and parasite
resistance in small ruminants, (ii) to report on the level of threat/risk to and trends of selected
indigenous breeds in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with case Study on use and implementation of
conservation and breeding policies in selected SSA countries, (iii) to develop and implement
small ruminant community-based breeding program in Ethiopia.
L&F FP3 on Feed and Forage aims to ensure that fish and livestock-owning smallholders can
access the feed and forages they need to support profitable and sustainable livestock and fish
production. Forage science and breeding programs have great potential to reduce
environmental costs through adaptation and selection to various stresses, including drought
and pests, while mitigating GHG.
WLE (Water Land and Ecosystems)
WLE FP2 (Sustainable land and water management for enhanced productivity or LWP) and
FP1 (Integrating Ecosystem Solutions into Policy and Investments or IES) focus on crop-soilwater management at the watershed-catchment level to enhance the productivity and
adaptability to environmental variability. Extensive soil mapping, balanced fertilizer
recommendations through micro-dosing or rainwater catchment-based systems
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
implementation (e.g. Khadins) will be important areas to collaborate with DS for soil
management, along with waste recycling (WLE FP3 on Resource Recovery and Reuse in
urbanizing ecosystems) and biomass generation.
RTB (Root, Tubers and Bananas)
RTB FP2 focuses on “Accelerating the Development and Selection of Cultivars with Higher,
More Stable Yield and Added Value”. In this FP, research activities in potato will include
phenotyping and selection methods for attributes contributing to complex traits - such as
drought tolerance. Potato breeding populations combining virus resistance, drought & heat
tolerance and early maturation for sub-tropical lowland and temperate ecologies will be
developed. In banana, genotypic differences in drought response will be evaluated and
characterized at physiological and molecular levels. For sweet potato, RTB is developing OFSP
breeding populations for drought prone areas in sub-Saharan Africa with emphasis on
Southern Africa.
RTB FP5 on “Developing tools for more productive, ecologically robust cropping systems”
includes a CoA for increasing productivity in RTB cropping systems through
nutrient/water/light management practices, part of this research focusing on drought
tolerance in RTB crops.
A4NH (Agriculture for Nutrition and Health)
A4NH is a valuable partner for health and nutrition research, for example in marginal and
intensifiable systems in Sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia.
CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security)
In areas where there is overlap of countries and research sites among CRPs, CCAFS is
committed to establishing joint impact pathways, as is currently happening in Burkina Faso
with FTA, WLE, GL and DS. In systems where drought and heat are increasing problems (i.e.
mostly in East and West Africa and South Asia), collaborations include the DS and MAIZE, as
well as particular partners dealing with such systems (e.g. crop and livestock insurance
industry players, and those dealing with early warning systems and social safety nets).
Dryland Systems (DS)
Based on recommendations from the Consortium Board, ISPC and Fund Council major
changes in the governance and management of the CRP are underway. These changes include
establishing an Independent Task Force whose main objective is to help improve the
performance of the program and support the development of a new CRP portfolio where the
interests of drylands are represented and advanced. The benefits of these changes together
with the appointment of a new Director are beginning to have a positive impact and are
reflected in the DS POWB 2015 where the “Options-by-context approach”, has been
described. This approach, by examining a range of context for a particular intervention
(technological, institutional, social or policy) in research sites, aims to extract principles for
achieving performance and impact at scale. The range of options includes: Soil and water
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
management, Agronomic practices, Diversification, Integrated Pest management, Storage,
Organizational models, Innovation platforms, Focus Identification of Germplasm Strategy
(FIGs). For context approaches: climate, soil type, farm resource endowment, market
integration, social & cultural households’ type, and governance will be considered.
Table 1: Relationship between agricultural livelihood systems, targeted regions and countries for DS
Ag. livelihood systems
Pastoral system
Agro-pastoral system
Intensive rain-fed
systems
Irrigated crop system
Tree-based system
Regions (*)
Targeted countries
ESA
WADS
NAWA
SA
WADS
NAWA
ESA
CA
NAWA
CA
SA
?
Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia
Nigeria & Niger
Tunisia, Algeria, Iran
Pakistan
Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali
Morocco
Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan
Egypt
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
India (3 regions)
?
Number
4
6
10
4
?
(*) ESA: East and Southern Africa; WADS: Wets Africa & Dry Savannas; NAWA: North Africa & West Asia; SA:
South Asia; CA: Central Asia
For operating in dryland areas, the DS planning process for 2015 retains the original 5 FPs that
were organized on a regional basis, namely WASDS (West Africa Sahel & Dry Savannahs),
NAWA (North Africa & West Asia), ESA (East & Southern Africa), CA (Central Asia) and South
Asia (SA). The Extension Proposal suggested a re-organization of these 5 FPs around a matrix
of [regions x major agricultural livelihood systems]: Pastoral systems, Agro-pastoral systems,
Intensive rain-fed systems, tree-based systems and Irrigated crop systems. Table 1 above is
based on DS POWB for 2015 and summarizes the relationship between agricultural livelihood
systems, targeted regions and countries for DS.
The “options-by-context approach” is proving to be an effective and comprehensive way of
analysing all the systems elements that need to be taken into account (constraints,
opportunities, as well as who/whom, where, what, how) in order to prioritize research
questions and identify relevant options for research-in-development interventions. For
Central Asia, key constraints and opportunities were mapped across five countries
(Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) in order to define spatial
clusters for the adoption of the best SLM options (around 50), as well as visually illustrate the
potential areas where these options can be scaled out. On the other hand, this mapping
exercise was used to identify strategic target areas to disseminate specific Sustainable Land
Management (SLM) packages throughout the region. A similar approach was applied by the
DS research teams in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Uzbekistan, Tunisia and India at farm
and landscape levels.
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
However, despite the apparent effectiveness of the “options-by-context approach”, because
of the rejection of the Extension Proposal 2015-16 and the re-organization of the Program
Management Unit, the DS CRP has reviewed its organizational structure and at its Research
management Committee (RMC) meeting suggested in Dec 2014 to arrange activities around
major challenges of drylands resulting in a new proposed “region x thematic matrix” with the
following 4 themes (or Flagships Projects?):
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Improving and stabilizing system productivity through diversification and intensification;
Optimizing economic, social and environmental co-benefits and trade-offs,
Improving water management and allocation;
Achieving land degradation neutrality.
These four themes - or coming FPs - will be underpinned by cross cutting activities that focus
on (i) gender and youth, (ii) knowledge synthesis & communications, (iii) capacity
development and (iv) institutions and governance. In addition there is an overarching flagship
that collates and synthesizes program level information on geoinformatics, metadata,
systems analyses and modelling. It is envisioned that these changes would be gradually
introduced during 2015/16 but are subject to change depending on the outcomes of the DS
Independent Task Force (see DS POWB 2015).
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
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Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
Annex 2: Gaps and potential opportunities in dryland R4D
Independent of the future structural organization of DS and the overall 2 nd CGIAR research
portfolio, several gaps and potential opportunities in dryland research for development are
highlighted below.
CRPs collaborating on dryland action sites
In a broader synergic approach for all commodity CRPs, the justification for increased
common investments in a country-specific platform (e.g. Morocco, Ethiopia and India) is on
implementing sustainable integrated farming systems involving several multi-stress resistant
crops, combining local and international scientific knowledge to focuse on interaction
between value chains to enhance farm productivity. In addition to genetic gain, farm and
research facilities for quality evaluation for feed and food - including end-use quality related
parameters, micro-nutrients and nutritional /health traits - have to be established across the
CRPs in a harmonised and shared effort, including A4NH.
CRPs collaborating on dryland R4D
Regarding the 3 system CRPs (DS, HT and AAS), they will need to work more collaboratively
on integrated systems research to (i) deal with major components within systems research in
agriculture, (ii) to learn from research undertakings on integrated systems, with an emphasis
on results: data, methods and lessons learned, (iii) to state explicitly the ‘burning’ scientific
questions that the research is designed to address and how each CRP will address them in a
structured and organized way.
Research strategy and activities in dryland areas need to convey strategic thinking and core
vision, defining key priorities, concrete objectives and targeted deliverables between the
different programs. The main risk is to report on the collaborations with most of the CRPs
with a large set of atomised research activities spread over far too many regions (5 regions),
countries (+than 25) and agricultural systems (5 systems) with no overall scientific or research
coherence, at the system CRP and whole portfolio level.
Finally, given the last W1/2 cuts, we expect a robust priority setting for dryland regions,
countries and agricultural systems within the selected FPs; that needs to be undertaken
explaining the mutual risk for the CRPs collaborating.
Multi-stress and multi-crops testing
The multi-stress and multi-crops testing approaches seem to be more specific approaches of
the dryland system program. In order to be more efficient, an increased harmonisation
between the commodity CRPs breeding programs focused on specific crops and traits and the
specific needs of combining different crops adapted to different stresses in dryland areas will
offer new opportunities to increase impact in dryland agro-ecosystems. An illustrative
example of that multi-stress and multi-crop approach is mentioned by DS in Central Asia
where salinity and weed tolerant cultivars of wheat, beans and pearl millet, together with
improved agronomic management practices, were disseminated to farmers.
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
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Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
In this context, more than 200 improved varieties of winter wheat were evaluated by on-farm
trials across different agro-ecological zones for tolerance to salinity and frost; 13 yellow rust
resistant winter wheat varieties were evaluated for yield performance; 12 clones of potato
evaluated on saline soil and under high summer temperature; 11 clones of potato and 10
chickpea varieties were evaluated under heat stress conditions, 4 varieties of mung bean were
evaluated on saline soil.
The introduction of already tested multi-resistant varieties in dryland agro-ecosystem will
improve the productivity, nutrition and health in the new targeted areas. In East, West, and
North Africa, several hundred on-farm trials are currently being monitored and evaluated by
DS where the focus is on the introduction of legume crops – predominantly managed by
women producers - into dryland farming system to provide more nutritious foods and
improve soil fertility, thus reducing negative impacts of intensification on soils.
An increased information and presentation of the commodity CRPs catalogue regarding their
different crops, ideotypes and improved varieties with the corresponding resistances and
agronomic quality traits, will be useful for breeders and developers working at the system
level, in order to select improved varieties and testing combinations for adopting, scaling-up
and out crops/varieties packages in new dryland environments.
Seed system improvement
As the quality of seed resources and their accessibility are frequently key constraints for
improving crop productivity in drylands, seed systems have to be improved. Farm areas for
producing improved-quality seeds preferred by farmers would need to be established in the
different targeted regions and countries (Table 1) as described in the MAIZE DTMA project to
produce Drought Tolerant Maize varieties for Africa (CIMMYT & IITA). In 2014 60,000t of
seeds (140 DTMA varieties) were produced by 7 selected African countries, benefiting about
2.9 million households or 20 million people from 13 African countries. Another interesting
approach is planned to be set up by DS in order to establish Village-Based Seed Enterprises
(VBSE) to integrate the community-based seed production system into inclusive food value
chains, offering agro-entrepreneurial opportunities to women across the target regions of
Dryland Systems.
Core research activities on improved seeds systems of individual centers/CRPs continue to
provide valuable inputs into integrated systems research, thereby extending the centers/
CRPs research scope from commodity to systems approach. For example, DC has designed a
specific FP4 exclusively focused on “Seed Systems & Input Services” and very well-defined in
several Cluster of Activities on a [crop x region] base as for CoA4.1 on Sorghum seed system
for West & Central Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria), CoA4.1 on Pearl-millet seed system for
WCA (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal), CoA4.3 on Sorghum seed system for East
& Central Africa (Ethiopia, Mozambique, Sudan, Tanzania), CoA4.on Finger millet for East and
Southern Africa (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda), CoA4.5 on Barley for Africa & Asia (Iran, India,
Ethiopia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Turkey) and CoA4.6 on for Pearl millet for East Africa
(Tanzania, Soudan) and South Asia (India).
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Geospatial information
Regarding geospatial information, the GeSTA (Geospatial Science, Technology and
Application) is a DS W1/2 project ($550K) for integrated agro-ecosystems research in dry
areas, cutting across FPs. In terms of expected research outputs, GeSTA could allow the fine
mapping of DS and collaborating CRPs’ activities on the ground, related data streamlining and
online visualization of program activities in the selected action sites. Efficiently shared with
other CRPs’ mapping tools, GeSTA will improve coordination between CGIAR research
programs in dry lands areas. In 2014, more than 1000 data sessions were recorded to the DS
component of ICARDA's Geo-informatics portal (open-access). Such approach will offer a
comprehensive characterization of past and expected climate change in different targeted
countries. The Climate Change and Drought Atlas for Jordan that was published this year
offers a set of 339 maps with a comprehensive characterization of recent and expected
climate changes in this country. This atlas helps increase the awareness of policy makers and
communities on climate change issues and innovative agricultural technologies that can
enable better adaptation of local dryland communities to climate change. Other simpler GISbased modelling tool as LEIS (Local Environment Information System) are used in Tunisia to
evaluate and assess desertification risk with the cooperation of the local actors; its simplicity
and acceptance are showing the potential of such tool for out-scaling.
For DC FP3 (Integrated Crop Management), CoA3.3 focuses on identifying location-specific
improved package of technologies and practices for sorghum in Ethiopia to achieve higher
productivity and higher returns on investment to the farmer. Through GIS and spatial
analytical methods, the major sorghum growing areas in the Oromia, Amhara and Tigray
Ethiopian regions will be divided into small homogenous units by overlaying layers of climate,
soil and water availability on population density and farm size. For each unit, climate, soil and
management data required to run crop simulation model will be compiled. Again, a better
complementarity with GeSTA is desirable.
MAIZE FP1 (Sustainable intensification of maize-based farming systems) is planning that
development partners will adopt strategic, scalable approaches based on farming systems
analytical frameworks at multiple spatial and temporal scales, with decision-support and
information systems - including GIS -to scale targeted options that increase system
performance and sustainability.
In RTB FP3 (Managing priority pests and diseases), new data from several sets of field
experiments of seed degeneration targeting different RTB crops will be used to model
degeneration and improve the precision of estimated parameters; predicting the rates of
degeneration in RTB varieties will be used to provide the basis for management performance
mapping and GIS-guided decision support information for farmers.
WLE FP 3 (Regenerating degraded agricultural ecosystems) aims to further develop and apply
methodologies for gendered landscape analysis, improve tools and increase capacity for
ecosystem services modelling and tradeoff analysis, introduce new economic analysis to
identify profitable and equitable opportunities and incentives for sustainable land
management, and use advanced GIS to characterize degradation in selected landscapes.
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
Advanced RS/GIS and LIBS (laser induced breakdowns spectroscopy) technology for land
assessment used to characterize degradation in selected landscapes in Latin America and
Africa. WLE FP4 will use RS/GIS (as many other tools) for recovering and reusing resources in
urbanized ecosystems. In addition, WLE FP5 (Managing Resource Variability and Competing
Use) also manage GIS for resource allocation and sharing of benefits for all.
Hopefully in the future, these geo-informatics spatial solutions will allow DS, other CRPs and
partners, to quantify the land use, land cover dynamics, land degradation pattern and
hotspots, and productivity of the croplands and grasslands in selected dry regions. The
integration of these data with efficient cross-CRP monitoring tools will improve the mapping,
follow-up and assessment of CRPs impacts on drylands.
Innovation platforms, increased knowledge on commodity CRPs value chains, their
interaction and complementary
For DC, FP5 focuses on “Post-harvest Value and Market Access” to create demand-driven
adoption. In this connection, value chain analysis could be performed collaboratively or in a
complementary approach with DS to provide knowledge of specific, high-potential dryland
cereals value chains that will give development partners the evidence required to design
interventions and advocate changes in policy. The ‘best-bet’ dryland cereals value chains that
have high growth potential and the potential to raise incomes for poorer smallholders, will
be identified. Leveraging the experience, networks and partners of the Agribusiness
Incubation Platform at ICRISAT, value-chain incubators will be piloted for dryland crops
(cereals, grain legumes) in one or more of the target regions. For example in Sorghum, the
pilot envisions strengthening and/or filling weak and missing links in dryland-cereal value
chains in the target regions. Important to note is the Sorghum Value Chain Development
Consortium in ESA that was launched in 2014 in collaboration with UniBRAIN (Universities,
Business & Research in Agricultural Innovation) and Pan Africa & Agroindustry Consortium.
This is led by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, in collaboration
with the ICRISAT Agri-Business Incubator.
For GL, FP4 addresses “Seed systems, post-harvest processing, markets and nutrition” and for
Pigeonpea, at least 2 post-harvest processing technologies will be available to stakeholders
for enhancing the value chain. In Morocco, a key gender research dimension is concerning
the role of women in food legume value chain.
MAIZE FP5 focuses on “Inclusive and profitable maize futures” including more specifically the
CoA 5.4 for “Harnessing smallholder market opportunities”. The maize value chain analysis
for Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa, will aim to conducted novel product
consumer acceptance studies and comparative assessment with existing products in the
dryland market.
WHEAT FP4 aims at tackling “Sustainable intensification of wheat-based cropping systems”
with precision agriculture and approaches to increase input use efficiency. FP4 is about
managing for profitability, inclusive growth, and environmental quality for poorer households
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
in systems where wheat is a major source of livelihood, next to other crops, livestock and offfarm work.
For L&F FP2 (Animal genetics and breeding) GIS approaches will be used prior to the release
of new tilapia strains for determining patterns dissemination (Philippines) and to assess the
geographic and social extent of dissemination in targeted value chains.
DS identified, verified and implemented areas of “best-bet” interventions for value chain
enhancement, such as small ruminant meat value chain assessment (VCA) at the field sites in
Central Asia. Furthermore, three Innovation Platforms (IPs) in Kano State have effectively
brought together relevant stakeholders involved in wheat production, processing and
marketing. DS organized village-based technical symposia to raise the awareness of farmers
and stakeholders participating at different Innovation Platforms sites. For instance,
participating centers in Nigeria carried out about 950 demonstrations in 438 villages in 73
local government areas in 16 states across the country. Their efforts were supported by
Nigeria’s funds for Groundnut and Sorghum Value Chains.
Whole farm systems analyses, ALS performance and diversification
The use of whole farm systems analyses including bio-economic modelling tools and total
factor productivity is now a major focus for DS in 2015. Assessing the effects of varietal
improvement on Agricultural Livelihood Systems (ALS) performance, rather than response
yields only, distinguishes the system CRPs from the commodity based CRPs. Here are
described three examples of diversification of ALS to highlight this key specific system
approach in dryland areas.
In Central Asia, DS focused on water use efficiency (WUE) and energy use efficiency (EUE) of
different integrated crop production system. Cultivation of mung beans after winter wheat
helped farmers capture the benefits of biological fixation of nitrogen, gain an additional 1.41.5 t/ha with a lower WUE and secure prices three to four times higher than wheat. In these
targeted dryland areas, the EUE of production systems that had integrated legumes will be
increased due to lower requirements for N fertilizers).
In Niger and Nigeria dual purpose crops - cereals, oilseed and legumes - were tested by DS for
integration in agro-pastoral systems. Residues of these multiple crops were used as fodder in
sheep fattening experiments. The use of trees for improving and buffering farm system
productivity in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger are being evaluated.
Analyses of crop-livestock systems in West Africa showed that crop residues are becoming a
major source of animal feed (e.g. 20 to 35% in many cases). Following these findings, on-farm
trials were undertaken by DS on the use of multi-purpose crops and post-harvest
mechanization aimed at improving use/reuse of resources and subsidiary links, which in turn
helped improve the systems productivity and resource use efficiency.
Integrated soil-water management practices
Integrated soil-water management practices have to be deployed for increasing resource use
efficiency and building natural resource capital. An excellent example of proven approach for
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Mapping CRPs activities in drylands: strengths, gaps and opportunities.
13th Fund Council Meeting
Bogor, Indonesia, 28 – 29 April 2015
improved water management in silvo-pastoral systems, is supported by integrating small
Khadin cropping systems. These systems are based on the principle of harvesting/catching
rainwater and subsequent use of water-saturated land for crop production. To predict
Khadins crop productivity on sustainable basis there is a need to involve several CRPs to
generate data on productivity in relation to rainfall, catchment area, ponding depth, status of
conserved moisture, and soil fertility for different crops (commodity, DS, WLE). Future
research will need to be carried out to develop short-duration varieties with commodity CRPs
breeding programs whose water requirement matches with the availability of conserved
moisture in khadins.
In South Asia, more than 750 on-farm trials on different crops for improved cultivars, balanced
nutrition and soil and water conservation were implemented and evaluated by DS. New
combinations of improved varieties and integrated soil nutrient management practices
increase crop yield from 10% to >150% depending on crops and site condition.
In India (Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer), DS is implementing improved management options
for sustainable intensification of common silvi-pasture systems in a participatory mode by
involving the village development committees and the livestock keepers. DS strategy focuses
on economically viable model targeting equitable governance structure, NRM and
productivity enhancing innovations in all three locations. The community was involved right
from the design stage of the project and the selection of promising grasses and multipurpose
trees was done through a participatory process.
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