Knowledge Management Portal

Since 2009, the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) and Ethiopian NARS has been implementing community-based breeding program (CBBP) in Ethiopia, to support the livelihood of smallholder farmers by improving the productivity of small ruminants through selective breeding. Since then, a remarkable progress has been made in improving the livelihood of small holders in different parts of the country. Currently, the CBBP initiative has been expanded to cover more than 10,000 households in Ethiopia. Generally, improved productivity, higher offtake, and higher annual income were recorded in those households participating in CBBPs. For example, an average genetic gain of 0.20kg per year for six-months weight and, and increased mutton consumption (from 1 sheep to 3 slaughtered/year/HH) were achieved in CBBP intervention areas. ICARDA has been working on Menz sheep and Abergelle goat CBBPs improvement closely with the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI) and Amhara Region Bureau of Agriculture to transform small ruminant value chains in Amhara region and beyond. CBBPs is adapted by different institutions in the region and being expanded in many parts of the region. As an example, Washera sheep CBBPs and Wollo sheep improvement has been implemented by various institutions (different universities, research centers and the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute). However, there is no a harmonized breeding objective, CBPP implementation modality and a clear roles and responsibility shared among stakeholders working in the region. Hence, bringing all institutions together and harmonizing the scattered efforts in Washera and Wollo sheep improvement is crucial to bring impact at scale. As part of the joint effort, ICARDA in collaboration with ARARI organized a two-day consultation and planning workshop in Bahir Dar at Unison Hotel from 14-15 April 2022.

The honey that is obtained from Sulla is very rich in nutrients, enzymes, and vitamins - El Rhahla region – Siliana District, Tunisian Agroecological Living Landscape.

Many of young researchers working in plant protection lack skills and knowledge on pest and disease identification, disease/pest measurements, pest, and disease dynamics, IPDM options, and different aspects of conducting plant protection research and generating quality data. Skill and knowledge gaps are pronounced mainly on emerging and new diseases affecting food legumes. An additional objective of the training was to train the researchers in evaluating breeding lines together with breeders. Three days of training October 11-13, 2022) were organized for young researchers from Federal and Regional research centers at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and a half-day field visit.

Declining rainfall with an increasing variability, increasing temperature extremes, and declining soil fertility are threatening crop production and ultimately food security in the CWANA region. Also, the presence of higher attainable/management yield gaps in the region indicates the possibility of improving crop productivity by adopting improved variety and agronomic practices. Due to significant Genotype (G) × Environment (E) × Management (M) interaction, the development of suitable and broadly adapted varieties is complicated and resource consuming. Understanding the interaction effect between genotype and agronomic management practices on crop growth and productivity is critical to achieving stable yields under variable bio physical and socio-economic environments. In this response, in collaboration with the national research centers and F2-R CWANA WP3, strategic G × E × M experimentation has been designed and established in 2022 in different wheat-based production systems in five CWANA countries, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, and Uzbekistan. The objective of this collaborative research is to generate standard data set for developing the bundled agronomic solution of diverse production environments through different analytical methods; and help to develop a breeding product profile to inform breeders for developing breeding strategy.

Experimental Plot of Durum Wheat under Conservation Agriculture/No-Till – El Rhahala Region, Siliana District, Tunisian Agroecological Living Landscape.

This study provides a novel human-machine hybrid approach for creating learning about how knowledge management interventions can improve the performance of agriculture and food innovations to achieve sustainable development goals. It analyzes 2339 evidence resources, 500 of which are full texts reaching approximately 9600 pages of published high-quality academic text. It provides a big spectrum of results and presents the main findings in a concise way. It informs the main management question od what works in knowledge management interventions in improving innovation systems in middle and low-income countries. It provides high granular information generated in North Africa, Near East, East Europe, Central Asia, and contributes to overall IFAD learning in the NENA and CEA region and beyond. It shows that only a tiny share of the evidence sources provided enough granularity to program better interventions. In addition, existing information was mostly about general knowledge management rather than other operational aspects like capture, retrieval, enhancement, etc. Moreover, how different types of knowledge management interventions differ has not been sufficiently articulated. Although impacts were discussed intensely, how it happens through effective delivery and scaling processes was hardly articulated. Most of the existing evidence is at the level of continents and regions rather than at the country and sub-country levels. In most of cases, heterogeneous areas and countries were bulked into a single group hindering the performance of knowledge management interventions significantly. In continents, the evidence available on different subregions varied significantly. Therefore, The study showed that evidence sources informing about the role of knowledge management on SDG 1 (poverty) and 2 (hunger and food security) were much less than the average of all SDGs. Also, the number of IFAD-funded authored and informed evidence sources were minimal. Nevertheless, evidence could inform all IFAD result management indicators except the government budget. Especially information on nutrition, the only IFAD indicator target that could not be achieved in recent years, had the largest evidence. Furthermore, there was no single complete evidence resource for Moldova among some 2300 analyzed by the synthesis. Morocco and Sudan were in the medium range when it came to the availability of the evidence. Therefore, the study confirmed that the geographical focus of the IFAD regional SKiM project addressed a gap. Therefore, The evidence synthesis has also some natural follow-ups to design more effective and efficient knowledge management interventions that can fast-track impact. The immediate follow-up is to extend the scope of the evidence synthesis to technical reports and gray literature produced by IFAD and other key partners like CGIAR, FAO, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank etc. Knowledge management is a practical discipline in which learning is captured also in non-scientific forms. The methods and tools developed for this evidence synthesis can reduce the time necessary to cover gray literature significantly. Also, synergies with existing toolkits of IFAD, like the ones developed by ATHENA, could further increase the gains for IFAD. The study concluded that 1. Actionable, context-specific knowledge management intelligence is a bottleneck for designing transformative delivery and scaling interventions required for impactful agriculture and food innovation systems 2. IFAD regional knowledge management efforts were crucial but insufficient in achieving the major poverty and hunger ambitions. It is necessary to increase investments in knowledge management with a co-investment model. 3. Extending the evidence synthesis by leveraging existing IFAD and partner tools can be a quick win in designing better-informed knowledge management interventions.

Sheep and goat community-based breeding programs (CBBPs) has been implemented in Ethiopia since 2009. Initiated by the ILRI-ICARDA-BOKU, the programs are currently overseen by the International Research Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in collaboration with international and national partners. Numerous field excursions to CBBP sites were conducted in an effort to determine if the foundational elements of CBBPs are in place, to strengthen and optimize the current CBBPs, and to facilitate their scaling. The visit considered the Washera and Wollo sheep scaling (WaWo) initiative sites, Bonga, Arsi Bale, and Menz sheep, as well as Hararghe Highland and Konso goat CBBPs. During the visit, suggestions and recommendations were given to the relevant team and community. In order to support CBBP, numerous institutions got 26,000 ear tags with markers, 41 applicators, 12 burdizo for castration on non-selected males. 25 weighing scales, veterinary supplies, and medicines such antibiotics and anthelminthics as well as needles, syringes, and therapies for external parasites. Two comprehensive laboratories for low-cost reproductive technology have been established at the universities of Injibara and Haramaya. Nineteen tablets and digital database training were made available to the WaWo initiatives (Injibara, Bahir Dar, Debre Markos, Mekdela Amba University, Andasa and Debre Berhan Research Centers, and the Water and Land Resource Center) to help with data collection. The Washera sheep and Central Highland Goat breed development teams received trainings in reproductive technologies after the creation of two laboratories at Injibara and Haromaya Universities. This training included 18 experts. A total of 219 breeding rams were purchased this year and given to the WaWo initiative.

Different IPDM innovations were tested to manage insect pests and parasitic weeds on fab ban, chickpea and lentil. The results showed that biopesticides can give good control of aphids and pod borers. In addition IPDM option can manage parasitic weeds on faba bean and can double crop yield.