Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EWA - BELT (Linking East and West African farming systems experience into a BELT of sustainable intensification)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-04-01 do 2023-09-30
African countries suffer from high levels of food and nutrition insecurity exacerbated by an increasing impact of climate change on agricultural production. The Sustainable Intensification (SI) approach offers practical ways to increase agricultural yield, while preserving natural resources (water, soil, biodiversity and land) and flow of ecosystem services. SI requires fitting interventions according to local needs and contexts. Based on these assumptions, EWA-BELT project aims at promoting food production systems through SI in representative small holder farming systems of different agro-climatic areas of East (Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) and West (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Sierra Leone) Africa and, consequently, to realize an interregional African “belt” able to promote SI by assessing and exchanging best practices and experiences among different contexts. Research activities on SI technologies are based on a multi stakeholder approach that foresees the direct involvement of farmers and other relevant actors at different levels along the value chain through Farmer Field Research Units.
Particularly, EWA-BELT addresses key environmental conditions and food security issues related to low crop yield, livestock feeding and welfare, soil fertility decline and erosion, land degradation and overgrazing, nutrient depletion, inadequate crop varieties adapted to changing environment, pre and post-harvest losses, over exploitation of natural resources, water quality, weak market linkage, weak link between research extension and farmers and gender issues. Moreover, the PLANTHEAD platform for remote diagnostic of crop pests and diseases and real time systems aiming at early diagnosis of pests and diseases during crop phases and post-harvest will be developed and tested in selected project case studies. Finally, SI indicators in different domains (productivity, social, economic, environmental, human) at different scales (field/animal herd, household/farm, farming system, landscape) will be used to assess the impact of implemented technological and management interventions. To maximize the impact, project results (in progress and final achievements) will be yearly disseminated during the “Infopoverty U.N. Conference”, one of the U.N. highest level initiatives conceived to elaborate strategies and design solutions towards SI.
Particularly, EWA-BELT addresses key environmental conditions and food security issues related to low crop yield, livestock feeding and welfare, soil fertility decline and erosion, land degradation and overgrazing, nutrient depletion, inadequate crop varieties adapted to changing environment, pre and post-harvest losses, over exploitation of natural resources, water quality, weak market linkage, weak link between research extension and farmers and gender issues. Moreover, the PLANTHEAD platform for remote diagnostic of crop pests and diseases and real time systems aiming at early diagnosis of pests and diseases during crop phases and post-harvest will be developed and tested in selected project case studies. Finally, SI indicators in different domains (productivity, social, economic, environmental, human) at different scales (field/animal herd, household/farm, farming system, landscape) will be used to assess the impact of implemented technological and management interventions. To maximize the impact, project results (in progress and final achievements) will be yearly disseminated during the “Infopoverty U.N. Conference”, one of the U.N. highest level initiatives conceived to elaborate strategies and design solutions towards SI.
24 Farmer Field Research Units (FFRUs) were established and a characterization of the case studies in each African partner country was carried out. Experiments and field tests on SI technologies are ongoing in most of the case studies. Some preliminary results achieved so far include:
- Assessment of NUS (Neglected and Underutilized Species): 13 NUS landraces that are drought and/or pest resistant or suitable for traditional culinary practices have been selected through surveys and field evaluations. In some cases, the study also includes the investigation of agronomic characteristics, nutritional profiles and biochemical components of NUS.
- Assessment of marginal lands: selected abandoned lands were mapped and soil fertility evaluation has been carried out in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. Land recovery experiments using different crop species are being conducted in Tanzania.
-Sustainable soil management practices: the most advanced soil fertility management experiments are those based on testing inorganic fertilizer with different combination of organic fertilizers. Preliminary results from all case studies show increases of between 30 and 40% in the yields of target crops such as maize, fonio, groundnut and various short crops.
- Sustainable water management practices: data collection is ongoing in three study areas in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania where high spatial and temporal resolution water content and climate monitoring have been installed to assess the impact of water harvesting techniques on soil water dynamics. Crop productivity data is also being collected.
- Agri-livestock Integration: the research aims at: (i) promoting the use of natural pastures for grazing animals; (ii) recycling crop residues (cottonseed cake and sorghum stalks) to feed draft animals; (iii) on-farm production of manure for crop fertilisation. Impacts on crop productivity and animal growth parameters were measured. The group of animals receiving the proposed technology package showed no weight loss after 60 days of the feeding trial and an overall gain of about +11% compared to the control group.
- Traditional and Innovative Technologies for Integrated pest management in pre and post-harvest phases: traditional control methods, biopesticides and repellent plants have proven effective in controlling pests and diseases. Biopesticides such as neem oil extract and Cassia nigricans extract have shown promising results in Burkina Faso and Ghana, increasing yields of crops such as maize and cowpea. Mixtures of plant extracts (e.g. a mixture of pepper, Tephrosia vogelii and neem plants in Tanzania against various pests of lablab and cowpea) showed good efficacy, although sometimes lower than synthetic pesticides.
The lab phase of experiments involving food-grade preservative bags with slow-release sulphur dioxide has been completed and is being upscaled for further data collection in selected African partners.
Aflasafe trials in Ghana and Kenya have resulted in low contamination for crops like groundnut, finger millet, sorghum, and maize.
ICT technologies like the Planthead platform and Q3-Plus V2 portable platform have been designed for crop pest and pathogen detection. The Planthead platform has been improved for user-friendliness and automation, streamlining diagnosis and prognosis processes for farmers. A dataset of 3'000 photos of disease symptoms from six key crops has been developed.
The Q3-PlusV2 portable qPCR platform is fully operational. Efficient DNA extraction protocols for maize and groundnuts requiring minimal equipment and time has been developed.
A set of indicators has been identified to assess the different areas of Sustainable Intensification. The economic and environmental viability of organic fertiliser for sustainable maize production and the study of the fonio value chain in Ghana have been carried out.
The project website and social media channels are regularly updated. International and regional events to promote the dissemination of results and facilitate the exchange of practices between East and West Africa and Europe have been organized. Three Info Poverty Conferences dedicated to the project were held at the UN, while synergies with other Horizon projects working on similar topics were established and a joint YouTube channel was launched.
- Assessment of NUS (Neglected and Underutilized Species): 13 NUS landraces that are drought and/or pest resistant or suitable for traditional culinary practices have been selected through surveys and field evaluations. In some cases, the study also includes the investigation of agronomic characteristics, nutritional profiles and biochemical components of NUS.
- Assessment of marginal lands: selected abandoned lands were mapped and soil fertility evaluation has been carried out in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. Land recovery experiments using different crop species are being conducted in Tanzania.
-Sustainable soil management practices: the most advanced soil fertility management experiments are those based on testing inorganic fertilizer with different combination of organic fertilizers. Preliminary results from all case studies show increases of between 30 and 40% in the yields of target crops such as maize, fonio, groundnut and various short crops.
- Sustainable water management practices: data collection is ongoing in three study areas in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania where high spatial and temporal resolution water content and climate monitoring have been installed to assess the impact of water harvesting techniques on soil water dynamics. Crop productivity data is also being collected.
- Agri-livestock Integration: the research aims at: (i) promoting the use of natural pastures for grazing animals; (ii) recycling crop residues (cottonseed cake and sorghum stalks) to feed draft animals; (iii) on-farm production of manure for crop fertilisation. Impacts on crop productivity and animal growth parameters were measured. The group of animals receiving the proposed technology package showed no weight loss after 60 days of the feeding trial and an overall gain of about +11% compared to the control group.
- Traditional and Innovative Technologies for Integrated pest management in pre and post-harvest phases: traditional control methods, biopesticides and repellent plants have proven effective in controlling pests and diseases. Biopesticides such as neem oil extract and Cassia nigricans extract have shown promising results in Burkina Faso and Ghana, increasing yields of crops such as maize and cowpea. Mixtures of plant extracts (e.g. a mixture of pepper, Tephrosia vogelii and neem plants in Tanzania against various pests of lablab and cowpea) showed good efficacy, although sometimes lower than synthetic pesticides.
The lab phase of experiments involving food-grade preservative bags with slow-release sulphur dioxide has been completed and is being upscaled for further data collection in selected African partners.
Aflasafe trials in Ghana and Kenya have resulted in low contamination for crops like groundnut, finger millet, sorghum, and maize.
ICT technologies like the Planthead platform and Q3-Plus V2 portable platform have been designed for crop pest and pathogen detection. The Planthead platform has been improved for user-friendliness and automation, streamlining diagnosis and prognosis processes for farmers. A dataset of 3'000 photos of disease symptoms from six key crops has been developed.
The Q3-PlusV2 portable qPCR platform is fully operational. Efficient DNA extraction protocols for maize and groundnuts requiring minimal equipment and time has been developed.
A set of indicators has been identified to assess the different areas of Sustainable Intensification. The economic and environmental viability of organic fertiliser for sustainable maize production and the study of the fonio value chain in Ghana have been carried out.
The project website and social media channels are regularly updated. International and regional events to promote the dissemination of results and facilitate the exchange of practices between East and West Africa and Europe have been organized. Three Info Poverty Conferences dedicated to the project were held at the UN, while synergies with other Horizon projects working on similar topics were established and a joint YouTube channel was launched.
Upon successful completion of the project, EWA-BELT intervention aims to achieve enhanced food system improvements and provide evidence of both traditional and technological packages towards SI, that embrace sustainable soil management, including water management techniques, agri- livestock integration, use of NUS, traditional and innovative technologies for integrated pest management. Through the direct involvement of farmers in the designing and testing of some of the technologies, their innovation capacity will be enhanced. If efficient, technologies can be scaled up at relatively low cost from project case studies to other regions and countries, thereby significantly impacting and changing the socioeconomics of the society.