A few thoughts from a Kenyan visitor

Our project Capacitate East Africa has as one of its activities short-term training of Masters students from the African partners in molecular biology for plant breeding. Capacitate is a partnership funded by the EU ACP Science and Technology Programme. It is led by Uganda Martyr’s University, and also involves Kenyatta University and the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, both in Kenya, as partners. Associates were ICRISAT and BecA, the Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) hub.

Capacitate’s overall objective is to increase the capacity of crop research in East Africa to produce improved, well-adapted, farmer-acceptable crop varieties and enhanced food security. Specific objectives are:

1. To develop the capacity for improved breeding methods, in particular using a few-cross strategy and client-oriented methods, to be applied in plant breeding programmes by the network of partners in East Africa.
2. To encourage the appropriate use of molecular marker technology to augment these breeding programmes by the partner institutions in East Africa.

As well as these training visits, activities include courses in Africa on a range of topics from project management, networking, statistics and experimental design, participatory plant breeding (Client-oriented breeding), and scientific-writing.

We are hoping that a second phase of Capacitate will go ahead, with a slightly different focus. The application was submitted a few weeks ago, and we will hear soon whether or not it was successful.

Caroline Mukiri being presented with her training certificate by Dr Katherine Steele

We recently said goodbye to Caroline Mukiri (pictured above), who was with us for six months under this programme. Before she left, we asked her for a few words for this blog. This is what she said:

"When I was invited to Bangor for the training in molecular breeding by Dr Katherine Steele of CAPACITATE East Africa, I was so excited and indeed the stay at Bangor was so helpful and nurturing. Under the supervision of Dr. Katherine Steele, who was very helpful in directing me and explaining concepts that I had problems with, my stay was so exiting as I did what I loved most. The staff were very helpful in directing me and providing all that I needed for my work in the university. Compared to the university where I am graduating (Kenyatta University), Bangor University has very good facilities and ease of their access. The labs are well equipped."

"My best experience was working closely with Dr Katherine, who explained the kind of work I was doing and most importantly took me through QTL analysis of beta glucan trait in a barley project she undertook. I had a great hand on experience in DNA extraction, PCR, Gel electrophoresis and CEQ DNA fragment analysis. I also was able to run beta glucan and amylose content assays. The university offered opportunities to attend seminars which were very helpful."

"My stay at Bangor was during winter which made it so cold for me compared to the climate in my home country Kenya. The cold was my worst experience even though it did not get me down to prevent me from enjoying the opportunity to be at Bangor."

"I really appreciated the opportunity and thank my supervisors both in Kenya and at Bangor for being keen on me and helping me through the training as I did my masters project. I thank Dr. Katherine Steele for the opportunity to work in her Barley for food project and present part of it as my masters thesis in my graduating university (Kenyatta)."

"I thank the entire WINR family for being keen on my work and offering me with necessary help. I appreciate CAPACITATE East Africa project and working with them will be my greatest joy to further their work and achieve the set goals."

We wish Caroline the best of luck with her MSc, and, along with the other student visitors we have hosted, well for their future careers.

Helping Ethiopian researchers to improve food security

Tigray is the northernmost region of Ethiopia. It was the region worst affected by the famine of the 1980s, and frequently suffers severe droughts. It is home to almost 4.5 million people, 80% of whom live in rural areas and depend largely on subsistence agriculture. The traditional cereal crop is Tef or Teff (Eragrostis tef), a grass-like plant with small seeds which is used to make injera, a large flat round bread, but many other cereals, including wheat, are also grown. 

The location of Tigray in Ethiopia. Map: Wikipedia

Harvesting Teff in Northern Ethiopia. Photo: A Davey, licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

We worked with local partners there in a project funded by Irish Aid from 2007 to 2010 to achieve a breakthrough in increasing the food security of poor farmers in the region. Using the client-oriented methods pioneered by Prof John Witcombe, we identified two Indian wheat varieties, adapted to Ethiopian conditions, which give higher yields when rainfall is scarce. 

Working with Mekelle Agricultural Research Centre (MARC), and Tigray Agricultural Research Institute, Mekelle (TARI), local farmers made decisions about what elements of the different varieties were important to them.  This method is called is called participatory varietal selection or PVS, and CARIAD is a world-leading exponent of its use. Farmers often identify traits such as taste and quality, which are not tested for in traditional breeding programmes. PSV methods, which can be used anywhere, have already identified many farmer-preferred varieties of different crops. In India and Nepal, DFID-funded studies have shown that varieties of rice and maize identified using these methods have been widely adopted, leading to substantial improvements in the food security of resource-poor farming families. They are also highly effective in maintaining or even increasing on-farm biodiversity, as a wider range of crop varieties is grown, each occupying a specific niche in the cropping system.

PVS involves farmers in the research from the start, and is highly effective in identifying varieties suited to their needs and preferences, particularly in drought-affected or infertile areas. Farmers work with CARIAD and local partners to identify new varieties that suit their particular needs for yield, flavour and time to maturity. These are then widely distributed through farmer-to-farmer contact, and community-based systems can be set up to provide enough good quality seed to farmers.

Here, the two varieties were tested against a locally-recommended check variety, HAR 2501, by 32 farmers at different locations in Tigray during 2008 and 2009. The variety HI-1418 produced 2.3 t ha^-1 grain, and HUW-468 2.5 t ha^-1, compared with 2.0 t ha^-1 for the check, increases of 15 and 25%. Because they mature around 2 weeks earlier than the check variety, the new varieties are much more drought tolerant, especially at the critical pre-harvest period. They also have good straw production, do not lodge (fall over), and have high disease resistance and good cooking quality. The grains of both varieties are hard, large and amber coloured, all traits that farmers prefer.

Project staff and farmers in Mekelle inspecting the new varieties. Photo: DS Virk

The two farmer-preferred varieties will provide food for many hungry people in Ethiopia. Before the project, farmers in the region preferred traditional low-yielding varieties, as the locally-recommended modern varieties were too late to mature. However, during the testing, the farmers overwhelmingly preferred the new varieties, over both the traditional and the modern varieties, and were keen to grow them again if seed were available.

The proposal by TARI to release the varieties nationally for cultivation in drought prone areas was accepted by the Ethiopian National Variety Release Committee in February 2011. According to Dr Eyasu of the Mekelle Agricultural Research Centre (MARC), they are “the first varieties ever released by MARC and TARI, and this would not have possible without the help of CARIAD.”

TARI now plans a major programme of seed production and will disseminate these varieties widely in rainfed, drought-affected areas. They will benefit over 350,000 households on the 210,000 ha in Tigray and the Southern regions where wheat is grown.

The selected varieties have also been tested in Southern Ethiopia as part of the same project. Dr Virk had initially identified them in a PVS project in Gujarat, India, funded by the DFID Plant Sciences Research Programme from 1996 to 2002 and managed by Bangor University. 

Quinoa - salvation or disaster for Andean farmers

We recently attended a conference organised by the Desert Restoration Hub, held at Greenwich University in London. From a very interesting programme, one talk in particular, from James Reynolds of Duke University, stood out. It was particularly timely as the UN has decreed 2013 to be the “Year of Quinoa.

The location of the Altiplano in the central Andes. Map: Wikimedia commons

Reynolds had been working close to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, an area of salt flats on the altiplano or Andean Plateau, the cool, dry plain high in the central Andes, lying at an altitude of 3-5,000 m. The traditional local crop is quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), a pseudo-cereal which has been grown there for thousands of years. In Inca times it was felt to be a sacred plant. It was so highly regarded that the emperor himself sowed the first seeds of the season, using “golden implements”, and the Spanish Conquistadors banned its cultivation for a period. For the pre-Andean civilisations, Quinoa was valued ahead of maize, and second only to the potato. 

Aerial view of the arid Altiplano between Sicuani (Cusco) and Ayaviri (Puno), Peru. The altitude here is about 3900 m. Photo: Maurice Chédel

 

Quinoa is well suited to cool, dry environments on poor soils, although it does need well-distributed rainfall during establishment. It will grow well on salt-affected land, and is perfectly at home at high altitudes. It is related to the widespread temperate weed known in the UK as Fat Hen (C. album) which is sometimes cultivated as a vegetable, and to other pseudo-cereals such as grain amaranth that are grown in other parts of the world, for example the Himalayas. A shrub that can grow to more than 2 m high, in flower and at harvest quinoa brings vibrant colours to the otherwise monotone semi-desert. 

Quinoa plants near Cachora, Apurímac, Peru. Altitude: 3800m. Photo: Maurice Chédel

 Quinoa has a very good nutrient composition compared with most cereals. The grains contain all ten essential amino acids, high fibre, and high concentrations of minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron. Over the centuries, local farmers have kept and sown their own seed. As quinoa becomes adapted to particular micro-environments, the area where it grows shows very high biodiversity, and there are a great many landraces each adapted to its own particular environmental niche.

Traditionally, the crop has been grown for subsistence, and farmers have largely cooperated with such things as land preparation and harvest. Although it responds to fertilizer, traditionally little or none has been applied. However, in recent years increasing realisation of the health benefits of the grain has led to very high commercial demand from, for example, the US, Europe and Australia.

This has had a number of undesirable consequences. The high demand has led to a tripling in prices to, for some varieties, USD 8,000 per tonne, which has fuelled an increase in the area of the crop. The increased prices have led to increased mechanisation, and to the crop spreading to increasingly marginal land which is damaged by the cultivation operations.  This is leading in some cases to increased erosion. The high prices also mean that local farmers are more likely to sell their harvest, rather than using it to supplement diets that are otherwise energy-rich but nutrient-poor, and that poor people in towns and cities can no longer afford it. Increased wealth also means that sales of “junk” food and drink are increasing among the farmers, and obesity is rising as a result.

Similarly, changes in culture and social behaviour are becoming apparent. For example, farmers are apparently now far less likely to cooperate with each other than previously, and there have even been reports of conflict over quinoa-growing land.

What does this all tell us? Clearly, we need to help smallholder farmers increase their production and yields, but this has to be done in a sustainable way. If a price boom leads to unsustainable production practices then many problems can result.

More on this story is available on the Guardian and, more controversially, also on their blog at http://bit.ly/WcbUTF