September 2005

GFAR Secretariat News

Feature article

International Workshop on High Value Products

DURAS Competitive Grants: updates

• GPhI: report from Entebbe
  
  
• PROLINNOVA: report from Entebbe

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Feature article

North-South collaboration based on the Agricultural Research for Development agenda of Southern Regional Forums

Introduction

Food insecurity, poverty and natural resources degradation are three scourges that continue to plague developing countries, and which often seem intractable. The global community continues, however, to confront these problems, monitor progress made and set targets that need to be achieved in order to bring them under control.

With regards to overcoming food insecurity for example, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sponsored World Food Summit in 1996, and a further one five years later in 2002, set a goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by half, from the base line number of 800 million set in 1990-92, to 400 million by 2015. Although recent information from FAO (FAO, 2004: The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004) indicate that some 30 countries appear to be on track, in general the reduction by 2015 would only be about 25%, and the original target of a 50% reduction will not be met several decades later unless drastic steps are taken and the 'business as usual' approach is discarded. According to the same source, the number of hungry people in developing countries actually appears to have increased over the last 5 years, and it was only in Latin America and the Caribbean region that a modest reduction in the number of hungry people was observed. Table 1 on the incidence of under nourishment confirms this prediction and trend, showing that although the percentage of under-nourished people would have dropped to 11% from the original 17%, by 2015, some 610 million people will still be under nourished, that is about 50 % higher than the target of 419 million.

The poverty issue was addressed by the Millennium Development Goals to which the global community committed itself in 2000. The community collectively agreed to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (goal number 1), and set a target of halving between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day, a target that appears to be slipping away beyond reach, and which like food insecurity to which it is inextricably linked, will continue to plague us well beyond the 2015 deadline. The prediction is that the number of poor people will actually increase from the 240 million in 1990 to about 345 million in 2015.

With regards to natural resources degradation, the community committed itself to ensuring environmental sustainability, with a target of reversing environmental resources losses such as forest cover. Available evidence (Table 2) suggests that we are drifting away from achieving the target of increasing the proportion of land area covered by forests.

These negative trends have to be reversed, and we believe that scientific research in congruence with traditional knowledge can contribute significantly to their reversal.

Contribution of National Agricultural Research Systems

The primary responsibility of finding sustainable solutions to these problems through research is that of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of developing countries, albeit with support from developing countries in keeping with MDG goal number 8 of developing a global partnership for development. With the exception of a few NARS, such as those of Brazil, India and China, many others are not sufficiently endowed to tackle these complex issues alone, and necessarily have to team up with others to form a critical mass of researchers, hence the current grouping of NARS into sub-regional and regional fora, within which countries with similar ecosystems, socio-economic situations work together to tackle common problems.

Following this rational and within the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) context, NARS are now grouped into 5 Regional Forums (RF) (Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutes, Association of Research Institutions of Near East and North Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutes, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and Forum for Agricultural Research in Latin America and the Caribbean). Some of these RF like FARA are further sub-divided into sub-regional forums ( ASARECA, CORAF and SADC)

In 2001, the GFAR Secretariat and the Secretariat of the then Technical Advisory Committee of the CGIAR facilitated priority setting exercises in all of the five RF, so that problems common to many of the countries within each region could be identified and a limited number of them could be prioritized and addressed collectively, especially for those issues where the required skills and human resources are not available in any one particular country. The outputs of such joint research efforts could then be shared across and even beyond the regional fora.

The results of the 2001 priority setting exercises were widely disseminated and were used by other international organizations as the basis of collaborative efforts with the RF or its member countries. For example, a synthesis of the results was made available to the European Initiative on Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) as it prepared to respond to the calls for expression of interest for the European Commission 6th Framework Programme. Also, the CGIAR took cognisance of these priorities as it developed its own programme priorities.

Given the dynamic nature of the agricultural sector, the apparently intractable nature of the problems confronting it, and the emergence of new events and issues, RF periodically review these priorities. Examples of such new issues and events which have had some impact on the redefinition of priorities include: globalization and its market dimensions, recent progress in science and biotechnologies, the renewed focus on rural development and the need to provide policy and technical support to subsistence or family producers, the new agri-food research paradigm from the farm to the fork, and the sweeping information technology revolution.

The Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) recently carried out such an update and research priority gap analysis for the South and West Asia sub-region. Participants, who included representatives of GFAR stakeholders, examined emerging research priorities required in four agro-ecosystems: irrigated agro-ecological systems, rainfed including semi-arid and arid agro-ecosystems, mountain and hills and the coastal eco-region. Some new areas of research deserving additional emphasis identified were: agro-enterprise development with a focus on legumes, post harvest technology for value adding products; integrated watershed management, soil fertility and water quality. Policy and institutional reforms were also flagged for continued attention with a special emphasis on strategies to encourage higher investments in infrastructure, and enabling policies on marketing, credit and commodity pricing.

During the preparation of the FARA challenge programme, the RF undertook an extensive consultation of its stakeholders and a review of past priorities. New priorities emerged and were crystallized in the new Integrated Agricultural Research for Development paradigm which constituted the core of the challenge programme, and featured such new priorities as intensified subsistence farming systems, development of more efficient markets, improved management of soil, water and agro-biodiversity under the general theme of natural resources management.

Agricultural Research agenda of Regional Forums

On the basis of recent and on-going analyses of regional fora research priorities the thematic areas shown on Table 3 would appear to constitute the core of an agricultural research agenda of RF fora. In addition to the thematic areas shown on the table, all of the RF and their constituent NARS identified capacity building/development as an important pillar of their research agenda. Such capacity building efforts it was noted should target not only researchers and their institutions, but also other stakeholder groups within the fora, such as farmers and their organizations. This would ensure that partnerships and alliances among the various stakeholder groups within the fora, stand on solid grounds and are cost-efective.

Two examples of on-going initiatives that respond to these criteria and which involve all of the RF, the Global Post Havest Initiative (GPhI) and Global Regional Agricultural Information Systems (Global.RAIS) Initiative.

The Global Post Harvest Initiative
The post harvest sub-sector of the agricultural sector spans the continuum often referred to as the field to plate or farm to fork and covers an area of activity that goes beyond the traditional on farm activities occurring immediately after harvest such as crop grading, primary processing and storage, to include a long chain of other activities including secondary processing, packaging, transportation distribution into urban areas and local or international marketing. This offers a tremendous economic opportunity to farmers and other entrepreneurs including small and medium scale commercial concerns active in the sector. These opportunities have been further enhanced in recent time, thanks to a number emerging global trends such as urbanization, changing consumer demands, developments in information technologies, globalization, food safety and quality concerns of consumers. The same trends, however, also present challenges to these small and medium scale entrepreneurs in developing countries who are often unable to competitively meet emerging consumer needs even within their own local context because of their inability to meet quality, safety, volume and timeliness requirements of a demanding market. Many reasons account for this poor competitiveness including: a persistently high and unacceptable level of post harvest losses; limited or minimal value-adding activities; poor market organization and access; poor rural-urban infrastructure linkages; inadequate research and development support from both private and public sources; minimal access to timely and critical market information; inadequate policy support for an enabling environment.
In an effort to address these diverse post harvest issues and concerns, GFAR in collaboration with the Agricultural Support Systems Division (AGS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) embarked on the development of a Global Initiative on Post-Harvest Systems (GPhI) using a three-pronged approach:

• Regional consultations carried out in the five GFAR RF to assess the status of the Post-Harvest System in the various regions and to identify the main issues, concerns and priorities to be tackled.
• Preparation of a Strategic framework built on the outputs of the regional consultations and which comprise eight concept notes representing discrete topics or issues such as trade policies, development of tool kits for market oriented decision making, post harvest technology development, food quality and safety issues, and infrastructure investment, around which concrete activities could be built for implementation.
• Implementation involving groups of countries within RF working on any of the issues they thought most appropriate for their circumstances. We are now at the beginning of this phase starting with two regional fora, AARINENA and APAARI., and we invite European participation and support as through the EFARD mechanism.

Global.RAIS Initiative
The Global Alliance of the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (GLOBAL.RAIS) Initiative funded by the European Commission pursues the objective of contributing to the development of a knowledge management and information sharing capacity of NARS, through the development of Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS). The initiative started with regional consultations which included a diagnosis of the information communication services in the various regions (Table 4) and the development of regional strategies in the area of information communication management for ARD. The regional consultations were followed by an inter-regional workshop during which a Global Partnership Program on information communication management for ARD was developed. The RF are now in the process of developing discrete proposals within this overall programme framework to tackle some of the issues linked to the development of knowledge management and information sharing. Some of the expected outputs of the Global Partnership Program when fully implemented include:

• integration of and equitable access to national, regional and global agricultural information through the GLOBAL RAIS web-ring
• improved capacity of ICT managers and staff of National Agricultural Information and Regional Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS and RAIS).

We also invite participation in this initiative within the context of Europe-Southern Fora collaboration

Conclusion

These in a nutshell are exemples of the ARD agenda of Regional Fora, built on past and current priorities from which consensus has emerged around a number of major themes. We suggest that collaboration between Europe and Southern Forums be developed around programmes, projects and activities within the identified thematic areas, when there is a congruence between of concerns and priorities between the two parties. We invite you through the EFARD mechanism to work with and support the Southern Fora as they grapple with the many challenges confronting them.

[Text of a presentation made at the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD) 2005 Conference, 27-29 April 2005]

O.S.

GFAR Secretariat News

International Workshop on High Value Products for Smallholder Farmers

The Secretariat of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Secretariat of the Science Council of the Consultative Group on Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is convening an action-oriented International Workshop on 'How Can the Poor Benefit from the Growing Markets for High Value Agricultural Products?' that will be held in Cali, Colombia from 3 to 5 October 2005.

Globalization of markets for high value agricultural products such as fruit, flowers, vegetables, and specialty or boutique products is creating dynamic markets for competitive producers at national, regional and international levels. At the same time the area devoted to and price of staple commodities is steadily declining, especially among farmers whose production systems are only marginally competitive or that have been protected historically from international competition. Among the latter are millions of rural people who traditionally struggle to meet their subsistence food needs by growing staples, working off-farm as laborers and selling a small surplus to generate income to meet their basic needs for healthcare, education, clothing and shelter. In the absence of a major redistribution of land and capital to the poor, one of the major challenges for the millennium development goals is to provide the market linkages, technology, organization and know-how that will enable a decent proportion of poor producers to participate in dynamic markets for higher value crops and livestock products in rapidly growing urban centres. This concern may be especially important for poor rural women involved in producing, processing or trading high-value crops and related products.

The goal of the workshop is to define future research and research links to development outputs and outcomes for GFAR stakeholders, including the CGIAR centers and their associated R&D partners, as they relate to higher value crop, livestock, fish and forestry products. The starting point for focusing on these opportunities is a clear common understanding of the research for development issues, and their relative priority, together with a set of guidelines and principles for generating and sharing knowledge among many disparate research programs and development projects that could make up a critical mass of R&D capability and financing.

The Workshop preparation is being guided by a Steering Group made up of representatives from the GFAR and CGIAR SC Secretariats, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). The invited participants are drawn from a group of knowledgeable person in the area, who are renowned for their strategic thinking, gender perspective and/or field experience. They come from different backgrounds representing interested stakeholders along the supply chain related to the production, post-harvest handling, processing, wholesaling and retailing of high value products.

For more information about the workshop see egfar.org

R.B.

DURAS

12 Projects to receive DURAS funding

Twelve (12) projects were selected for funding under the DURAS Competitive Grants.

These were selected from the 24 full proposals reviewed by the DURAS Selection and Scientific Partnership Committee (CSPS) and the DURAS Steering Committee last 15-16 June 2005 in Grande Motte, France.

Of the 12 projects, two (2) will address the theme agro-biodiversity and genetic resources management for food security; four (4) will tackle local knowledge in natural resources management; three (3) will deal with agro-ecology and other sustainable farming practices; and another three (3) will address how to link farmers to market by supporting support to small and medium agro- enterprises (agri SMEs). Project implementation is expected to commence in September 2005. The award size varies from Euro 90,000 to Euro 150,000 over a period of two-years.

1. Caractérisation morphologique, zootechnique et génétique des populations locales de volailles de genre Gallus gallus dans les pays cotiers de l'Afrique occidentale (Université d'Abomey-Calavi - Bénin)
2. Un réseau régional de plateformes d'échanges pour améliorer l'identification des besoins des agriculteurs et la diffusion de nouvelles variétés de bananier plantain (CARBAP-Cameroon)
3. Farmer Access to Innovation Resources. Action Research on Innovation Support Fund (Farmer Support Group-S.Africa)
4. Innovations et savoirs paysans dans les pratiques de gestion des écosystèmes forestiers humides d'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre : diversification des systèmes d'exploitation associant cultures pérennes et vivrières (IRAD-Cameroun)
5. The implication of local knowledge in the increasing integration of animal husbandry in the farming systems of disadvantaged communities (National Institute of Soil and Fertilizer- Vietnam)
6. Valoriser les savoirs paysans sur l'intégration agriculture élevage pour une gestion durable des écosystèmes des savanes subhumides de l'Afrique (CIRDES-Burkina Faso)
7. Approche intégrative de la gestion des nematodes phytoparasites en systèmes maraîchers mediterraneens et sahéliens (Société MARISSA Groupe AZURA - Maroc)
8. Appropriation par les Organisations de Producteurs d'Afrique de l'Ouest de la technologie d'inoculation avec des microorganismes améliorant la production végétale (CLCOP de Keur Momar Sarr- Cambodia)
9. Linking farmers to markets through valorisation of local resources: the case for intellectual property rights of indigenous resources (University of Pretoria - S. Africa)
10. Improving the pig and pig meat marketing chain to enable small producers to serve consumer needs in Vietnam and Cambodia (Vietnam Agricultural Science Institute)
11. Poverty and Pace Setters (POPS). From sector support for farm products marketing to targeting entrepreneurs by building networks among poverty struck (Centre for Rural Economic Development Research-Vietnam)
12. Production de malts de sorgho ou de mil de qualité pour la production alimentaire artisanale ou semi-industrielle en Afrique de l'Ouest (CERNA-Burkina Faso)

The projects were selected on the basis of the following criteria: (a) over-all project design and feasibility; (b) appropriateness and innovativeness; (c) socio-economic consideration; (d) environmental and sustainability considerations; and (e) partnership quality.

DURAS is a GFAR-Agropolis project supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its Priority Solidarity Fund (PSF). It aims to contribute to strengthening the involvement and enhancing the scientific potential of southern stakeholders in agricultural research for sustainable development (ARSD). This three-year project covers 49 countries from Africa, Near East and some parts of Asia that are listed in France's Priority Solidarity Zone (PSZ).

Two Calls for Proposal were made under the DURAS Project. The first Call was launched in July 2004 while the second call was made in February 2005. A total of 129 pre-proposals were submitted for the 1st Call while 173 were submitted for the 2nd Call. These pre-proposals were reviewed by the DURAS Selection and Scientific Partnership Committee (CSPS) in December 2004 and March 2005, respectively.

A workshop that will bring together all the coordinators of the 12 selected projects will be held in October 2005 in Montpellier, France. This activity aims to facilitate interaction among all the project coordinators, to come up with and agree on a common project monitoring, reporting and evaluation (MRE) system; and to agree on a minimum set of progress and success indicators.

Oliver Oliveros
DURAS Project Coordinator

GPPs
Report from Entebbe

The Sub-Saharan Challenge Programme and the Global Post-harvest Initiative

GFAR, together with its partners in the Global Post Harvest Initiative (GPhI), PhAction and FAO, organised a pre-plenary session in the days preceding the FARA General Assembly, held in Entebbe, Uganda in June 2005. The workshop was attended by 45 participants representing a cross section of stakeholders. The main objective was to explore avenues for collaboration with the Sub-Saharan Challenge Programme (SSA-CP) that add value, avoid duplication and ensure mutual learning and sharing of experiences.

In the first part of the workshop Ralph Von Kaufmann, representing FARA, outlined the main characteristics of the SSA-CP, and Rupert Best from the GFAR Secretariat delivered a presentation on the GPhI. Their presentations was followed by a review of the Sub-Saharan priorities in the area of post harvest development by Andrew Temu from the Sokoine University in Tanzania. These priorities originally formed the basis of were first draft Strategic Framework for the GPhI. The objective was now to refine such priorities in a way to remain up to date with the latest opportunities and constraints that are affecting development in the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

In the second part of the session three presentations were made by representatives of farmers, NGOs and the research communities. It gave participants the possibility to listen to different experiences and expectations on post harvest, marketing and enterprise development. The participants were then asked to respond to some critical questions such as how the SSA-Challenge Program and the GPhI work can together, and what are the immediate next steps. Discussions went into a lively debate where participants actively contributed to draft concrete recommendations that were subsequently presented by Andrew Temu in the FARA General Assembly. These were:

• The Global Post-harvest Initiative mobilise the competencies, skills and experience of its partners to provide conceptual and technical support to the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme.
• The Sub-Saharan Challenge Programme benefit from the accumulated experience of the partners involved in Global Post-harvest Initiative in the implementation of such processes that go beyond the farm-gate and involve actors and service providers along the production to consumption chain.
• The Global Post-harvest Initiative designate a resource person to participate in the planning and process validation steps at the Sub-Saharan Challenge Programme's three Pilot Learning Sites, who can contribute to the development of a common cross-site framework and action plan for strategic R&D along the production to consumption continuum.

The session successfully revised, refined and endorsed the priorities for post-harvest development in sub-saharan Africa. The recommendations to the General Assembly were accepted and discussions are on the way on how to develop a strategy for stronger interaction between the GPhI and the SSA-CP.

Fore more information and a detailed report on the workshop please contact the GFAR Secretariat.

A.S.

GPPs
Report from Entebbe

PROLINNOVA Country Programme Coordinators share experiences and move towards the implementation of PM&E

The Global Partnership Programme PROLINNOVA (Promoting Local Innovation in Ecologically-Oriented Agriculture and Natural Resource Management) held its first annual meeting of Country Programme (CP) Coordinators in Entebbe, Uganda on 5-7 June 2005. The meeting coincided with the Third General Assembly of the Forum on Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

PROLINNOVA takes a participatory approach to designing a Global Partnership Programme (GPP) from the bottom up, through joint planning by multiple stakeholder groups in different countries, who then define what activities are required at international level. Central to PROLINNOVA is learning from its experiences in establishing partnerships in agricultural research and development (ARD) at all levels from the farmer-extension-research partnerships in Participatory Innovation Development (PID) at the grassroots level to national partnerships within the National Steering Committee of each CP.

The meeting was designed to accomplish several objectives, the most important among them being to harmonise approaches to Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E). PM&E is key to strengthening the partnerships within the programme and improve their functioning - as well as to improving how the GPP itself functions. This face-to-face encounter provided the opportunity for a more intensive PM&E process and for mutual learning about farmer innovation, PID, PM&E and facilitating multi-stakeholder processes. During the meeting and based on the establishment of the Vision and Mission of PROLINNOVA, a list of indicators was drawn up. Each CP will identify M&E focal points that will be tasked to discuss, through an electronic forum, the M&E procedures and refine the M&E framework. They will prioritise and select the indicators that are most appropriate from their country's perspective. The challenge will be for the CPs to create space and momentum for the M&E focal points to play their vital role.

Other important items discussed in the CP Coordinators' meeting included:

• The institutionalisation of participatory research in National Agricultural Research Institutes. The presentation by Ann Stroud, coordinator of the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) of the experience of AHI, with emphasis on two cases, Ethiopia and Uganda, illustrated the intensive nature of the change process that requires significant political will and support from management, as well as changes in the incentive structures for scientists, among other elements.
• Sharing experiences, using the World Café approach, around a number of important topics including: mutual support among countries, local innovation and its documentation, farmer mobilisation, mobilisation of other stakeholders, participatory programme management, etc.
• Linkages with the Participatory Research and Gender Analysis (PRGA) system-wide initiative of the CGIAR. Together with Hilary Sims Feldstein, the new facilitator of the Gender Working Group of the PRGA, initial ideas were developed for a) creating opportunities for people from both networks to meet and work together, b) examining how gender is incorporated into training of facilitators and c) using participatory video (PV) to promote local innovation by women.

Immediately before the meeting of CP coordinators, the co-Chairs of the PROLINNOVA Oversight Group (POG), a recently established body whose principal function is to provide overall guidance to PROLINNOVA on main issues and directions, and to develop programme strategy, policies and principles, held its second meeting. The purpose was to get to know the CP coordinators and gain a better understanding of how the PROLINNOVA programme is functioning and progressing.

The CP coordinators also used the opportunity to attend the FARA pre-plenary meeting of NGOs to set up a consortium on agricultural research for development. During the meeting PROLINNOVA shared its values on local innovation in the process of building the vision, mission and objectives of the consortium.

The Steering Committee of the PROLINNOVA-Uganda programme, which is coordinated by the Ugandan NGO Environmental Alert, located in Kampala hosted both the CP coordinators meeting and the POG meeting. The full report of the meeting can be accessed at www.prolinnova.net.

Ann Waters

GFAR Secretariat
c/o FAO, SDR, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39.06.5705.3413 Fax +39.06.5705.3898
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