Tanzania: regional official encourages more millet, sorghum farming; less maize

In any given year, there is going to be a serious shortage in several of the many countries for which maize is the main staple crop. The maize deficit merely seems to shift around from country to country or region to region depending on climate, environmental, political and economic factors.

Many coping strategies are being tried all across the continent. Research into varieties it is hoped will be more resilient against the growing climate and soil fertility challenges maize cultivation increasingly face. Even if successful, there is no way to predict to what extent this will contribute to a solution to the fact that the maize-growing environment of much of Africa is becoming unfavorable. The provision of fertilizer and other inputs is talked about endlessly, but delivery is something else and in any case. In any case, inputs are of little use where the rain is below the minimum required to make those inputs useful.

All the signs each year suggest that for many African countries, maize is becoming a dangerous crop on which to primarily depend for food security. Yet so entrenched has the maize mindset become that it is proving too much of a leap for many to start seriously looking at the need to change or at least modify diets to reduce the depressingly frequent specter of maize famines. There are also many influential interests whose interests are in one way or another tied up in maize deficits- traders in Africa and abroad, politicians, donors whose farmers benefit, the aid industry and many others. Maize famines mean good business for them.

But there are isolated voices increasingly heard that are suggesting that all the current maize measures are band-aids that do not address the basic problem that conditions in many parts of Africa no longer support its sustainable cultivation.

Writing in The Guardian newspaper, Lusekelo Philemon said the Regional Commissioner of Arusha in Tanzania, Magesa Mulongo, has urged farmers to adopt the farming of drought-tolerant millet and sorghum.

He said, “Sorghum varieties are very friendly in those areas which get little rainfall,” which is a description that characterizes more of Africa in general each year.

He urged farmers to refrain from traditional crops like maize, because of how they are ‘very sensitive to climatic variability.

Mulongo used the occasion of the commissioning of a private millet-milling plant to assure farmers that drought-tolerant ‘small grains’ like millet and sorghum not only made sense for food security in rain-challenged regions, but also had commercial markets.

“Some entrepreneurs are now trying to add value to agro-related crops like millet and sorghum, which for many years were not being regarded as cash crops,” Mulongo said.

African Agriculture

Project aims to commercialize millet, sorghum in Tanzania

by Zephania Ubwani

Arusha. A programme is underway to improve the cultivation of sorghum and millet to enable farmers to earn more harvests and incomes from the two crops. Through the programme, farmers will access quality seeds and be assisted to market their produce.

Ms Frida Mgonja, the project coordinator of Harnessing Opportunity for Productivity Enhancement (Hope) of Sorghum and Millet in sub-Saharan Africa, who is also a senior researcher with the Selian Agricultural Research Institute in Arusha, said it was vital for farmers to go beyond subsistence cultivation of sorghum and millet.

The Hope project took off in Tanzania in July 2009...Its implementation will cost $250,000. It is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the technical support of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

She said for the first time sorghum and millet farmers would be linked to potential markets of the two crops in and outside the country to enable them to get more benefits.

Unfortunately, according to Ms Mgonja, up to 90 per cent of finger millet produced in Tanzania is exported to Kenya for production of nutrient flours, which are then re-exported back into the country.

In Tanzania, it is estimated that about 700,000 hectares are under sorghum cultivation while millet fields cover about 440,000 hectares. Sorghum produced annually is estimated at 900,000 tonnes.

Most of the sorghum and millet produced in Tanzania is consumed by the producing households or sold primarily for production of traditional beer.

With maize becoming increasingly cheaper than sorghum in many local markets, the latter may be a good potential for expanding production in the view of price differences.

The Citizen

Kenya research institute to launch high-yielding finger millet

by James Karuga

The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) is conducting National Performance Trials (NPT) for the three, new, superior finger millet varieties, which researchers say will guarantee higher yields, tolerance to drought, striga weed and blast disease.


The new varieties...will initially be made available to seven largely finger millet growing regions in Western Kenya, which are currently growing indigenous varieties and improved variety which was released in the 1990s. The regions have a combined population of 2.8 million people living on millet farming.

Each of the seven regions yearly commits at least 1000 hectares to finger millet cultivation, though the Teso region commits more. Across the whole country, there are 65,000 hectares under finger millet cultivation.

But there are still shortages of the crop. Processing giants like Unga Kenya Limited are processing at 50 per cent below capacity due to the lack of raw material, and are also importing millet from Tanzania to compensate for the shortfall.

The indigenous varieties that most farmers are using yield between 500kg and 700kg per hectare, although with fertiliser optimum yields can reach 1600kg. The yield of the P224 hybrid variety released in the 1990s is higher, at up to 2500 kg per hectare, but only around 10,000 farmers are using it, as many peasant farmers do not know of it.

However, the new varieties will yield 1100kg to 2900kg per hectare and are also “drought escaping and mature early,” said Dr Oduori. From planting, these three varieties take 110 to 115 days to mature, while the conventional varieties take over 130 days. They also have better malting qualities and due to their higher nutritional value are ideal for making baby foods.

The seven regions lined up for the seed launch are Gucha, Busia, Kisii, Teso, Nyamira, Marakwet and Bungoma, which have at least 700ml of rainfall, which the crop needs to grow. However, the crop has “wide adaptability,” said Dr. Chrispus Oduori, KARI’s principal research officer. It can grow in hot Coastal regions as well as the highlands.

Finger millet delivers one annual harvest, with the planting season starting from the onset of the long rains in late February and harvesting in June to July.

The project’s managers also hope the finger millet project will offer a better alternative to maize. Finger millet has better postharvest storage traits than maize. Unlike maize, once stored it doesn’t need chemicals to ward off grain borers like weevils. Dried finger millet can also be stored for over 10 years, without spoiling or requiring preservative chemicals.

The stakeholders involved in the project are Masinde Muliro University, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Kenya Agricultural Commodities Exchange, which is training farmers in marketing techniques, and the Gene Bank of Kenya, which is storing the germplasm to use in improving the traits of the finger millet.

The finger millet project is funded by Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA while the McKnight Foundation has funded the technology dissemination.

Business Daily Africa

Nigerian project aims to boost sorghum and millet Production

by Isyaku Ahmed


ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) aims to improve yields of millet in northern Nigeria.

"Now, due to the introduction of new farming technology, I double what I use to get," explained farmer Ahmed Abubakar Maidu. "For example, this year I planted one and half acres only, but I have 30 bags of pearl millet, 15 bags of sesame and three bags of cowpea."

He said the harvested crops are split; some are used for home consumption and the rest are sold to earn cash for the family. The seeds are kept for the next farming season.

Maidu said ICRISAT and its partners have introduced him to new markets for his produce. He now sells his farm produce at Maigatari and Babura markets on the border of Niger, and to the agro-food processing campany in Kano, Dala Foods, Limited.

Bashir Alhaji Baba is market specialist at Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri, funded by the Nigerian government. He said to increase yield and income, farmers are introduced to new varieties of pearl surghum and millet.

Dr. Hakeem Ajeigbe is ICRISAT country representative and system agronomist working with the project. He said farmers are taught to use a technique called microdosing, or applying small amounts of fertilizer with the seed at planting time.

"Taking the [technique] of microdosing for surghum and millet…was developed elsewhere in [Niger] and other West Africa countries, but we have adopted it," he said.

Ajeigbe said farmers are also trained in improved management options and are linked to seed companies.

George Okwach is project manager specializing in sorghum and millet. He said the primary objective of the project is to improve yields for household consumption of up 40%. That’s good news to households in northern Nigeria, where millet is used for making a thick dough called“fura” and as an additive to fresh cow milk for the popular drink “fura da nunnu.” It is also used for making millet juice, or “kunnun zaki” and for preparing a custard-like food called “kwoko.”

The effort in northern Nigeria is part of an ICRISAT project called HOPE, or Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The four-year project, which is funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is providing support to 110,000 households in 10 countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

ICRISAT is a non-profit organization devoted to science-based agricultural development. It is one of 15 research institutes in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a network of centers funded by United Nations.

VOA

China's high-yielding hybrid millet does well in African trials

A new variety of China-bred hybrid millet has yielded bumper harvests on trial plantation in some African countries, with its output at least doubling that of local millet varieties.

The millet variety, dubbed ZHM, is the result of 30 years of research led by Chinese scientist Zhao Zhihai, who is lauded the "father of hybrid millet" in China.

Millet is the staple food for many African countries, and experts said that if the Chinese variety of millet is popularized on the continent, it could provide a credible solution to food shortages that have long been haunting African countries.

On the sidelines of China's ongoing parliamentary session, Zhao told Xinhua that his team would travel to several agricultural countries in Africa to promote the hybrid millet.

Zhao, a deputy of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, is a research fellow at an agricultural science institute located in Zhangjiakou city in north China's Hebei Province.

In 2007, his "Zhang Hybrid Millet" (ZHM) recorded an output of 810 kilograms per mu.

The next year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization introduced a pilot plantation of the ZHM to ten African countries including Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, and Senegal.

"Millet is staple food in many African countries. The success of the ZHM's pilot plantation promises good prospects for its mass production in Africa," said Zhang Zhongjun, assistant to the FAO representative to China.

Zhao's team plans to set up companies in the countries with successful pilot plantations of the millet variety. Once established, the companies will provide seeds and assistance to local farmers.

"Instead of a quadrupled grain output, just a doubled output could help solve the issue of hunger in Africa," said Zhao.

The ZHM has been planted in 4 million mus (266,666 hectares) of farmland in eleven provinces in China, increasing the output by 100 million kilograms.

Liu Jianjun, a member of Zhao's research team have been to Ethiopia twice since 2009 to assist ten pilot planting programs there.

"We helped some local farmers to grow the hybrid millet and promised to buy their harvests. But they refused to sell after harvests as they said the new millet tastes much better than their traditional millet, called teff," Liu told Xinhua.

The output of teff normally stands at 100 kg per mu, but the Chinese hybrid millet can yield between 200 kg to 350 Kg, he said.

The Ethiopia government has given green light to the plantation of the Chinese variety of millet in the country, he said.

"But the problem is if we breed the millet seeds in China and send to Africa, the cost will go up," he said, noting that the problem concerning intellectual property rights could be resolved through the coordination of the Chines government and the FAO.

According to him, Ethiopia has 150 million mus of crop land with about 40 million mus for teff and other similar crops. If half of the 40 million mus are planted with the Chinese hybrid millet, the country would harvest additional 3 billion kilograms of grain.

Hybrid millet seeds are drought-resistant, water-economic and high yielding. The advantages have become even more prominent against the backdrop of global warming and worsening drought, Zhao said.

"I hope we can help African countries to beat hunger with technologies that some African countries lack," said Zhao. (one hectare equals 15 mus)

Peoples Daily

Senegal forecasts biggest peanut crop since 1975, good rice, millet harvests

by Drew Hinshaw

Senegal is expecting the 2010-2011 peanut harvest to be its most productive in 35 years and is forecasting good yields for millet and rice, the Agricultural Ministry said.

The harvest will exceed the 1.08 million metric tons of peanuts picked in the 2009-10 season, Malick Ba, head coordinator at the ministry, said yesterday in a phone interview from the capital, Dakar, without giving an estimate for the harvest. The previous season gave the highest output since 1975 when 1.2 million tons was harvested, according to agricultural ministry data.

State researchers are currently calculating the expected October-November harvest, Ba said. “It’s no longer a question of whether it will be a bigger harvest than last year’s, but a question of how much bigger it will be,” he said. The crop is picked again in April.

Peanuts account for 60 percent of Senegal’s agricultural exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments by Suneor, the country’s biggest peanut-oil processing company, account for as much as 50 percent of the world market, according to a 2007 USDA country report.

Millet production is expected to exceed the 797,107 tons grown in 2009-2010, and rice output should be more than the 391,271 tons harvested last season, Balde Solme, bureau head for Direction for Agricultural Analysis and Forecasts, said.

The West African country’s rice output doubled between 2007 and 2009. Power outages that stop irrigation pumps in the northern rice-growing region may reduce this season’s crop, Mamour Gaye, technical adviser to the Agricultural Ministry, said on Aug. 5.

Good rains compensated for those electricity outages, Solme said.

“The main factor in determining Senegal’s agricultural output is rainfall patterns, and right now we are in a period of especially good rains that we expect will continue for several years to come,” he said.

Senegalese farms employ as much as 75 percent of the country’s workforce.


Bloomberg

Small grains being promoted in Zimbabwe

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a project in Zimbabwe recently to promote the use of small grains such as millet and sorghum to boost food security in three drought-prone provinces - Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Masvingo.

Small grains are considered drought tolerant and have better nutritional value than maize, which is viewed as an unsuitable crop in these provinces.

The US$399,000 project - Promoting Production, Processing and Marketing of Small Grains in the Marginal Areas in Zimbabwe - which envisages the provision of improved seed varieties, will target small farmers, and aims to be up and running by the rainy season starting in the next few weeks.

It will provide small grain inputs sufficient for the cultivation of half a hectare, and this will also enable farmers to produce seeds for the next planting season.

Gaoju Han, FAO's sub-regional director for Southern Africa and Zimbabwe's country representative, said: "The project will also build the capacity of community based smallholder seed producers so as to ensure sustainable availability of high quality small grains seed."

Ministry of Agriculture extension workers will provide assistance and training on the production of small grains, and inform communal farmers of their benefits.


Han said production of small grains over the years had faced several obstacles, including the limited access to seed, poor prices, low yields and the huge flocks of voracious red-billed quelea birds.

"These challenges have contributed towards the reduction in the area allocated to small grains on the one hand, and an expansion of the maize area on the other. FAO’s aim is to assist the Ministry of Agriculture to address these and other challenges that have limited the production of small grains by smallholder farmers," he said.

"What is now required is for the key players to exploit the unique attributes of small grains such as drought tolerance and their better nutritional value compared to other cereal crops," said Ngoni Masoka, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Food security expert and the former Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Davidson Mugabe said the launch was welcome and if properly conducted, would go a long way towards ensuring food security.


"We need as a country to come up with policies that ensure that we grow crops which are suitable to the different regions, and the three provinces for the programme are ideal for small grains because they record low annual rainfall," he said.

Zimbabwe's rapid decline from food security has been blamed on a combination of events - including droughts and the disruption of agriculture in 2000, when President Robert Mugabe launched the fast-track land reform programme, which redistributed more than 4,000 white commercial farms to landless blacks.

In the first quarter of 2009 about seven million people - more than half the population - depended on food assistance. The government estimates about 1.3 million people will require food assistance in the first quarter of 2011.


Davidson Mugabe said it was also important to popularize the consumption of small grains and there was a "need for innovation when processing food from small grains. Only recently I ate a cake made from millet."

Dumisani Nyoni, the provincial agricultural officer for Matabeleland North, said farmers’ yields in the province had in recent years been declining.

"The farmers would save some [small] grain [seed] from their harvest which they continued to use as seed and over the years yields had gone down. When we introduce new seed varieties to the farmers, their produce will be higher. One challenge though that needs to be tackled urgently will be the threat posed by quelea birds which are a problem in the province. The department of national parks [needs] to be capacitated in order to eliminate that menace."

Quelea birds, which roam in flocks that can grow to millions, prefer the seeds of wild grasses to those of cultivated crops, but their numbers make them a constant threat to fields of sorghum, wheat, barley, millet and rice.


IRIN

ICRISAT in scheme to boost sorghum, millet prodution in Africa, Asia

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has launched a new project that aims to increase food security for smallholder farmers in dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The project, Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement (HOPE) of Sorghum and Millets in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, will be undertaken by 50 partners led by ICRISAT in ten countries of sub-Saharan Africa and four states in India. HOPE is supported by an $18 million, four-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Through the development and delivery of improved crop varieties and training in crop management practices, HOPE will increase small-scale farmer yields by 35 to 40% during the first four years of the project. These improved varieties of sorghum and millet will be disseminated to 110,000 households in sub-Saharan Africa and 90,000 in South Asia. Within ten years, the project should benefit more than 2 million households in these continents.

Dr William D Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, says, “Scientists estimate that yields could be doubled or even tripled from their current low levels if farmers use the right crop varieties, fertilizer and other management techniques. Capturing even a modest portion of these potential gains would generate major impacts in reducing food insecurity.

The demand for dryland crops, such as sorghum and millet, is growing as a number of major global issues continue to impact the world’s food security. Trends include: the increasing global demand for livestock feed; the growing use of nutritious foods with high levels of iron, fiber and calcium for weaning children, nursing mothers, and the gluten intolerant; rising fertilizer prices forcing a shift to crops that require limited fertilizer; an increasing global population requiring more food; and the diversion of crops such as corn into the bioethanol market.

The dryland areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are among the poorest and most food-insecure regions. This project aims to improve food and nutritional security by increasing production of sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet. To accomplish this, it will offer smallholder farmers access to improved seed varieties, farming techniques and information, financial support, and fertilizer. In turn, ICRISAT expects these resources to increase market access and demand for sorghum and millet, creating additional revenue for poor farmers and fundamentally change the development assistance needed in these regions.

Part of the project is dedicated to capacity building, primarily targeting national program scientists participating in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’s (AGRA) Program for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) program. ICRISAT will provide scientific supervision by a senior sorghum/millet breeder to such students.

The project will be managed by ICRISAT under an agreement between the Government of India and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

This grant is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Agricultural Development initiative, which is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of smallholder farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost their yields, increase their incomes, and build better lives for themselves and their families. The foundation is working to strengthen the entire agricultural value chain—from seeds and soil to farm management and market access—so that progress against hunger and poverty is sustainable over the long term.

ICRISAT

Tiny fonio cereal may hold big answers in food crisis

Despite growing for centuries in some of the driest, toughest agricultural zones of West Africa, the fonio cereal has been neglected by most agricultural development programmes, according to the World Bank. But skyrocketing rice price increases that have slammed rice-dependent West Africa and declining profits in other cash crops like cotton have some local producers turning back to the ancient cereal.

But Olivier Durand with the World Bank in Mali said fonio has some hurdles to clear before reaching store shelves: “Its main drawback is the very difficult post-harvest process, as it is a very small grain. There's a market for pre-cooked fonio, but prices are still pretty high due to the low productive post-harvest process.”

The average cost for a 1-kg package of pre-cooked fonio is US$2, twice as much as raw fonio, according to the US-funded Economic Growth Programme, which is trying to revive fonio production in Senegal. This price is about as twice as expensive as one kilo of the more commonly-consumed, but less protein-packed, rice.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimates an annual production of about 250,000 tons of fonio grown on 380,000 hectares of land in lead-producing country Guinea, followed by Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

But producers in other countries are trying to get in.

In Senegal, the mostly female cooperative, Yakaar Niani Wulli [the hope of villages Niani and Wulli, in the national Wolof language] of small-scale farmers in southern Senegal has been trying to plant and sell fonio.

The cereal fell out of vogue when families had more money to buy rice imports, said organic food biochemist Malik N’diaye with the Senegalese non-profit Environment, Development Action in the Third World (ENDA).

Because of its smaller-than-couscous size, de-husking and cleaning can take up to five poundings, an estimated one hour to mill less than 2kg. Fonio evokes rural images of a woman standing over a mortar pounding the seeds with sand, and then – sometimes unsuccessfully – separating sand from the grains.

But the World Bank’s Durand said relief is on the way: “New techniques will improve the productivity while reducing the work hardship for women.” He added the food crisis may give overlooked cereals like fonio more attention. “My fear with fashion and ‘revivals,’ he said, “[is] that one will consider this is one [and only] solution, the key revolution and miracle, [but it is]…one among other solutions to the food security issue.”

FAO reports rice prices quadrupling worldwide in the past two years. In West Africa, only Burkina Faso is a cereal exporter, according to the 2008 Global Hunger Index, which stated hunger levels are higher in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world.

ENDA’s Ndiaye told IRIN this is the same area where fonio freely grows: “Fonio can grow in arid zones, a plus for the drought and famine-prone Sahel.”

Finding a market

In 2007, the US-based Economic Growth Programme facilitated a tasting event of organic fonio in Koussanar, the Senegalese rural birthplace of the cereal located about 400km east of the capital Dakar. An American export company bought two tons of the pre-cooked fonio cereal from the federation, which was the federation’s lone export last year.

The production group is expected to harvest 20 tons from 60 hectares in 2008, with 10 tons to be sold and the other half reserved for local consumption.

The federation of about 2,000 members is trying to buy a husking machine to make their work quicker and to increase production, according to ENDA.

ENDA’S N’diaye told IRIN the time has come for people both in and out of West Africa to rethink the cereal: “It may be arcane because it has been around for so long, but it has medicinal properties able to fight diabetes, which has sparked recent interest.”

According to the French agricultural research centre working for international development (CIRAD), fonio is an amino-packed, easily digestible, easy-to-grow desert food.

N’diaye said locally, fonio is known mostly as the first dish a newlywed wife is required to cook for her husband. But it could be much more, he said: “It should also be known as a nutritious, protein-packed organic speciality good. It is old, but also new.”

IRIN

New millet varieties developed in Uganda

Researchers have developed four new varieties of finger and pearl millet with high protein concentrations. They are intended to boost the food and nutritional value of communities, especially in semi-arid areas in Uganda, like Karamoja.

Dr. Nelson Wanyera, the head of cereal research programmes at the National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute (NaSarri) in Soroti district, said the four varieties were also intended to boost diet for diabetics and people with HIV/AIDS. He said they were also looking at popularising the varieties for children’s porridge.

Wanyera said the varieties have a protein content of 14% calcium and iron.

The millet can be ground into flour for millet bread, porridge and can also be used in the fermentation process for alcohol.

Wanyera said the four varieties SEC 915,314 and 712 for finger millet and ICMV 221 are drought resistant and mature within 75 to 80 days. The millet can be grown in low to mid altitude areas like Sironko, Karamoja and Nakasongola.

Wanyera said the varieties were available through different National Agricultural Research Organisation institutes. He urged farmers to adopt the new varieties since they are also resistant to finger millet rust.

New Vision

Sorghum, millet yield prospects for West Africa are good

Overall yield prospects for sorghum and millet are good in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria, where outputs of +2% to +7% above the 5 yr average are anticipated.

However there are local differences within these countries. In Chad, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Togo, the overall yield prospects are also positive with an estimated surplus of about +4% relative to the 5 yr mean. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, crop yield prospects are close to average (0%-1%), but somewhat less (-1 and -3%) than 2007 yields

In Burkina Faso, water availability for the crops was very good in north-eastern provinces like Ganzourgou and Gnagna, parts of Sourou, Yatenga, Soum and Oudalan at the border with Mali have a drier than normal season. Also Poni, and some parts of Comoe have a drier than normal growing season.

In the neighboring Upper West province of Ghana, yield prospects are good in the northern part but low in the southern part. In Northern province, prospects are generally good, except for the southeastern part where lower than normal yields are expected.

In Guinea, overall production will be very good in Labe. In Kankan, the output is beneficial in a large part in the west but decreased output is seen in small areas in the north, southeast and the centre. In Kindia province, the water availability is good in the north but below average in the south.

In Ivory Coast, prospects are above average at provincial level in Katiola, Korhogo and Mankono, other parts of the country show minor (-0.5%) yield decreases. In the main growing areas of Bouna increases of 4.5% are expected.

In Mali, very good yields are expected at the northern border of the growing areas in Kayes, \ with surpluses of 15% in some parts while in the south prospects are less favourable. Especially the north-west of Koulikoro is dryer than before, while in the south and central part the water availability is better than the 5 years average and better than the previous year. In Kayes, the northeastern part experiences dryer conditions than normal but the situation is better than in 2007.

In Nigeria, well above average yields (10%) are expected in northern parts of the country, in Taraba, Kebbi and the south of Adamwara province. The centre of Niger province shows minor yield decreases while in other parts above average yields are expected. Reduced crop yields are seen in the east of Kano, the south of Yobe, the west of Benue and the north of Adamware. Declined production is also noted in the Delta province, Anambra and Rivers.

EARS

Welsh-based project studies genetics of pearl millet

Subsistence farmers in areas of Africa and Asia will be the direct beneficiaries of research work being carried out in West Wales – but with the growing concerns over climate change, the findings could also have a significant bearing on the future performance of crops world-wide.

Scientists at the Aberystwyth-based Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research are looking at the genetic mapping and marker-assisted breeding of pearl millet in a four-year £700,000 project.

The special initiative grant on sustainable agriculture for international development, which has come from the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council and Department for International Development, will allow a team led by Dr Rattan Yadav to research the genetic potential for improving pearl millet productivity in drought- prone areas.

“Key segments of pearl millet DNA are already known to IGER scientists and plant breeders in India have already made use of fundamental genetic research carried out at IGER over the years, but declining water resources and unpredictable rainfall now call for further research into efficient breeding for drought-prone environments,” said Dr Yadav.

“Pearl millet is the staple crop grown by subsistence farmers in the hottest, driest regions of sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent, but declining water resources and unpredictable rainfall pose serious threats to crop productivity.

“Climate change scenarios indicate that water shortage and shortening of the effective growing season will be increasingly likely – increasing the need for short-duration cereals with enhanced drought tolerance.

“The ultimate goal of this project is to improve food security and farmers’ livelihoods in the most vulnerable areas dependent on rain-fed crop production by improving the drought tolerance of otherwise acceptable and adapted pearl millet plants cultivars,” he said.

Generic knowledge and technologies developed in the project would also contribute to the global pool of knowledge in drought tolerance across species and facilitate increased crop production in water-limited environments across the world.

While immediately applicable to pearl millet, much of the information generated would have benefits to other cereals and forage grasses due to the close genomic relationships among these species and also indirectly benefit other agricultural crops.

Farmers Guardian

Hybrid seeds spurring agricultural revival in Katsina, Nigeria

Late last June, farmers in Sabon Gari Ganu village in northern Nigeria's Katsina state divided their plots of land into 56 rows. Using seeds from 16 African countries, the farmers planted each row with a different variety of millet—some small seeds, some round, some dark and some light. Throughout the rainy season, the farmers watched carefully to see which varieties would grow and which would not.

Five months later, the farmers sat down to vote on which seed varieties they preferred. Four seeds were chosen. "Our plan now is that the four chosen will be intensively promoted," explains A. Kabir R. Charanchi, a chief agricultural officer for the Katsina state government who works on the project. "We are now going to bring more seeds for multiplication."

In one of Nigeria's harshest climactic zones, Katsina state is turning to scientific research to boost crop harvests. The initiative in Sabon Gari Ganu, funded by donors including the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the government, is aimed at improving crop varieties in the arid region.

Researchers at the Lake Chad Research Institute and the Institute for Agricultural Research, among others, collected and developed the improved seeds. Sabon Gari Ganu is just one of 40 villages in six local government areas testing the new millet varieties. And the trials are not only of seed types; farmers also volunteered their land for fertilizer and weed control trials.

"We use a 'demonstrate' plot, a portion of the farmer's land, and we say, let him add optional new crops and then traditional ones," explains community development officer Abubacar Saulawa. Just a few months after the trials began, community members said they would switch to the new varieties, and crop yields went through the roof.

Once a booming agricultural exporter, Nigeria is today a food-importing nation. Oil, rather than agriculture, became the mainstay of the country's economy in the 1970s and 80s, leaving other sectors in disarray.

Only recently has the government showed a renewed interest in bringing agriculture back. "Local governments are supposed to implement activities that our programs [do], but for lack of funds, among other things, they do not," explains Bukar Tijani, program manager for IFAD in Katsina. "Now we have come in to supplement and cause the government to make a contribution."

Most families in the North still survive on homegrown grains, but over the last several decades, rural communities such as Sabon Gari Ganu have seen both their crop yields and their incomes fall. With a growing population, farmers have hurried to occupy land—once an abundant resource in the region. The resulting pressure on the land has pushed soil fertilities steadily downward over the last three decades.

Farmers who could once shift from plot to plot now farm the same land year after year, stripping the soil of nutrients. Fertilizer, subsidized by the state and federal governments, often arrives late or not at all. Dr. Umar A. Alkaleri, an analyst for the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development in Abuja estimates that only 40 percent of the fertilizer destined for last year's planters reached its destination.

Increased pressure on the land has had another effect, as well: "From Katsina to the northern border of Nigeria, within the last several years, 11km has all been lost to desert," estimates Alkaleri. Higher temperatures and lower rainfall have made cultivation even more difficult in a region that already receives only 700-800mm of precipitation a year.

Difficult conditions have hit crop yields hard, and farmers even harder. Turning the situation around has been the goal of IFAD and the Katsina government's trials in Sabon Gari Ganu and other communities, and local farmers say they are starting to see a difference.

Abdul Malik, a farmer aged 30, says he gathers 15 to 17 100kg bags of millet using improved varieties, where he used to gather only 10. With his increased income, he bought two new soil tilling machines this year, where before he had just one.

If the trials continue to raise yields, farmers will not be the only ones to profit. Middlemen who move the crops to market may also see their businesses improve. Already, vendor Halilu Mohammed says his shipments have increased five-fold since new varieties were introduced. As a more stable source of cotton, the village now attracts nearly double the previous price of 700 naira, or about $5.80 per 25 kg.

Though livelihoods can be improved, experts agree that there is no easy cure for Nigeria's agricultural system. Increased production does not guarantee a buyer for the crops. Transportation to local and international markets is a constraint; refrigerated storage facilities are rare and as much as a third of Nigeria's agricultural products spoil before they reach market.

When products do arrive they often find a saturated market. Many farmers in the North produce just one crop, filling market stalls with just a few different vegetables and grains at each season. "There has to be a diversification of the market," explains Tijani. "We have to be looking at hot cakes on the international market, so we are not looking at subsistence only."

Science looks to be an appealing way to start fixing the problem. Improved varieties—and an increasing number of them—will make it easier for farmers to diversify their crops. If efforts to fight soil infertility succeed, those crops will grow more easily and with less need for costly agricultural inputs.

allafrica.com

Tanzanian university improvizes small-grains processing technology

Traditional hand-technologies that are used to remove the hulls of sorgum and millet damage the grains, and therefore the quality and market value of the crops. The two crops are well-adapted to African conditions. Being drought and pest-resistant, they are particularly important for food security.

The Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania has improvized a simple mechanized processing technology for the grains that relieves the farmer of the ardous process of dehulling by hand, while preserving the quality and market value of the crops. The farmers will also be trained in how to process the sorgum and millet into various edible forms.

A pilot project to provide the machines to three groups of farmers was began in June 2006.