Agricultural Issues in Transition From Relief to Development

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Agricultural Issues in Transition From Relief to
Development

Presented at the Association For International
Agriculture And Rural Development 40th Annual
Meeting Washington DC, June 6-7, 2004
Ben Hoskins (bhoskins_at_worldvision.org) Claude
Nankam, PhD (cnankam_at_worldvision.org) World
Vision, Inc (www.worldvision.org)
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1. Introduction World Vision (WV)
2. Agricultural relief interventions
3. Transitioning from Relief to Development
4. Lessons Learned

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• 1950 Charity for children in Korea
• Largest relief and development NGO in the world
  with 1 billion in public and private funds
• Christian organization with 15 support offices
  and 65 national offices
• 25 in Africa
• 15 in Asia and The Pacific
• 11 in Europe and The Middle East
• 14 in The Americas and The Caribbean

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• Presence in West Africa
• Chad (civil war and drought)
• Ghana
• Liberia (civil war)
• Mali (drought)
• Mauritania (drought)
• Niger (drought)
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone (civil war)

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-Community Mobilization - Capacity
Building -Empowering women and
girl children -
Peace-Building - Gender
-Reconciliation
- Advocacy

-Food Security -Education
-Environment -Shelter
Community
Nation
Family
Christian Witness -Deeds
-Fellowship

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Precondition for WV Agricultural Intervention

• Crisis affects significant number of population
• Financial resources and consideration for
  long-term presence drive decision to intervene
• Reasonable level of security
• Population sedentary and water available

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Strategies in WV agricultural relief
interventions

• Work with donor and the countrys MOA
• Intervene as quickly as possible
• Incorporate development principles to the extent
  possible
• Collaborate with existing institutions on the
  ground (other NGOs, UN, NARs, IARCs, etc)

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Types of Agricultural Interventions

• Seeds and Tools
• Non availability of seeds
• Conventional seed distribution
• Farmers selected varieties
• Lack of access to seeds
• Seed vouchers and fairs

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Types of Agricultural Interventions In relief
context

• Agriculture Package (AgPack)
• Tools 2 hoes, 2cutlass and a file
• Seeds Seeds of adapted varieties of staple
  crops purchased locally or from seed companies
  outside the country
• Seedlings of fruit trees

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Types of Agricultural Interventions In relief
context

• Vegetable Package (VegPack)
• Tools Watering can
• Seeds of adapted varieties of vegetable crops
  such as tomato, pumpkins, kale, onions, okra,
  cabbage, etc.
• Note Limited to no indigenous vegetable crops

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Types of Agricultural Interventions In relief
context

• Farming practices
• Establishment of vegetable nurseries
• Homestead gardening
• Land preparation
• Seeding rates and planting techniques

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• Farmers selected varieties
• Access improved varieties from IARCs (IITA,
  WARDA, ICRISAT, CIMMYT, CIAT, etc.)
• Establish on-farm trials Farmers testing
  improved varieties under their farming
  conditions, against their local varieties
• Selection criteria amount of harvest, cooking
  time, palatability

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Transitioning from Relief to Development Agricultu
re Recovery Program (ARP)

• Seed Security
• Rehabilitation of farmers seed stocks
• Activities of FSVs are foundational
• Development/strengthening of informal seed
  systems (Small Scale Seed Production Systems)
• Improved Farming Systems

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Transitioning from Relief to Development Agricultu
re Recovery Program (ARP)

• Improved Farming Systems
• Four Pillars
• Production and productivity
• Storage and processing
• Agriculture Marketing
• Natural resources management

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• Improved Farming Systems
• Productivity Production

• Soil Fertility
• Organic Fertilizers

• Green Manures
• Improved Fallow
• Fuddu, Senegal
• Zambia

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• Improved Varieties
• Varieties tolerant to stress pest and diseases
  (drought, low N, MSV, Stem borer, and Striga)
• Improved nutritional value HarvestPlus
  varieties
• QPM (Obatamba)
• Orange flesh sweet potato
• Yellow cassava

Yellow QPM
White QPM
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• Improved techniques
• True potato seed
• Rapid multiplication techniques of sweet potato
  and cassava
• Madagascar SRI (System of Rice Intensification)

• Indigenous Crops ICRAF work on some 50 wild
  fruit trees species e.g. Ziziphus mauritiana
• Moringa oleifera for its nutritional value and
  its use as coagulant for the purification of
  water
• IPALAC work with dry land trees such as date
  palm, acacia spp., etc. for improved food security

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Storage

• Granaries

• Storage of fresh fruits and vegetables

Granary in Northern Ghana
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• Farm Tools
• Hand Planters
• Ox Plow
• Treadle pump
• Drip irrigation
• Etc.

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Processing
Cleaning and packaging of vegetables for export
at the Usuthu farm in Swaziland
Oil press used for the extraction of oil from oil
seeds such as sunflower and sesame

• Cassava processing technologies IITA/CIAT,
  Rosafric
• Sweet potato processing technologies CIP
• Solar dryers for fruits and vegetables

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Natural Resources Management

• -Erosion control on hillsides and slopes
• -Watershed management
• -Soil and water conservation (cover crops)
• -Tree planting (fruit trees)

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Lessons Learned

• Positive aspects
• Emergency situations break down institutional
  barriers to agricultural technology transfer.
  However if technology is not appropriate, it will
  be quickly rejected by farmers.
• An integrated approach to emergency response,
  with a developmental vision from day one and
  transition to more sustainable activities as
  quickly as the operating environment allows, is
  an effective strategy to restore food security
  rapidly.

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Lessons Learned Positive aspects (contd)

• A participatory approach, with farmers heavily
  involved in the process from the beginning, helps
  ensure high rates of adoption of new technology,
  program efficiency and a transition to
  longer-term development.
• Organizing farmers in groups/associations speeds
  up the dissemination of new technologies
• Agriculture is farmers economic activity and it
  is important that their production decisions are
  made based on market opportunities

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Lessons Learned Positive aspects (contd)

• Partnership among different organizations, each
  playing the role to which it is best suited, adds
  value the host country government provides for
  overall coordination, IARCs/NARs provide
  candidate varieties, seed companies provide seed
  and packaging services, farmers screen varieties
  and provide feedback on which are best, NGOs
  facilitate the process.
• Successful revitalization of the rural economy
  not only reduces rural exodus, but can even lead
  to immigration from urban areas (e.g. Fuddu ADP,
  in Senegal)

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Lessons Learned

• Issues and constraints
• Adequacy of public funding to support transition
  from relief to development
• Limited funding for agriculture
• Less funding allocated to agriculture programs
  and RD reduced USAID presence in West Africa
  and Millennium Challenge Program not emphasizing
  agriculture

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• Issues and constraints (contd)
• Poverty is the underpinning cause of food
  insecurity, which in turn results in hunger. The
  situation would be improved tremendously if
  avenues to make business development services
  (BDS) and micro-finance accessible to small
  holder farmers were identified.
• Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) can reach only a
  very minute portion of the rural population in
  need of HIV/AIDS treatment. Yet there is limited
  research being done on alternative treatment,
  mostly on indigenous plants such as the African
  potato (Hypoxis hemerocalidea) known to prolong
  tremendously the lives of HIV positive patients,
  by boost their immune systems

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