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 The IFDC/International Maize and Wheat
Improvement Center (CIMMYT) collaboration continued in Africa with the
IFDC soil scientist/agronomist, Dr. Dennis Friesen, posted to the CIMMYT
program in Kenya. Agronomic field research, supported by the German
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the
Rockefeller Foundation and implemented through the Eastern and Central
Africa Maize and Wheat (ECAMAW) Network, continued to focus on improving
maize production through five main research themes: (1) farmer
participatory varietal evaluation, (2) scaling up of soil moisture
conservation strategies with drought-tolerant varieties, (3) evaluating
drought-tolerant varieties at different planting densities, (4)
evaluating best-bet, maize-legume systems with nitrogen-use efficient
varieties, and (5) quantifying the nitrogen requirements for
nitrogen-use efficient varieties. During the reporting period, ECAMAW
collaborators implemented 29 projects at multiple sites on-station and
on-farm with farmer participation. The BMZ project was completed in
December 2004, and a final report is currently being prepared.
Since it was first discussed with Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) in late 2001, Dennis Friesen has
collaborated in the development and implementation of a new project
implemented by CIMMYT with ECAMAW and other partners in Ethiopia, Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda. The Quality Protein Maize Development (QPMD)
project aims to improve the food security, nutrition (and thus health),
and farm income of resource-poor farming families by developing and
facilitating adoption of stress-tolerant QPM cultivars adapted to the
main ecologies of The Horn and Eastern Africa. In mid-2004, Friesen
relocated to Ethiopia to assume coordination of the project, which was
officially launched in January 2003.
Since its initiation, the project and its
partners have increased awareness and adoption of QPM varieties by
farmers and other stakeholders in the region through QPM promotional
activities such as demonstrations and field days (more than 6,200
participants to date in almost 1,900 demonstrations and 49 field days),
animal feeding trials to demonstrate the nutritional benefits of QPM
(two ruminant-based and two poultry-based feeding trials completed; two
pig trials underway), and media campaigns (posters, brochures, radio and
television broadcasts). CIMMYT and national agricultural research
systems (NARS) breeders participating in the project have implemented
159 germ plasm screening and breeding nurseries and multi-locational QPM
yield trials to identify and develop new improved varieties, resulting
in the release of four new varieties in the region during the past year.
Ten small seed companies are now producing and/or distributing QPM seed
in the region; a total of 1,750 tons of certified QPM seed was produced
and sold in 2003 and 2004. Estimated adoption of QPM in QPMD project
target areas, based on seed sales in 2004, suggest average adoption of
QPM in target areas of 3 of 4 countries near 20% (range 6%–45%). The
5-year project intends to achieve 25% adoption and use of QPM in target
areas in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda, and 10% in Kenya by the
project’s end.
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