The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), and partners, have launched a Euro 15 million programme, to support the adoption of the Centre’s technologies and strategies for improved cereal, horticulture and livestock productivity by an estimated 350,000 additional farmers and pastoralists in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Titled, Integrated Biological Control Applied Research Program (IBCARP), the
initiative will be funded by the European Union (EU) through a Euro 12 million
grant, with additional funds from icipe’s
core funds and other sources. IBCARP was inaugurated during an inception meeting held recently at icipe, attended by over 40 technical
experts of cereal, horticulture and livestock farming and value chains from all
across the globe.
“In Africa’s
predominantly mixed crop-livestock farming systems, cereals are the main staple
food and cash crop for millions of households. In addition, the production of
fruit and vegetables offers one of the most important opportunities for income
generation, employment creation and improvement in food and nutritional
security. Livestock provide a valuable source of nutrition as well as
opportunities for income generation. However, productivity of cereal,
horticulture and livestock in the region is low, resulting in food insecurity
and poor livelihoods. Therefore, addressing the
constraints of these three sets of produce is critical for food security,
economic growth and poverty alleviation in Africa,” observed Mr Steve Wathome, Programme Manager, Agriculture and Rural
Development, EU Delegation to Kenya, during the inception meeting.
icipe Director General, Dr Segenet Kelemu, noted:
“IBCARP will be implemented through four projects, which are focussed
on: the Centre’s climate-resilient push-pull technology for the control of weeds
and pests; fruit fly integrated pest management (IPM) technologies; the tsetse
fly repellent collar technology and research towards the control of vectors of
camel diseases.”
Push-pull
is a platform technology developed over the past 20 years by icipe in collaboration with Rothamsted
Research, United Kingdom, and partners in eastern Africa. This simple cropping
strategy simultaneously addresses the five key constraints of cereal–livestock
mixed production systems in SSA – insect pests (stemborers), the parasitic weed
Striga (and other weeds), poor soil fertility, soil moisture management,
while also fulfilling the need for high quality animal feed. Over the past four years, icipe and its partners have developed a climate-smart version of push-pull to
extend its application to drier areas of the continent, and in relation to the
increasingly dry and hot conditions associated with climate change.
“Through IBCARP, icipe
will address the key limitations to scaling up the
climate-smart push-pull, and also continue to adapt it to the key
agro-climatic conditions and farmer practices. In effect, the Centre will move
closer to achieving its goal of making the technology accessible to millions of
smallholder farmers living in the drier regions of Africa,” explains Prof. Zeyaur Khan, Leader of the
push-pull project.
The
icipe fruit fly IPM packages are
aimed at reducing yield losses and the huge expenditure incurred by farmers to
purchase pesticides, in trying to deal with the plethora of these devastating
pests. They are also intended to mitigate the health and environmental risks
associated with the use (and misuse) of such chemicals. Overall, icipe’s goal is to increase the
competitiveness of fruit from SSA in local and international markets, and to
elevate the income and livelihoods of people involved in the value chain,
especially women and the youth.
“Although
fruit flies attack a variety of fruit, IBCARP’s focus will be on mango
production, based on its importance to smallholder farmers. icipe’s aim is to make the IPM packages
accessible to over 10,000 smallholder mango growers, while also strengthening
the capacity of national and private sectors partners to continuously monitor
and detect alien pest fruit flies, to reduce the risk of their entry,
establishment and spread in SSA. Additionally, the Centre will conduct new
research to expand its IPM packages, with the aim that the new strategies,
though initially intended for mango, could also be used for the management of
fruit flies on other crops,” indicates Dr Sunday Ekesi, Leader of the icipe African Fruit Fly Project.
The icipe
tsetse fly repellent collar technology is a critical component in the
sustainable control of the tsetse transmitted trypanosomiasis (nagana)
parasite, which causes a fatal disease that kills millions of cows every year.
The collars contain a blend of chemicals identified from water buck, an animal
that is present in tsetse fly infested areas, but which is not fed on by the
flies. Worn around the neck of cattle, the repellent collars provide
substantial protection to cattle.
“In
pilot sites, for instance in Kwale County along the Kenyan coast, the tsetse
repellent collars have been shown to have a significant impact on the
livelihoods of farmers. They have reduced the rate of nagana by more than 80%,
meaning that the cows are generally healthier, therefore producing more milk
and meat, and draught power to cultivate land. As a result of their
effectiveness, the demand for the collars is very high among farmers,” explains
Rajinder Saini, of icipe’s Animal
Health Theme.
He adds that through IBCARP, icipe
will collaborate with private sector partners to scale-up the mass
production and rollout of the tsetse repellent collar technology, backed by a
viable business plan for its commercialisation, packaging and wider
dissemination. The first step will be to secure the registration of the
technology in IBCARP’s three target countries: Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. icipe will rely on the support of
government and commercial partners to achieve this goal. The Centre will
also integrate the use of the technology with
other approaches, and in the development of effective barriers to stop flies
from reinvading tsetse controlled areas. In addition, the
repellent collars technology will be
evaluated
for use in the control of vectors of human African trypanosomiasis (known more commonly as
sleeping sickness).
icipe will use the experience and knowledge gained
through the development of technologies for the control of savannah tsetse
flies – which, in addition to the repellent collars, also include traps and
odour baits – to initiate new research for the control of camel disease vectors
in arid and semi-arid lands of SSA. Specifically, the focus will be on surra, a parasitic disease
of camels and other mammals caused by trypanosomes, transmitted by biting
flies.
“Currently, there is
limited understanding of the actual vectors involved in surra transmission and
no vector control technologies are available. In addition, there is poor
diagnosis of the disease, as well as increasing resistance to drugs,” Dr Saini
notes.
Stakeholders attending the IBCARP inception
meeting commended the programme, noting one of its key strengths to be the
harmony with agricultural policies of the countries in which it is being
implemented.
“Most national agricultural agendas position
increased productivity of staple cereals, horticulture and livestock as central
to equitable rural development and poverty reduction. In Kenya, for
instance, Vision 2030, the country’s current development programme, is very
specific on this connection,” commented the Director of Veterinary Services in
Kenya, Dr Kisa Juma Ngeiywa.
The
Hon Joanne Nyamasyo, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries,
Kwale County, added: “IBCARP’s actions and projected outcomes are supported by
evidence. In Kwale County, for instance, we have witnessed the dramatic changes
among farmers using the tsetse repellent collars. It is therefore welcome news
that such technologies will reach more farmers, in existing project sites and
beyond.”
As
further observed by Dr Agol Kwai, Animal
Health Expert in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, Centre for
Pastoral Areas and Livestock Development, icipe’s intervention on camel surra disease is particularly significant in
countries where the animal is
economically important. This is because research on the disease has so far been
neglected, leading to severe problems in its management. As a result, in many
cases, the animals are simply allowed to die when they become infected with
surra.
“The four icipe
projects bring together a comprehensive package that integrates weed, pest and
soil fertility management in cereal and horticultural crops, livestock fodder
production, and animal health, while ensuring environmental sustainability. This makes IBCARP well aligned with the EU
thematic programme on food security,” concluded Mr Wathome.
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