Beer brewer provides bigger market for Uganda’s sorghum, barley farmers

Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) has launched a recruitment programme for large scale sorghum farmers in Kapchorwa. This follows successful large scale sorghum growing trials carried out in Uganda’s Sebei region in 2011 as part of UBL's local raw material sourcing programme.

The recruitment drive coincided with the commissioning of the Kapchorwa Commercial Farmers (KACOFA), storage and processing plant in Kapchorwa on February 7, 2012. KACOFA has been one of the brewers’ key suppliers since 2003.

A company official said the programme will initially target over 5,000 acres. So far 2,000 have been identified.

Uganda Breweries Limited began its local farmer programme in 2001 primarily focusing on Teso and Lango regions and Ibanda in Western Uganda. Over 17,000 farmers have benefited under the sorghum and barley programmes which provide farmers with access to quality seeds, fertilizers, equipment and extension services.

Business Week

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

Nigeria, China ink deal to invest $2.55 billion in biorefinery projects

by Jim Lane

In Nigeria, Bloomberg and several local outlets are reporting that the Nigerian government has signed a $2.55 billion development deal with Global Biofuels, to construct 15 integrated biorefineries throughout the West African nation. According to reports, the first pilot plant will be completed in Ilemeso, in Ekiti State by Q4 2012, and projects thereafter will be completed in Ondo, Osun, Kwara, Kogi,Benue, Gombe, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau states. Project cost for the initial pilot plant is $108M, while full-scale plants are expected to cost $183 million each.

According to Global Biofuels, $1.78 billion, or 70 percent of the financing will come from the Chinese government. The remainder will come from NEXIM Bank, ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, Africa Finance Corporation; Fond Gari, and First Bank of Nigeria. The projects expect to generate 100 tons of total biomass per hectare, per yearn, using two cropping cycles per year, with total tonnage including tops, leaves, stalks and the primary crop. That equates to roughly 20 tons of total biomass per growing season, per acre.

But the massive Nigerian investment is just one of several announced in recent weeks and months in West Africa.
Nigerian Export-Import Bank:$695M

Just last week, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank gave $695 million to five companies investing in renewables including $12 million for a jatropha project and $56 million for a sorghum ethanol project.

The majority of the funding went to a sugarcane project that will include a bagasse co-generation component while the rest of the funding was for waste-to-energy projects.

Just before the US Thanksgiving holiday, the Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Ademola Olorunfemi, said that the state would approve development of three sugarcane plantations and ethanol plants, with a focus on the production of biofuels and rural economic development. The Commissioner also said that the plants could provide materials for the bio-pharma industry.

The projects, whose goals center around industrialization and employment, indicate a new direction for the economy of this agriculture-heavy area of Nigeria.
Dangote Group, $7.7B

The same week, Aliko Dangote, the president of Dangote Group, announced an investment of $7.7 billion in Rivers Energy City, home of the budding $2 billion fertilizer and ethanol plant project put on by Indorama Eleme Petrochemical Company. His investment, says a top government source, will span into the methane and ethanol industries and provide thousands of jobs in the upcoming energy city.
Global Biofuels: $91M

In August, Global Biofuels has announced plans for ethanol plants across the West African region, with $91 million in sellers credit from COZA of Hong Kong and WEMET of China. The final project is expected to cost over $183 million, and produce 72 million liters of ethanol from 1.95 million tons of sorghum per year, and 216 gigawatts of electricity. Total land use as reported would be 65,000 ha in Nigeria and 32,500 ha in neighboring Economic Community of West African States member countries.

Also in August, Nosak Distilleries Ltd said it would raise production capacity at its Lagos facility to 540,000 liters per day from its current 350,000 liters per day. It also announced plans to commission a new 150,000 liter per day facility in Calabar, Cross River. Its first facility was commissioned in 2001 and together the company supplies about 70% of local ethanol demand.
The Bottom Line

Announcements of MOUs should be taken for what they are – an understanding that steel will go into the ground, as opposed to the actual construction of actual capacity. However, the trend is clear, scale is happening, project financing is becoming easier to source, especially overseas, and China is definitely expanding its ambitions with respect to countering the US lead in advanced biofuels technology, with a Chinese lead in actual gallons of renewable fuel.


Biofuels Digest

Sorghum transformation programme to generate 200,000 Nigerian jobs

The Sorghum Transformation Programme of Nigeria's Federal Government is to generate 200,000 jobs in farming related activities in Adamawa State.

The team leader of the programme, Prof Babatunde Obilana, said the hybrid sorghum to be introduced next year would increase farmers' yield by more than 300 per cent, making them to realise an income of N150,000 per hectare as against the present N26,000 per hectare.

Obilana said Adamawa State, being the leading producer of sorghum, would benefit immensely from the programme that would add more value to sorghum production. He added that the Federal Government would among others use fortified food to be made from sorghum for its proposed primary school feeding programme.

In his remarks, the Adamawa Commissioner for Agriculture, Alhaji Tijjani Maksha, said the state government on it part had embarked on general transformation of agriculture by establishing farming skills acquisition centres in all the 21 local government areas for rural farmers to be trained in modern farming techniques.

Maksha said so far about 40,000 farmers had been trained while government had purchased and distributed 260 metric tonnes of assorted high yielding varieties of certified seeds to the farmers.

NAN

SABMiller launches cassava beer in Mozambique

The biggest brewer in southern Africa has launched the first commercial beer made from the cassava plant.

Homebrew spirits on the continent, fermented from cassava and other root tubers, are popular because they are cheap but they can be lethal.

SABMiller executives said the new beer would give consumers an affordable, safer alternative to such homebrews.

Cassava is considered a staple food crop in Africa but the firm denies the beer will lead to food shortages.

The beer, called Impala, is being brewed in Mozambique and will require about 40,000 tonnes of raw cassava per year.

Cassava accounts for 70% of the new brew.

The SABMiller project - called Farming Better Futures - uses smallholder farmers to grow the cassava crop.

Mark Bowman, the managing director of SABMiller, said to would offer enormous agricultural potential to farmers.

It would create employment for more than 1,500 farmers and their families, the company said.

Thanks to using locally grown cassava and a reduced tax rate agreed by the Mozambique government, Impala was 30% cheaper than mainstream lager, it said.

BBC

Breweries persuade drought-hit farmers to switch crops

by Zachary Ochieng

A partnership between academics and a beer company, which sent sorghum prices soaring in East Africa, has been highlighted as a way of harnessing agricultural research to fight the effects of drought such as the one in the Horn of Africa.

The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) linked up with Kenya-based East African Breweries Limited (EABL) in 2009 to address a missing link between research results and farmers' incomes.

Farmers had been planting maize, which is susceptible to drought, while local breweries lacked the sorghum needed for beer production. KARI started producing drought-resistant sorghum seeds for distribution to farmers and the price of sorghum shot up threefold, owing to increased demand from EABL and other breweries.

The experts have called for the development and uptake of drought resistant crops, such as cowpea, millet and sorghum, which are more likely than the currently preferred crop — maize — to guarantee a harvest when the rainfall underperforms.

"We need to encourage farmers to shift to crops that can withstand drought, besides having a short maturity period. Cowpea, for instance, can be harvested within 50 to 60 days of planting and has proved successful in West Africa," said Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Kenya.

There are already some success stories. Farmers who are planting CGIAR's drought-tolerant maize varieties have increased their yields despite the drought.

And David Miano Mwangi, assistant director for animal production at KARI, said that dietary habits are changing in the eastern Ukambani region, where farmers are now planting sorghum and millet.

Ngongi said that, to market these crops successfully as alternatives to maize there is also a need for crop and livestock insurance to guard farmers against losses caused by drought and for more agricultural investments from the private sector as is already the case in West Africa.

SciDev.net

Brewery encourages Kenya sorghum farmers to supply it

by Kenneth Kwama

East African Breweries — through its subsidiary East African Maltings Limited (EAML) — has kicked off a drive to enroll sorghum farmers in Kenya's Nyanza and Western regions as it seeks alternatives for barley, which is the main raw material for some of its brands.

This follows its decision to use the crop as the main raw material for some of its brands like the low-priced Senator drink.

"Nyanza has a good climate for sorghum production and currently leads the way in the production of the red sorghum variety. This focus on sorghum production in Nyanza comes on the backdrop of successful trials in the Eastern region and is aimed at expanding coverage of sorghum within the country," said the company in a press release.

Experts say farmers can realise up to 1,000 kilos per acre with improved agricultural practices. An acre of Gadam Sorghum, used in the brewing of beer and animal feed can produce up to 600 kilos.

The initiative in semi-arid areas across the country has great potential for growth and is expected to impact the livelihoods of over 25,000 farmers by providing an extra source of income to the communities where sorghum is grown.

The project has drawn in key stakeholders such as Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari). It started in 2009 as part of EABL and EAML’s strategy to produce certain brands using locally grown materials and developing technologies.

The Standard

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

Ways sought to change Kenyan attitudes against GM technology

Kenya is among leading African nations in agriculture technology research but to an average Kenyan, the mention of genetically modified (GM) food for example is treated with didain.

This is despite the fact that most Kenyans wear clothes that have been made using cotton that is grown using GMOs and a sizable number have consumed GM foods bought from supermarket shelves

“We have failed to communicate as scientists,” said Shaukat Abdulrazak, the chief executive of the National Council for Science and Technology. “We need to end the reaction mode when biotechnology issues come up for debate in this country.”

The problem, he said, is that scientists have not communicated effectively to Kenyans what biotechnology means and what benefits it can bring in their lives as well as its risks. The current debate was ignited by the decision by the government to allow import of GM maize from South Africa to meet the current maize deficit in the country. Maize is Kenya’s staple food.

Environmental activists have had a field day with protests and media events to denounce the GMOs while politicians seeking populist gains have also denounced the technology.

“Is the government aware that consuming GM food causes the cancer of reproductive organs?” asked Joshua Kutuny, the Member of Parliament for Cherangany Constituency when the issue came up for debate in parliament on Thursday.

Abdulrazak told scientists at a forum to launch a plan to raise awareness on biotechnology in Nairobi that this should be the last time the science community is caught unawares in a debate that it should have helped avoid.

“The farmers are asking: where are the scientists to explain to us what biotechnology is? We risk being dragged behind if we fail to create awareness on technologies we develop. Biotechnology will help us produce more from less and this should be clear to a Kenyan,” he said.

Most media outlets in Kenya including television and print media have been highlighting the negative effects of GM crops.This fact has left scientists in a vulnerable situation where what they have struggled to come up with to help farmers is now being rejected partly because they failed to communicate better to their target audience.

Agriculture Secretary Wilfred Songa said Kenya risks losing out on very important technology if the public backlash is allowed to continue based n misinformation.

“There is a knowledge gap of people talking about GMOs, so the scientists who are knowledgeable on this issue must reach out to the public to create awareness,” he said.He noted that Kenya cannot afford to abandon biotechnology when the country’s population is increasing by 1 million people every year.

He gave an example of tissue culture banana, which has been technologically developed to give better yields early and produce better banana fruits. It is estimated that it has tripled production of bananas in Kenya in the last 10 years.

Kenya plans to introduce commercialized GM cotton in 2014, and thereafter GM maize. GM trials of both crops are ongoing.

Kenyan scientists under the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute are developing drought resistant maize and bio- fortified sorghum.

This year, Kenya became the ninth country in Africa to achieve the minimum 10 percent budgetary allocation to farming as prescribed in the 2003 Maputo Declaration on agriculture and food security in Africa. Songa noted that substantial amount of this money will be directed to biotechnology research.

“Lots of delegations from Kenya have gone to South Africa to learn about GMO and when they hear we still have food scarcity problems, they wonder what is wrong with us,” said David Nyameino, the chief executive officer of the Cereal Growers Association. “The technology is not a miracle for Kenya, but it will raise yields, help achieve food security and enable cereals farming to make business sense.”

Scientists said the debate in Kenya should focus on what the country will lose by not adopting GMO.

The Citizen

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

New sorghum variety gives hope to Kenyan farmers

by Ebby Nanzala

With the introduction of a new sorghum variety that is drought resistant and contains special carbohydrates ideal for brewers, farmers in Kenya have a chance to maximise their earnings. Certified by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) in 1998, Gadam - the new variety, which matures in three months and is able to survive rainfall of between 200 and 800mm in a season - was released for commercial planting in late 2010.

"Farmers with one acre of land under the seed have been able to earn an average of Ksh 120,000 in three months," says Ben Kanyenji, a sorghum breeder with KARI- Embu. "The bumper harvest has transformed their lives both in monetary value and nutrition needs." Joab Maingi, a farmer in Kambu division, Kibwezi district in Eastern Kenya says he was sceptical when the project started, "but the income I get has enabled me to meet my basic needs which were a problem before because of rain failure."

To be able to phase out barley in favour of sorghum for its brewing activities, East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL) has stated that it will need 12 million kilograms in 2011, an enormous potential market for farmers. Smart Logistic Company (SLC), contracted by EABL to transport the Gadam sorghum, has already collected the crop from at least 4,000 smallscale farmers in Eastern and Western Kenya. "The farmers' faces show great joy when they receive money. They have no transport expense as we collect the sorghum from their door-step," says SCL managing director Rose Mutuku.

New Agriculturalist

Biofortified sorghum for Africa program receives $4 million grant

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis, Missouri) and DuPont on May 4 announced a $4 million grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to bring healthier sorghum to underserved communities in Africa.

                       

The grant will help fund the completion of the development of biofortified sorghum, a more nutritious and digestible sorghum for Africans who depend upon sorghum as their staple diet.  DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred began working on the project in 2005 in conjunction with the African Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Consortium, an Africa-led public-private partnership.  The ABS Consortium is a key partner in this project and will work to secure regulatory approvals and pursue production and deployment plans as Pioneer and Danforth complete product development.

Sorghum is a cereal that has many characteristics comparable to corn.  However, unlike corn, sorghum is naturally drought tolerant.  It provides calories and minimal nutrition in dry areas of Africa such as in the Sahel, the area of Africa just south of the Sahara desert.  The sorghum nutritional improvement project will permit greater levels of essential nutrients to be delivered to those who live in arid places where sorghum is relied upon as the staple food source.  Additionally, the biofortified sorghum may become important in new geographies as a result of the effects of climate change.

The project focuses on increased zinc and iron bioavailability through phytate reduction, improved protein digestibility and increased pro-vitamin A levels.  These key nutrients and micronutrients aid in child development, and reduce rates of diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, lower respiratory tract infections and curb Vitamin A deficiency, which is the leading cause of acquired blindness in children in the developing world.

Pioneer is the lead technology provider and the Danforth Center will provide monitoring, evaluation and financial oversight with respect to the project milestones.

www.danforthcenter.org

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

Striga-resistant varieties to boost sorghum yields

by Steven Tendo

In April, scientists in eastern and central Africa embarked on identifying sources of resistance to Striga, a parasitic weed. Supported by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (Asareca), the researchers from Sudan, Kenya, Eritrea and the International Crop Research Institute (ICRISAT) are using biotechnological tools in locating and identifying Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) that gives resistance to Striga.

QTL is a statistical method that links two types of information phenotypic data (trait measurements) and genotypic data (usually molecular markers)—in an attempt to explain the genetic basis of variation in complex traits.

According to Dr Charles Mugoya, the programme manager of the Agro biodiversity and biotechnology programme of Asareca, knowing the location and identification of QTLs for Striga resistance is a useful tool in aiding marker assisted breeding/selection (MAB or MAS) of Sorghum for Striga resistance.

MAS is an indirect selection process where a trait of interest is chosen not based on the trait itself but on a marker (morphological, biochemical or one based on DNA/RNA variation) linked to it. So far, QTLs underlying different resistance phenotypes have been identified and the scientists are now backcrossing populations to generate striga resistance QTLs into farmer preferred sorghum varieties.

Mugoya said Striga hermonthica, also locally known as the witchweed, is a major constraint to sorghum production in particular and cereal production in general, especially in more marginal areas like semi-arid regions, where continuous cropping as a result of population pressure, has led to widespread soil infertility.

The weed is genetically diverse and several factors contribute to its diversity. These include a high turnover of several generations of witch weed populations leading to high genetic diversity; hybridisation; broad geographic distributions; long distance dispersal and locally adapted host races.

“Owing to its great potential genetic diversity, efforts to control it, through conventional breeding to generate striga resistant varieties or agronomic practices to reduce the striga seed bank in the soil, have been ineffective and striga continues to be a menace, with reported cases of up to 100 per cent sorghum yield loss in the region,” he noted.

Sorghum is ranked second, after maize as the most important cereal crop in East Africa and in the Asareca region. According to statistics from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide and together with maize and pearl millet, it forms the most important dry land cereal crop for the semi-arid tropics particularly in Africa.

It is grown in at least 86 countries, on an area of 47 million hectares, with annual grain production of 69 million tonnes and average productivity of 1.45 tonnes per hectare. Sorghum yields in Africa however range between 500-800 kg per hectare compared with yield levels of up to 7,000kg (7 tonnes) per hectare in the developed world.

The bulk of African sorghum production is centred around the savannah areas of east, west and central Africa, where it forms a major component of the daily menu for millions of people, either as porridge or as traditional beer. Uganda is using sorghum for the beer industry. In addition, in many developing countries, sorghum stover is used to feed cattle.

Striga infested areas in Africa is estimated at 21 million ha. In many parts of East Africa, people lose half of their crop production to Striga and total yield losses occurs in infested farmer’s fields especially during drought periods. The change in farming systems from shifting cultivation to more permanent cropping, concomitant with loss in soil fertility, and frequent cultivation of susceptible host plants, are main factors responsible for increased Striga infestation.

The project promises to increase sorghum productivity in order to address food insecurity and poverty in East and Central African semi-arid zones and boost yields by at least by 20 per cent.

Widespread cultivation of striga resistant varieties is expected to reduce labour demand, since weeding to control striga seeds will not be necessary. In addition, control of striga by the application of herbicides will become unnecessary, thus saving the environment.

Daily Monitor

South African bumper harvest depresses Botswana cereal prices

by Mbongeni Mguni

A three-million tonne surplus in maize from South Africa has resulted in a depression of prices local farmers are able to obtain for their supplies to the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB), it has been learnt.

According to BAMB officials, South Africa is expecting 12.96 million metric tonnes of maize this year against local demand of nine million in that country. The region's agricultural giant also has carryover stock amounting to 1.9 million tonnes, further weighing on the already surfeit market.

With BAMB benchmarking its price on the South African maize price, what is music to the ears of local consumers has become a nightmare for local farmers.

While last year, BAMB was buying maize from farmers for about P70 per 50-kilogramme bag, this year the price has dropped to P60. The surplus also extends to sorghum, with this year's prices dropping to P55 from last year's P82.50.


BAMB Public Relations Officer, Boipuso Nyatshane, says market forces are pushing cereal prices down this year, to the detriment of farmers. "The prices are very low due to the surplus from the massive harvest in South Africa," she says.
"They have a lot of produce, three million tonnes of which has been set aside for the export market. We benchmark our prices on South Africa which also benchmarks against Chicago. If South Africa has excess produce, it means prices will be low. This in turn means the prices we can offer our farmers will be low."


Defending the rationale of benchmarking against South Africa, Nyatshane says as a net importer of food and a comparatively small market, Botswana cannot afford to set its own commodity prices.


"Many times farmers will complain that our prices are low, but if we sell higher than South Africa, the millers will go there," says Nyatshane. "We have to keep our prices competitive in relation to South Africa. Farmers now know how the system and the market work."


South African farmers are receiving between R1 050 and R1 200 (between R52 and R60 per bag) a tonne of maize while the BAMB is offering farmers P1 200 per tonne of maize, or P60 per 50-kilogramme bag. "We offer this slightly better price in order to support the local industry," Nyatshane says. "We cannot afford to go too much higher though. The difference with South Africa is also transport costs, which is in a way an incentive. We are trying to support the industry."


Botswana's sorghum price of P55 per bag is also higher than South Africa which generally decides on the price by trimming five percent off the maize price.

Nyatshane points out that sorghum receives special attention in terms of pricing because BAMB is eager to support it, the cereal being the staple food for most households in Botswana. She says without the support, farmers would be discouraged from planting sorghum and focus on maize instead, thus creating shortage of the staple cereal.


Nyatshane urges farmers to liaise with BAMB in various fora in order to avoid the effects of low prices. "We always give farmers market forecasts during the pre-harvest season so that they know what to plant," she says. "Many farmers have planted maize when South Africa has a surplus and when everyone does this, prices go down. "In addition, we encourage them to sign contracts with BAMB. For example, those holding contracts with us will this year receive P85 per bag of sorghum, which is the price we agreed before planting. With contracts, if the price goes higher than agreed, we will pay you the higher price. If it goes lower, we will still pay the agreed price."


Last year, maize and sorghum farmers signed contracts worth 18 000 tonnes with BAMB, a figure that has risen to 38 000 tonnes this year. This year's figure consists of 33 000 tonnes of sorghum, with maize bringing up the balance.
BAMB purchases commodities between April and September, selling these to millers and other offtakers throughout the year.

Mmegi

Aluminum-tolerant sorghum cloned

by Krishna Ramanujan

Cornell University researcher Leon Kochian, in collaboration with Brazilian scientists, has cloned a unique sorghum gene that is being used to develop sorghum lines that can withstand toxic levels of aluminum in the soil, a consequence of acidic soils.

Acidic soils limit crop production in half the world's potentially arable land, mostly in developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, said Kochian. He hopes that the research will one day help farmers in developing countries significantly boost their crop production and better help feed the hungry.

Kochian, Cornell adjunct professor of plant biology and director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture--Agricultural Research Service Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture and Health at Cornell, described the work on identifying and characterizing an aluminum tolerance gene in certain lines of sorghum and using molecular breeding techniques to introduce this gene into lines used for sorghum breeding in Africa, on Feb. 20 at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego.

In his talk, "Fighting Fire With Fire: Plants Tolerate Acid Soils by Releasing Organic Acids," presented at the Getting to the Roots of Agricultural Productivity Symposium, Kochian said that he and Jurandir Magalhaes, Ph.D. '02, of the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum lab in Brazil, started this project for Magalhaes' Ph.D. research at Cornell in Kochian's lab. He added that they have also found evidence for a number of variants of this tolerance gene that underlies the wide variation in sorghum aluminum tolerance.

Aluminum tolerance is found in a small number of sorghum varieties, he said, where this gene encodes a novel membrane transporter protein in the root tip that mediates the release citric acid into the soil when the roots are exposed to aluminum. The citric acid binds aluminum ions and prevents the toxic metal from entering the roots.

Since Kochian and colleagues have identified this gene, they have found evidence for other genes that also play a role in aluminum tolerance, he said. In work led by Magalhaes, the researchers introduced the region of the sorghum genome that harbors their aluminum tolerance gene from a number of tolerant sorghum lines into a common breeding line that is aluminum sensitive. When they did this, a significant degree of the tolerance in the donor line was lost, which strongly suggests that other genes are also needed for full expression and function of their aluminum tolerance gene.

Kochian and Magalhaes are also collaborating with sorghum breeders in Africa to generate genetic markers that will allow them to identify the best versions of their aluminum tolerance gene in African sorghum lines. These same markers will then be used to improve sorghum aluminum tolerance in Africa via molecular breeding techniques.

Kochian's lab has also used this information from sorghum to identify the first aluminum tolerance gene in maize, and in collaboration with Embrapa, similar molecular genetic approaches are being used to improve maize tolerance on acidic soils.

PhysOrg

Scientists work on new, more nutritious sorghum as maize farming declines

by Halima Abdallah

Kenyan scientists are trying to enhance the nutritional value of sorghum, a cereal that is likely to replace maize — which continues to suffer effects of erratic climate — as the country’s staple food.

“We know maize has more protein and is easily digestible but we want to make sorghum to be even better than maize,” said Dr Joel Mutisya, molecular biologist working on sorghum at Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI).

According to the scientists, 70 per cent of Kenya is now unable to produce maize as former growing areas are turning into semi arid areas conducive for growing sorghum, a drought-resistant plant.

Sorghum is low in essential amino acids, vitamins A and E, and low zinc and iron. A diet based on sorghum alone is not adequate to meet the nutritional needs of children and the sustenance of adults.

In an effort to include the missing nutrients that people get from maize, the scientists are working on getting the nutrients into sorghum by adding zinc, iron and protein. They are cross-breeding the local sorghum variety with maize hoping for a more nutritionally enhanced variety.

“Sorghum is not rich in essential amino acid. We are improve this alongside the availability of iron and zinc — the two minerals that are very essential in our health but at the moment these are minute in the sorghum. We want to make them more available,” Dr Mutisya said.

Sorghum is poorly digested making one feel full most of the time after eating, thanks to the grain’s ‘binding’ compounds. The scientists are using genes from maize which can reverse the production of these compounds in sorghum seed. This will ease digestion and absorption of all the nutrients when eaten.

The final product is to be available to the farmers in the next five years. “We are more than 50 per cent done and everything is on track,” said Dr Mutisya.

Agricultural organisations are now supporting countries to enhance the use of sorghum.

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, through a programme, Harnessing Opportunities for Productivity Enhancement of Sorghum and Millet received $18 million from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help small-holder farmers in moisture-deficient areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia increase their yields of sorghum, pearl millet, and finger millet to improve food security and increase the income of farmers.

However, Kenya is not abandoning maize production; it is making efforts through long term projects like Water Efficient Maize for Africa to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties.

Maize is the staple food in Kenya. However, reports indicates that more than four million Kenyans will face an acute shortage of their staple food starting April due to shortages in the last two crop season resulting from erratic weather conditions. This will leave the country highly dependent on imported maize.

The East African

Brazil, US accused of 'exploiting' African sorghum seed with patent application

An international treaty designed to protect seeds from commercial exploitation is allegedly being violated by the US and Brazilian governments and a Texas university.

According to the Johannesburg-based African Centre for Biosafety a Tanzanian sorghum seed, held in trust under the treaty by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India is being patented the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the Texas A&M University.

The treaty - the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) also known as "the Seed Treaty" - prohibits patent claims on varieties and genes of plants that are held in trust.

Mariam Mayet, director of ACB, said: "On the face of it, it appears as if the Seed Treaty has been violated. (It) is a new chapter in a long history of appropriation of African sorghum diversity by foreign interests."

A briefing paper by Edward Hammond by published by the centre says that the gene which enables tolerance to aluminium toxicity in acid soils, which is a problem affecting parts of north America and Europe and as much as 30% of arable land in Latin America, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa has strong commercial potential.

"Although it was only recently identified, the giant multinational Dow Chemical is already negotiating with the US government to licence it. Japan's second largest paper products company has also expressed interest in buying access to it," Hammond said.

The gene (SbMATE) is not only useful in sorghum, but also may be used in other crops including genetically engineered (GE) maize, wheat, and rice as well a GE eucalyptus tree plantations.

"The SbMATE gene does not rightfully belong to the USDA, Embrapa, or Texas A&M, and those institutions must abandon their unjust claims to the Tanzanian gene," Hammond said. "The institutions that are charged with protecting this resource - must act to protect - trust plants and genes from such claims. The genius of African farmers that is locked up in (international research) vaults and other seed banks cannot be allowed to be used to undermine diverse farming systems and earn profit for multinational corporations. These seed collections should rather serve the interests of African farmers, sustainable food production systems and the preservation and development of in situ genetic diversity. This does expressly not include the packaging of in trust genes and plants into patents and selling them to the highest bidder.

"Sorghum came from Africa and it remains vital for food security on the continent today. African sorghums have also historically, and to the present, been the foundation upon which the sorghum industries of the United States and other countries have depended."
Fin24

 

Beer brewer to buy Angolan sorghum

by Richard Lapper

Until Bruno de Castro received some good news recently, life had not been easy of late. He oversees rural development for the local government in Cacuaco, a small town about 20 miles outside Angola’s capital, Luanda, whose relentless expansion has been eating into the amount of agricultural land. On top of that, the Seco river, which flows through the area, recently flooded, putting dirt-poor subsistence farmers under further pressure,

So it was a welcome surprise for 40-year-old Mr de Castro when SABMiller, the beer multinational, offered a few weeks ago to buy tons of the local output of cassava, a root vegetable similar to the potato or yam, which flourishes in the region and has long been a staple food in tropical regions of west Africa, south-east Asia and Latin America.

“It was a shock because we had only heard [of] beer being made from barley and maize,” says Mr Castro, as he surveys fields where the drooping plant grows wild amid giant baobob trees. “This new project means that people here will grow more cassava and have a guaranteed market. The company is going to buy everything.”

Just a few miles away, SAB has built a state-of-the-art brewery, one of its largest such investments anywhere in the world. On a site carved out of the bush, workers are putting the finishing touches to a $125m (£77m, €86m) facility where production of a new cassava beer is scheduled to begin this year, alongside conventional beers and soft drinks.

With beer and soft drinks markets in Europe, North America and many of the most developed emerging markets already saturated, less developed African countries are increasingly attractive to global drinks groups.

SAB derives about two-thirds of its earnings from emerging markets and has been at the forefront of this trend. Its operations as recently as 1990 were mainly limited to its home market of South Africa, where its Castle lager, for instance, is a well-known and popular brand. Last year – as well as investing in its new Angolan brewery – SAB ploughed $250m into three other new African facilities in Sudan, Mozambique and Tanzania.

New products, such as cassava beer – which is made by adding dried and grated cassava as a starch additive to barley malt – are an innovative element of the push. Beer made with cassava tastes only slightly different from the standard product, but such home-grown ingredients are cheaper than imported maize and SAB plans to charge at least 20 per cent less for the new beer than for its existing brands. This will allow SAB to increase sales to low-income groups for whom its drinks might otherwise be unaffordable. That has already proved a successful strategy in a number of African countries. Eagle, a beer made from sorghum, has been made in Uganda since 2002, where it accounts for 50 per cent of SAB sales.

As Angola recovers from three decades of civil war, the benefits of oil sales to China and growing trade and investment ties with countries such as Brazil, South Africa and its former colonial ruler Portugal are starting to trickle down to poorer consumers. One effect is that consumption of beer and soft drinks is rising especially quickly among the urban poor.

Alongside its commercial ambitions, SAB hopes its new initiative can help this process. Accordingly, Mr Castro and his colleagues are organising some 500 subsistence farmers into a co-operative.

Money earned from a long-term contract with SAB will filter throughout the local economy, as will the wages of about 500 machinists and other workers at the brewery. By training these workers in new skills, SAB will be helping to ease local skill shortages. Angola’s economic recovery has been heavily dependent on tens of thousands of workers imported from China.

But the initiative is far from pure philanthropy. African markets are particularly attractive commercially because potential demand is very high. Although per capita consumption of beer at about six litres per annum is less than one-eighth of the global average, alcohol is popular. SAB estimates that the informal, largely unregulated market is about four times bigger than the formal sector, and that about 4bn litres of artisanal beers, wines and other drinks made from sorghum, millet, palm and other local ingredients, worth about $3bn, are drunk each year.

The problem for the brewers is that African markets are often difficult and expensive to operate in. Because Africa’s industry and agriculture are so underdeveloped, goods ranging from crates and bottles to raw materials such as barley and hops are imported. Roads and basic infrastructure are often poor, which increases the costs of distribution. Ports, such as Luanda, are hopelessly congested and inefficient.

Such factors make imported beer unaffordable for the vast majority of the indigenous population. SAB’s answer is to increase the range of goods it obtains locally.

In Angola, it is already buying most of the glass it uses for bottles from a business set up by Castel, a French drinks company strong in franco­phone Africa, with which SAB frequently co-operates.

SAB has signed long-term contracts to buy crates from a local producer, and a similar kind of agreement is in place to allow it to buy locally produced cans from next year. By 2012, SAB should be able to source most of the sugar it uses in soft drinks from an Angolan producer.

Sam Jerónimo, managing director of SAB in Angola, says such arrangements have other benefits too. He expects the changes to reduce the number of containers it imports from 18,000 a year to between 2,000 and 3,000 annually. “There will be a lot less logistic headaches,” says Mr Jerónimo. “It will save us a lot of hassle and we will significantly reduce investment in working capital.”

It is the introduction of locally grown crops that represents the most far-reaching change, however. By helping to integrate local farmers into the economy, SAB will be expanding the potential market for its own product.

Something similar has already happened elsewhere in Africa: SAB already obtains barley from 12,700 local farmers in Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The company expects by 2012 to be involving 45,000 farmers in such schemes.

More important, not only is locally produced cassava going to be cheaper than imported maize, but it is also – if produced in the right quantities – a particularly rich source of starch.

All this means the price of beer can be made much more attractive, helping boost sales in a way that has already happened in Uganda.

Whether cassava beer will be quite as successful in Angola remains to be seen. But the signs are good. Francisco Domingo, who runs a tiny bar in the down-at-heel Luanda district of Sambizamba, is optimistic. Mr Domingo, who sells as many as 25 cases of beer a day at weekends, says his customers are adaptable. “It is a good idea, especially if it’s cheaper,” he says.

Financial Times

International beer brewer to increase number of African raw material farmer-suppliers

by Ann Crotty

SABMiller's African division is planning to increase the number of farmers contracted to supply it with raw material inputs from 20 000 to 45 000 by 2012.

The plan is part of the group's multibillion rand expansion into Africa, which is aimed at developing markets in a region that has been "the star performer" in terms of growth in gross domestic product since 2000 across the globe.

Through its ties with local farmers SABMiller is attempting to reduce the industry's hefty reliance on imports. Currently about 82 percent of the raw materials used in the final product are imported.

Mark Bowman, the managing director of SABMiller Africa, said at a press briefing: "The long supply chains offer opportunity to localise and to take out costs."

And increasing local content also offers opportunities to reduce excise on the final product. A few years ago the Ugandan government agreed to reduce excise if the company used local inputs.

But SABMiller chief executive Graham Mackay stressed that the company was not buying any farming land. "We are terrified of farming so we are not buying land, we try to act as central facilitating agents for farmers and can either help to fund their inputs or provide them with guaranteed prices for their sales to us. We also encourage the use of professional advisers."

In Uganda, where the group has 8 000 farmers supplying sorghum, the average size of the farms is less than an acre. This means that that the major challenge is organising the farmers. To do this SABMiller applies what it calls a prescriptive "hub-and-spoke" model, in which the hub is a reasonably large commercial operation and the spokes are the surrounding subsistence farmers.

In Uganda the system has assisted in substantially increasing the local supply of sorghum from 1 600 tons in 2003 to 11 600 tons in 2007.

According to a commissioned report written by Paris-based business school Insead, Nile Breweries, SABMiller's operating unit in Uganda, is now that country's fourth-largest taxpayer. This calculation takes into account the direct, indirect and induced effects of the brewery's operations on tax revenues.

The report calculated that Nile Breweries, which employs 430 people directly, supports about 44 000 jobs throughout the Ugandan economy. "For every job directly based at Nile Breweries, about 100 farmers and workers depend on the company for some part of their livelihood," said the Insead report. Many of these jobs are located in the retail trade sector of the economy. The 100-to-1 multiplier effect in Uganda compares with the 12-to-1 effect in South Africa.

Mackay describes the group's involvement with the farming community and the commitment to what it terms "enterprise development" as "enlightened self-interest."

"The process is very fragmented, there are challenges but it allows us to stabilise our supply chain and governments are very supportive."

Many of the challenges facing SABMiller in Africa relate to how it deals not only with the considerably different scale of operation but also with the extent of informality in many of the economies.

In southern Sudan, where the group has employed 150 people to work in a brewery that it is building, Mackay said, "we are the only formal business in the country." He added that the company would be helping the government to develop systems of governance.

According to Mackay, about half of the alcohol consumed across the globe is done so in illegal or informal circumstances. "In Africa the figure is 70 percent, which means that 70 percent of alcohol consumption is informal, unrecorded, untaxed or illegal in some way or other."

SABMiller's multibillion-rand capital expenditure programme is an ambitious attempt to formalise this market. Much of its marketing efforts, at individual country level, attempt to draw low-income consumers who are traditionally home-brew drinkers into consumption of "affordable" lager beer.

At the higher end SABMiller is pushing premium beer brands in a bid to capture as much as possible of this higher-margin business.

In addition to its beer range, the group has non-alcoholic beverages, including bottled water and Coca-Cola, in its product portfolio.

The average brewery in Africa produces 500 000 hectolitres a year, which is quite small and compares with the average 2 million hectolitre breweries in South Africa.

The cost of brewing capacity is very important for SABMiller, which means that capacity utilisation is critical.

"It's a matter of scale," said Bowman. "Because of the relatively small volumes it is difficult to get efficiencies with just beer. We need to bulk up our business in ways that make sense. We very much like the model of beer and Coke in Africa and we have replicated it in many countries."

The group also bulks up with water, which Mackay stresses is a basic low-margin product. Growth in demand for water is expected to continue to enjoy double-digit increases for the next 10 to 15 years.

Just three years into its more aggressive African strategy SABMiller seems confident that the continent's contribution to group earnings will increase progressively.

"It has the potential to outperform the organic profit opportunities of the group as a whole," said Mackay.

Business Report