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Table of contents Program notes .................... 1-3 Eastern Africa .......................5-6

Board approvals ................... 4 Andes................................7 West Africa...........................8-9
Upcoming events ..................4 Southern Africa ....................7-8

Program notes work as an Ojibwemowin language teacher at Anishinabe

Academy. Jenn received her B.A. in Heritage Language
CCRP staffing updates Stewardship from the University of Minnesota.
Contributed by Jane Maland Cady
The CCRP program administrator, Kaying Vang, transitioned Farmer research network learning from “deep-dive” projects
from her role in June to begin a Ph.D. in Evaluation Studies Contributed by Mary Richardson
at the University of Minnesota. We truly appreciate her The Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation, & Planning (IMEP)
contributions to the CCRP and wish her the best of luck in team (I-team) has written a synthesis of the learning gained
her future endeavors! through part of the developmental evaluation process that
involved four deep-dive FRN projects from 2015 through the
We are excited to welcome Walter
end of 2017. The report summarizes the learning work done
Abrego into that role, as of July 10.
across the deep-dive projects using FRN principles and the
Walter relocated to Minneapolis
five stages of research as guiding frameworks.
after completing his Master’s degree
in Public Administration at Texas The following themes emerged across all research stages:
Tech University. Walter served
as a congressional intern for U.S. 1. There is a need to shift perceptions, attitudes,
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. and beliefs of all stakeholders in order to create
Walter has also been a program an environment that supports authentic farmer
assistant for initiatives in Guatemala, engagement across the research process. This involves
England, Hungary, Romania, and understanding and addressing horizontal and vertical
Greece while doing undergraduate power dynamics.
work at the University of Northern Iowa. In this role, 2. Farmers and others learn best by doing. This is most
he planned international travel and events, translated effective when stakeholders are “doing” together.
documents, and organized meetings and events on campus.
3. There is a need to develop processes and tools that are
We are also pleased to welcome inclusive and appropriate. Good facilitation is key.
Jenn Hall, who joined the
foundation’s international team 4. Bonding and bridging social capital play important roles
on July 10. Jenn will provide in FRN. That is, people need to work within and across
support for CCRP consultants, groups.
among others. Most recently,
Jenn was a consultant providing 5. Understanding and working with the social issues, and
office management, accounting, addressing socioeconomic diversity, are important for
and grants management services. the success of the FRNs.
She also serves on the board of Principle 1 states that “Farmers who represent the social
the Bdote Learning Center. From and biophysical diversity of their communities participate in
2014 to 2016, she worked at the the whole research process”. The common threads running
Minnesota Council on Foundations. through all reporting is that farmers were most involved
Jenn’s résumé includes several when research was relevant (taking into account farmers’
years as a legislative assistant at the Minnesota House of interests), accessible (adapted methods and tools to
Representatives, work as a community organizer with the accommodate farmers), and well-facilitated (fully inclusive,
Native American Community Development Institute and with transparent decision-making).
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program notes continued
Principle 2 states that “Research is rigorous, democratized,
and useful, providing practical benefits to farmers as well as
insights on biophysical and social variation”. This principle
suggests the importance of local contexts (locally defined
socioeconomic and biophysical diversity), being flexible
(focusing on the most useful data for farmers), and adapting
research methods to fit farmers’ capacities (paying attention
to how farmers use the tools and adapt as needed).
Principle 3 states that “Networks foster collaboration and
opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing”. Key
considerations include: understanding the shape and
characteristics of the network, learning by doing together
to shift mindsets for all stakeholders in the network, and
paying attention to formal and informal methods of scaling,
which have impacts on the broader community.
This process of analysis and synthesis revealed how
interconnected the principles are. The network partners
and their priorities influence the research topic, design,
and process. The research process has an impact on
how deeply farmers can be engaged and often requires
adjustments to facilitate their participation. The ways in
which a representative group of farmers is involved have
repercussions on research design and process. All of
these combined challenge researchers, NGOs, field staff,
farmer organizations, and other stakeholders to question
their usual ways of working and to join together to build
new agreements, new relationships, and stronger, more
connected networks. This often requires new “soft” skills in
facilitation, negotiation and mediation, attitudes, and more.
It also requires different skills that enable researchers to
adapt their methods to the farmers’ priorities and needs.
In addition, all stakeholders may need to experiment
with different ways to communicate findings, scale out
innovations, and more generally share the new knowledge
being generated through these FRN projects.
The deep-dive process with these four groups provided a
wealth of thoughtful reflections and observations that can
be shared across all CCRP projects. However, it represents
only a small sample of FRN projects. Many more are making
insightful observations and developing tools and methods.
Each FRN project to date is unique and often quite different
from the others. The potential for learning is great and is
being realized through many different processes and in many
spaces, from in-person conversations to group discussions
online, working group meetings to CoP meetings, global
convenings to RMS workshops, and more.
Leadership team meeting
Contributed by Rebecca Nelson
The CCRP’s leadership team (LT) met in Ithaca, NY in early
June to advance shared learning and strategic planning. In
attendance were the regional teams; integrated monitoring,
evaluation, and planning team; research methods support;
directors; advisory committee; the McKnight president and
staff; our Gates Foundation program officer; and selected
cross-cutting grantees.
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The group reviewed issues and progress related to the
program’s overall objective of supporting agroecological
intensification (AEI) of smallholder farming in the regions
where the CCRP works. Over the past year, the LT has been
working on deepening the program’s approach to AEI.
Meeting highlights included:
• Several frameworks for understanding agroecology had
been shared with grantees at CoP meetings. Frameworks
included those focused on agroecological principles, or
elements.
• Discussions over the year had led to new ways of analyzing
our grants portfolio. While the program overall is “AEI
centered”, some projects (grants) are more oriented to
system components (hopefully “AEI informed”), while others
are more oriented to local farming or food systems (ideally
“AEI focused”).
• Efforts are increasing to build understanding across the
science, practice, and movement (S-P-M) of agroecology.
For instance, several CCRP LT members attended the
FAO’s second Agroecology Symposium, as reported
below. Two members of the Global Alliance for the Future
of Food, a CCRP grantee, attended the LT meeting. Their
work relates to bridging of S-P-M, and they brought fresh
perspectives on this to the discussions. The need to bridge
agroecological perspectives and mainstream agricultural
research and development was also highlighted.
• FRNs are regarded as a mechanism for farmer-led
implementation of AEI, adapting agroecological approaches
developed through CCRP research and beyond. See below
for an update on the work of the FRN working group and
the FRN Thematic Groups.
Symposium on Agroecology
Contributed by Jane Maland Cady
The FAO hosted the Second International Symposium
on Agroecology: Scaling Up Agroecology to Achieve
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in April
2018. Building on the First International Symposium on
Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition held in Rome
in 2014, and the subsequent regional seminars organized
in 2015 and 2016, six people from CCRP’s leadership team
attended the convening: Jane Maland Cady, Rebecca
Nelson, Ric Coe, Kate Wellard, Batamaka Somé, and Marah
Moore. The convening was part of the long process of
getting agroecology “mainstreamed” in global and national
policy and action plans. The event attracted more than 700
participants, a large increase from the previous symposium.
Participants were from a broad mix of organizations from
local, national, and international government, research and
development, and NGOs, including activist organizations.
The McKnight Foundation partially sponsored and helped
organize several side events in collaboration with the Global
Alliance for the Future of Food and the Agroecology Fund.
These side events provided the opportunity to discuss
funding for scaling agroecology, as well as to understand the
research and innovation priorities across science, practice,
and movement in agroecology.
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program notes continued
Stats4SD work in CCRP inspires learning opportunities
through blog posts and videos
Contributed by Ric Coe
The Research Methods Support (RMS) work in the CCRP
generates a great deal of thinking and new ideas that
have great relevance and interest to others. Stats4SD
is keen to share what they are learning and developing,
and this is primarily done via their blog and YouTube
channel. The content is available for the public to read,
watch, and comment on, and they welcome discussions
on all topics.
Here is a selection of what can be found:
Blogs
• On-Farm Trials to Farmer’s Trials – How Evolving
Perspectives Drive Evolving Methods: Delves into the
evolving history of research in support of smallholder
farmers and its impact on the research methods used.
• Using Multiple Knowledge Sources to Manage a
Mess: Aimed primarily at other statisticians who (in my
opinion!) need to adapt their thinking to be useful in our
sort of business.
• Beyond ANOVA – the Layers and Loops of Analysis:
How standard data analysis only partially reveals the
story told by the data, when working with farmers doing
large-N trials.
• Beyond ANOVA – Big Data and Large-N trials: As
trials are now much larger than when the theory and
practice of analysis of experiments was developed,
are there ideas for Big Data approaches that we can
exploit?
• New Problems – New Designs: Nearly 100 years ago,
R.A. Fisher started work at Rothamsted Experimental
Station. How relevant are his research designs in
large-N trials today?
• Insect Armageddon: The Appalling Collapse of
Insect Populations and a Collaborative Project
to Help Combat It: A look at a study on botanical
pesticides, which have less impact on insect populations
because they are designed to repel insects, not kill
them.
Videos
• Designing Right-N Trials with Farmers: A four-week
webinar series for a group of CCRP WAf grantees as
part of the Research Methods Support project. The
webinars cover topics from the objectives and design
details to measuring the design of “Right-N” trials with
farmers.
• Large N Trials: A two-part video series that explores
the practicalities of running a large-N trial, including how
to overcome the bottlenecks of standard on-farm trials
and empower farmers to do more of the work, including
taking most of the measurements.
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• Experiments with Farmers: A five-part series that
goes in-depth and explores various issues that arise
when conducting experiments with farmers, from
communicating the design with farmers to involving
farmers in the research.
Fall armyworm update
Contributed by Rebecca Nelson
The fall armyworm (FAW) is an insect pest that recently
arrived in Africa from North America. Since it was first
observed in Africa in 2016, FAW has damaged crops
across the continent. Smallholder farmers have faced
yield losses as well as negative health impacts from
improper pesticide responses. At a research methods
workshop in Kenya in May, participants developed a
strategy for responding to the challenge. A farmer-to-
farmer video is being produced by AccessAgriculture in
collaboration with the FAO. A dynamic WhatsApp group
has enabled interested members to exchange updates,
information and ideas. Laetitia Christine of the FRN-
NGO reports that little damage has been seen in western
Kenya thus far this year.
In October 2018, the Sustainable Development Solutions
Network will host an e-conference on responding to FAW
in Africa. The carbon-free conference will consist of five
90-minute sessions that explore monitoring systems
for FAW, effects of pesticide responses, alternatives to
pesticides such as integrated pest management (IPM),
and the roles of different stakeholders in addressing this
pest.
Global Alliance for the Future of Food update
Contributed by Jane Maland Cady
The Global Alliance (GA) for the Future of Food
continues to advance work in the areas of true cost
accounting, advancing agroecology, and health and well-
being. True cost accounting is a key focus area of the GA,
and they participated in supporting the TEEBAgriFood
Scientific and Economic Foundations Report +
Synthesis Report Launch in New Delhi, India on 4
June 2018. The report and synthesis were launched
at a panel discussion hosted by UN Environment and
the government of India on the occasion of World
Environment Day. The report continues to be updated
with additional chapters.
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Board approvals
The McKnight Foundation board of directors approved three CCRP grants during its May board meeting. Congratulations to
the following new and renewal CCRP grantees:

• Agro Insight for an Andes project titled “Videos for Andean Cropping Systems” led by Jeffery Bentley.

• Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD) for a West Africa
project titled “Feeding the Soil and Feeding the Cow to Feed the People: Co-Designing Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral Systems in
Sudano-Sahelian Zone of Burkina Faso” led by Myriam Adam.

• International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for a West Africa project titled
“Networking4Seed: Growing Sustainable Seed Systems by Learning from Experiences Across Mali, Burkina Faso, and
Niger” led by Baloua Nebie.

Upcoming Events
EAf & SAf RMS Writeshop–Arusha, Tanzania
30 July–3 August

FRN Learning Exchange–Singida, Tanzania

3–5 October

SAf CoP Meeting–Arusha, Tanzania

8–11 October

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Eastern Africa (EAf)

Contributed by the Eastern Africa regional team

EAf tenth anniversary CoP meeting

Each year, the CCRP convenes annual regional CoP
meetings to promote brainstorming, learning, and sharing
of research ideas and results among its projects, regional
partners, and invited guests. This past May, the EAf region
held its tenth CoP meeting in Entebbe, Uganda. A total
of 74 participants joined the meeting and anniversary
celebration.
The meeting provided opportunities for attendees to
reflect on how CCRP support and CoP membership have EAf tenth anniversary CoP meeting at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel, Entebbe,
Uganda: 6–10 May 2018. Photo credit: David Jakinda..
influenced them and their work. This came out through many
interesting discussions and activities during the course At the end of the week, participants identified priority action
of the week, as people considered the CoP’s past (where areas for the CoP moving forward. A number of these cut
did we start from), present (where are we now), and future across ecologies and national borders, including soil health,
(what do we want to act upon moving forward). One small community-based seed systems, and enhancing incomes
group discussion focused on CoP members’ perceptions of through value addition and marketing. CoP members also
how the key concepts, methods, and practices (in specific prioritized the development of more explicit strategies—
thematic area research) have evolved over the past decade. founded on a stronger AEI evidence base—for influencing
The table below presents an assessment of the past versus agricultural and environmental policies. Participants
present by CoP members involved in crop improvement and acknowledged that this would require significant attention
diversification research. to improving skills for more succinctly and effectively
communicating with people who lack technical backgrounds.
Table: Perceived evolution of concepts, methods, and practices in Finally, a keynote presentation by invited guest, Sara
crop improvement and diversification research within the EAf CoP. Namirembe, brought into
Previously Now focus the imperative of
• The CCRP project focus • There’s been a shift towards tackling entire value explicitly linking AEI research
was increasing crop and chain concerns, e.g. nutrition and market access. and development with
farm productivity. landscape level ecology.
Environmental degradation at
• Only researchers were • Variety development typically engages farmers.
involved in crop breeding. the landscape level is already
having negative impacts on
• Individual CCRP projects • Projects promote crop integration and rural communities, resulting
worked with single crops, diversification within farms, e.g. cereal/legume. in the loss of important
e.g. maize and finger millet.
ecosystem services. Indeed,
• Projects incorporated more • More inclined to disseminate research products participants acknowledged
basic research activities to (varieties, agroecological management). the widespread occurrence
generate new knowledge. of problems such as wetlands
• The emphasis was on the • Crop improvement more focused on specific conversion to agriculture,
development of varieties adaptation—matching varieties to options and loss of tree cover, and soil
with wide adaptation to contexts, e.g. varieties suitable for intercropping, degradation. As a community
assure stability in multiple rotation, etc., and the diverse needs of different that has ecological
environments upon genders, cultures, and socioeconomic groups. principles at its core, we
release.
have a responsibility to help
• Less effort to enhance • Focus on improving diversity has been communities understand,
diversity; breeders worked strengthened—germplasm collection, evaluation, recognize, and combat
with smaller collections that improvement, and conservation to support future these threats. We can begin
met their immediate crop breeding work. to do this by integrating
improvement needs.
environmental education and
• Individual project • Increased use of common approaches within and activism into our ongoing
teams worked with own among projects; regional integration of ideas and dialogues with smallholder
approaches of their choice. practices. agricultural communities, and
• Researcher-designed especially the youth, whose
• Scaling research while incorporating indigenous
experiments occurred futures will be most impacted
knowledge and farmer innovations in the process—
at small scale with few exploiting the power of numbers: FRN concept. if the widespread degradation
farmers, often as replicated continues unchecked.
trials or demonstrations.
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Eastern Africa continued
Field report on soil health work in finger millet project
During a session under a mango tree, Joseph Ekwangu, Finger Millet Uganda PI,
uses local soils to conduct soil health tests that give visually striking results, opening
the door to critical dialogue with farmers about the relationship between soil man-
agement practices and soil degradation or rehabilitation. Photo credit: Steve Vanek.
“We used the McKnight-funded soil toolkit with active C,
Olsen phosphorus, and particulate organic matter (POM)
tests to describe 1) a poor soil with cereals (called “stressed”
by Joseph and the farmer coordinator), 2) a poor to medium
soil with a healthy cowpea crop growing, and 3) a soil from a
manure area with abundant weeds growing.
We saw much more POM and active C (3x) in the manured
patch than the stressed soil, and about 25% more POM
in the legume soil than the stressed soil. The comparison
between low POM and the stronger purple color in the vial
in the stressed soil, and the lighter color and higher amount
of POM in the manured soil, made quite an impact on the
group.”
Using soils with highly contrasting properties stimulates rich discussions and
learning with farmers: Left: local soil from an animal tethering site that’s been
receiving manure, vs. Right: a stressed local soil that’s received few inputs of any
kind and is being used for cereal production. Photo credits: Joseph Ekwangu and
Steve Vanek.
After the session, Finger Millet Uganda PI Joseph Ekwangu
shared his insight that the test that shows particulate organic
matter, (POM, shown above) should be carried out first to
visualize “food for the soil” and then complemented with
the active C (POXC), N (Makarere version), and P test in
workshops, to delve more into the details. We both agreed
that looking for extremes was good for learning, and allowed
us to point to what could be done for the poor soils: distribute
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QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER | APRIL – JUNE 2018
micro-dosed fertilizer and manure, and grow legumes like
green gram or cowpea that do well in poor soil (probably
because they are accessing less available fractions of P).
Initiative increases support to CCRP graduate students
Most EAf CoP projects support Master and PhD students to
do their thesis research on project-aligned topics. However,
because students generally have very limited interaction
with our CoP and, thus, exposure to CCRP concepts and
approaches, their research is often fairly conventional, which
tends to limit their value to the project. Moreover, without
mainstreaming students within the CoP, not enough progress
is being made on grooming the next generation of AEI
champions.
To address these issues, the regional team launched a
new initiative to provide more support to project students
and enhance research quality and AEI centeredness,
using a cohort approach. The approach involves bringing
new students together at critical points in the research
cycle—especially at the initial research design and analysis
stages—for a week-long workshop where they are able to
learn from each other as well as from resource personnel.
This past May, close to 20 new CCRP project students, who
had projects approved at the 2017 November board meeting,
were brought together. They were a diverse group, including
students pursuing degrees in plant breeding, social sciences,
nutrition, plant pathology, agronomy, and more. The group
also included GIS interns, who are part of the KALRO-based
East Africa GIS support project, and were invited to get to
know more about some of the projects they might be called
upon to support. A number of resource persons served
the group, including the regional team (Linnet Gohole, Ric
Coe, Shiphar Mulumba, and Beth Medvecky), Steve Vanek
from cross-cutting soils, Laetitia Christine, FRN NGO data
manager, project PIs, and university professors, who are also
members of project teams. Ric did most of the teaching, with
Shiphar and Laetitia helping students gain practical skills in
Excel, ODK, and R.
The Multipurpose Legume team was well represented at the workshop by
students Anthony Wangila, Terry Adongo, and Rachel Wachira, as well as
project PI, John Ojiem and collaborating professor James Muthomi. Photo
credit: Ric Coe.
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Andes
Contributed by the Andes regional team
Projects attend FAO Symposium
The Yapuchiri or “wise farmer” project presented a poster at
the Second FAO international Symposium on Agroecology in
Rome in April, which was also attended by another Andes
grantee EkoRural, as well as CCRP staff and consultants.
Second FAO international Symposium on Agroecology in Rome in
April. Photo credit: FAO.
New act promotes family agriculture
In May, the Ministries
of Agriculture from
Colombia, Ecuador,
Bolivia, and Peru
signed legislation
to promote the
development and
competitiveness of
family agriculture in
the region. This accord
The minister of Agriculture of Ecuador, Ruben
came out of the “Andean Flores, visits farmers stands during the meeting.
Dialogue” meeting Photo credit: RIMISP.
on market access for
small-scale producers. The meeting was partly financed by
the CCRP and implemented by the Latin American Center
for Rural Development (RIMISP) with support from many
local, national, regional, and international actors such as
representatives from farmers associations, IICA, FAO, and
Oxfam.
Angel Catucuamba, a farmer from Ecuador, declared,
”Small-scale farmers, we want to stop being victims, and to
be the protagonists and to generate income from the field
and collaborate on the development of our country.”
Southern Africa (SAf)
Contributed by the Southern Africa regional team
Singida Nutrition and Agroecology project shares findings
Cornell University PhD student, Vicky Santoso, presented
findings from the Singida Nutrition and Agroecology
project (SNAP) at the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Health
(ANH) Academy in Accra, Ghana, 25-29 June 2018. ANH
brought together more than 200 researchers, policymakers,
and researchers to share innovative research in agriculture
and food systems, for improved nutrition and health. An
initial study by SNAP showed that smallholder farmers
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Project showcases crop at World Potato Congress
The tenth World
Potato Congress,
sponsored by the
International Potato
Center, took place in
Cusco, Peru in May.
The CCRP project
“Sowing the Andean
Diet” sponsored
five booths that
featured farmers
from the Choppca
nation showcasing
The President of Peru visiting Choppca farmers.
Photo credit: Grupo Yanapai. their more than 400
varieties of native
potatoes.
New initiative fosters new collaborations
A new initiative called “International Laboratory Bio-
Inca”, led by French grantee, Institut de recherche pour le
développement (IRD: Institute for Development Research),
along with the Catholic University in Ecuador (PUCE) and
la Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, is meant to foster
collaborations between and among these institutions, to
encourage more transdisciplinary and coordinated work
between agronomists and ecologists. The launch of the
initiative in Ecuador was attended by CCRP grantees and
consultants and marks an important step toward the CCRP’s
aim to transform the agriculture research system. For more
information, follow their Twitter feed.
CCRP grantee Olivier Dangles contributes to the launch of Bio-Inca in
Ecuador. Photo credit: Quentin Struelens.
in Singida, Tanzania faced multiple challenges: limited
knowledge of good agricultural practices, high levels of food
insecurity, inadequate feeding of young children, and gender
inequality. The project has supported mentor farmers in
training other farmers in agroecological practices, nutrition,
and gender issues over a three-year period. Vicky’s findings
show that farmers are now growing a greater diversity of
crops, mothers have a more diverse diet, and households
are more food-secure. Child nutrition and gender equity
have yet to show impact; therefore, the project is renewing
its focus on gender inequity and involving men in discussion
on family nutrition and gender.
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Southern Africa continued
Project promotes Community Seed Banks in Malawi
Uptake of new, improved varieties of groundnuts (peanuts),
developed by the Groundnut Breeding project and partners
in Malawi was initially slow because of high seed prices and
limited reach of formal markets. Community Seed Banks
(CSB) are a village institution, managed and operated by
farmers for multiplication, storage, and distribution of seed
at affordable prices with lending and recovery of seeds
between members. The project has supported farmers in
three districts to form groups, and trained them in seed
production and CSB operations. Each farmer received about
10 kg of seed and is expected to give back 20 kg to the
seed bank and encouraged to sell the excess to community
members. CSB beneficiaries and seed production have
multiplied rapidly, and seed banks are running with little
outside support. A project monitoring visit in June recorded
Community Seed Bank members
in Thale, Nkhotakota district,
Malawi, during seed recovery.
Photo credit: Wills Munthali.
West Africa (WAf)
Contributed by the West Africa regional team
Board approves new projects in May
The following two WAf projects were approved by the
McKnight board in May 2018:
• “Networking4Seed: Growing Sustainable Seed
Systems by Learning from Experiences Across Mali,
Burkina Faso, and Niger”: Led by ICRISAT, this project
will further strengthen farmer-managed seed cooperatives
and their contribution to agricultural systems diversification,
legume integration, and smallholder farmers’ autonomous
access to improved and nutritious quality seed of cereal
and legume crops in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Thereby, the project clearly contributes to CCRP’s priority
of AEI. Networking among research institutions and at least
six farmer organizations (two each in Mali, Burkina Faso,
and Niger) involved in cereal and legume variety evaluation,
seed production, and marketing is expected to foster
learning about variety adaptation to specific agroecologies,
cropping systems, and socioeconomic contexts, related
data management, and about constraints in the seed value
chain. Learnings about the dynamics in such a FRN around
seed systems will be documented. Individual, context-
specific business models for sustainable farmer-managed
seed cooperatives will be developed and opportunities,
challenges, and governance issues addressed. Special
attention will be given to the role and contribution of women
in these networks and women’s contribution to improved
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QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER | APRIL – JUNE 2018
good progress in many sites. Thale seed bank in Nkhotakota,
for example, has grown from 50 farmers in 2015/16 to 350
farmers this season, with groundnut seed recovery at 700 kg
and total production of 4.7 tons.
Kate Wellard (SAf Liaison Scientist), Vicky
Santoso (SNAP project), and Sera Young
gather at the 2018 Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Health Academy in Accra, Ghana. Photo
credit: unknown.
seed reaching out to female farmers and other vulnerable
groups. The project is also expected to support other
CCRP-funded projects in WAf (Bambara Nut, Dual-purpose
Sorghum/Cowpea, Cowpea Square, Fonio, Processing,
Child Nutrition) in their efforts to scale farmer-, processor-,
and user-preferred, improved, and nutritious cultivars in
context-specific ways.
• “3F–Feeding the Soil and Feeding the Cow to Feed the
People: Co-Designing Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral Systems
in Sudano-Sahelian Zone of Burkina Faso”: The
“3F” project led by CIRAD in cooperation with INERA,
Wageningen University, and the farmer organization AMSP
in Burkina Faso represents an important complement
to the CCRP’s WAf CoP. The project focuses on AEI by
optimizing the integration and interactions among crops,
trees, and livestock in sorghum-based production systems.
It combines farmer-researcher co-design of new AEI
and systems integration options with innovative scientific
modeling to analyze tradeoffs. Particularly innovative is
the focus on functional agrobiodiversity at plant (robust
varieties), plot (crop or variety mixtures, management), and
farm levels (mitigating tradeoffs and maximizing synergies),
with the ultimate aim to increase farm productivity and
income. Gender equity aspects are well articulated, and
student training is an integral component of the project.
The project also clearly builds on experience from other
projects (both CCRP and non-CCRP) in the region that
focus on cereal-legume intercropping, new combinations
of crops (or crops and trees), and management practices.
By strengthening linkages between farmer organizations
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West Africa continued
and research initiatives, the project also contributes to the
implementation of a FRN approach in Burkina Faso.
Data clinics in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali
David Stern, supported by Danny Parsons and Zed Mawisi,
held data clinics between 22 April and 2 May in the three
WAf countries. Nearly all projects benefited from the
opportunity to discuss their data. The following conclusions
were drawn:
• The more informal approach of having data clinics rather
than workshops is becoming more effective, as the projects
are making visible progress in their data skills. More than
half the projects demonstrated substantial advances in how
they work with and treat their data.
• WAf grantees now use a substantive variety of statistics
packages, with R-Instat providing an additional option.
David was pleased that no project lacked a statistics
package on their machine.
• Certain projects need more substantial intervention, seeing
as they have a great deal of interesting data that they are
not yet unable to fully exploit. Certain projects are nearing
the stage where remote support could be useful.
• Generally, David was really pleased with the progress he
was seeing in the grantees, whom he said were gradually
building a solid skills base from which they should soon
tackle more substantive challenges.
WAf representation at the Global Sorghum Conference
Several CCRP grantees from both West and Eastern Africa
participated in the Global Sorghum Conference in Cape
Town, South Africa from 9-12 April 2018, with more than
400 participants from all over the world. The grantees
communicated CCRP-funded research in various oral or
poster presentations, as well as an exposition area, where
The CCRP WAf representation at the Global Sorghum Conference. Photo credits: Moustapha Moussa, Bettina Haussmann, and Sorghum Conference photographer.
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QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER | APRIL – JUNE 2018
project posters and products were displayed. WAf Liaison
Scientist Bettina Haussmann gave a keynote plenary speech
titled “Tackling Key Issues for Smallholder Farmers: the
farmer research network Approach”, which explained the
CCRP’s FRN approach and FRN principles, and underlined
the importance of considering farmers as authentic partners
in research.
Student receives award for millet pest control progress
Laouali Amodou, a CCRP-funded doctoral student of the
GIMEM project at the University of Maradi, was honored
on 9 May with an award by the US Board for International
Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) for academic
excellence, and more specifically, addressing millet pest
control efficiently.
WAf representation at FAO Agroecology meeting
WAf Regional Representative, Batamaka Somé, participated
in the FAO Agroecology meeting in April in Rome. Besides
following the edifying conversations on innovation, farmers’
participation in research, and the science-practice-movement
dimensions, he also made connections, exchanged learning,
and connected with like-minded organizations, including the
Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) that supports
farmers to adopt a foresight approach in agriculture practice.
More importantly, participation in the conference convinced
Somé that the CCRP is on the right track in its endeavors
toward AEI for sustainable food production. He lamented,
however, that the CCRP has seemed less than successful
in communicating some of its unique successes and self-
generated concepts and approaches such as “options-by-
context” and “farmer research networks”.
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