Expansion of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Bangladesh (‘CSISA – BD‘)

Bas BoumanSenior Scientist IRRI (b.bouman@cgiar.org)

William CollisDirector for South AsiaWorldFish (w.collis@cgiar.org)

Andrew McDonald Regional Cropping Systems AgronomistCIMMYT (a.mcdonald@cgiar.org) GCAP meeting

March 28, 2011

What is CSISA?

Project Goal: To increase food, nutrition, and income security in S. Asia through sustainable intensification of cereal-based systems

• Four countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan

• Supported by: USAID, Gates Foundation, & World Bank

• Collaboratively implemented with many public and private partners

The original CSISA launched in 2009

• Development, dissemination of sustainable, productive, and economical agricultural management practices & technologies

• Strategic partnerships (public + private sectors) to increase the scale and longevity of interventions

• Strengthen market linkages and business development – improved technologies alone are not sufficient

• Development of high-yielding and stress-tolerant varieties

• Capacity building

• Policy analysis (IFRPI)

Key CSISA activities

• 5-year investment from USAID – Bangladesh (FtF- $24.4 m)

• Enterprise-based diversified strategy : includes WorldFish as a core partner

• Emphasis on technology delivery, capacity building, and adaptive research (no upstream research, breeding, or policy)

• Formation of four new hubs in the South

• Strengthening of existing hubs in Central and Northwest (3X more resources at hubs)

CSISA expansion in Bangladesh

Existing hubs :• Dinajpur (Rajshahi satellite)• Central BD (Gazipur → Mymensingh)

New hubs for 2011 :• Jessore• Khulna• Barisal

New hubs for 2012 :• Noakhali

CSISA hub domains in Bangladesh

By the end of Year 5 (across six hubs):

• 60,000 HH (directly benefited) with net annual income increase of $350 per HH

• 300,000 HH (indirectly) through dissemination-related activities

• >1 M HH (indirectly) through linkages, synergies and innovative partnerships

Vision of success for CSISA - BD

The context for CSISA-BD

• Food Security: >40% Bangladesh malnourished. Social safety nets through redistribution etc. are impossible to afford at this scale (>60 M people)

• Poverty: Small-scale commercial agriculture remains the main employer and high value agriculture the best opportunity for reducing rural poverty. (Mellor, 2010)

 • Nutrition: Strong opportunities for health and

agriculture professionals to work together to identify and use food, with supplementation as a complement, to solve nutrition issues.

Importance of smallholder agriculture

• Land, Water, labor and energy shortages – competition with other sectors

• Increasing costs of production

• Stagnating or low rates of productivity growth

• Resource loss / degradation (land, water, soil)

• Coping with risks and uncertainty: salinity, high temperatures, drought, climate variability

Challenges to agricultural development

Floods, cyclones, and tidal surges, salinity across the coastal belt

Drought + overuse of groundwater

Seasonal inundation, flash flooding

Temperature and drought stress

Limited-source surface irrigation in the poulders

Many are geographically distinct

2002......................

Peter Jennings, FLAR, 2005

Yiel

d to

n/ha

Variety revolution(semi-dwarfs – 2 t / ha)

350 new varieties released

Agronomic Revolution(management gain 2 t / ha, )

Creation of FLAR

.......................1968 1995

The rice revolution in South America

Agriculture can be transformed….

CAPITAL

RISK

KNOWLEDGE

Are key messages reaching farmers?

Are technologies matched to needs of smallholders?

LABOR

INPUTS

Why aren’t improved technologies adopted?

Why invest in CSISA?

• Farmers manage systems, not single commodities

• There is no universal template for agricultural development (Bangladesh is a long way from Punjab)

• Blending scientific rigor with participatory, demand-lead approaches is a must (neither approach is transformative in isolation))

CSISA axioms for success

CSISA will use strategic partnerships based on complementary strengths to achieve durable impacts over a large area.

• NARs and University partners to develop science-based solutions

• GOs Line Agencies: to build capacity and mainstream programs through DAE / DoF / DLS and their extensive networks of trainers

• National and International NGOs: BRAC, RDRS and others who offer credit and business services at scale.

• USAID programs (e.g. MYAPs): to leverage existing socials networks and close interactions with communities and individual households.

• Private sector: to collaboratively develop and refine machinery, cultivar evaluations, best practices for agro-chemicals, and as a disseminate channel for management information (e.g. through agro-dealers)

Accelerating progress through partnerships

• Areas united by similar agricultural systems, production opportunities and challenges.

• Provide a geographic focus for collaborative innovation, learning, and dissemination.

• Brings together regional partners – private sector, GOs & NGOs, universities, farmer groups

• Provide a basis for local identification and participatory testing of improved seed and appropriate management technologies.

CSISA approach is based on the ‘Innovation Hub’

Representative CSISA-BD priorities

Submergence tolerant rice

Salt tolerant maize

Technology targeting (e.g. elite seed)

GIFT Tilapia

In collaboration with the GoB, the private sector, and NGOs, CSISA BD will identify ways to increase seed accessibility to farmers.

Better matching of new seeds with the right production environments will accelerate this progress by setting needs-based distribution domains for elite seed.

Minimum or zero tillage

Residue retention

Crop Rotation

Resilience to climate risks

Higher, more stable yields

Increased profitability

Reduced costs

Water use efficient

Improved soil quality

Conservation Agriculture (CA)

as a catalyst for sustainable intensification

Coping with water and labor scarcity

In areas with winter fallows, enabling rabi crops using CA, stress tolerant varieties etc.

In water rich areas, diversified cropping systems that include aquaculture.

In the saline belt, promote shrimp culture.

• Reduce risk

• Increase production intensity

• Increase income and income reliability

Profitable system transitions

Increasing resource use efficiency

Declining water tables and higher pumping costs for irrigation negatively affect yield and profitability of winter crops.CSISA-BD will evaluate, refine, and disseminate management approaches which can increase the efficiency of water utilization such as AWD for rice and bed planting for wheat.

General recommendations for fertilizers and otherinputs are often not optimal, but improved ‘site-specific’management approaches must be modified for the conditions of smallholders.

CSISA-BD is collaborating with IPNI to develop a ‘Nutrient Manager’ tool which can easily and economically be used in BD.

Precision ag and new modes of outreach

Small-scale commercialization of inputs and service provision offer strong possibilities for achieving impact at scale by overcoming bottlenecks such as the cost of machinery, training, etc.

CSISA-BD will offer:• technical training, • market linkages,• examples of viable business models for

new entrepreneurs• marketing advise

Developing entrepreneurship

Women manage many facets of agricultural production in Bangladesh that are central to HH nutrition and income generation.

CSISA is identifying ways through which women farmers and entrepreneurs can increase productivity and profitability.

Specific training opportunities and outreach methods will be geared towards women.

Gender mainstreaming

• Education is a cornerstone for national Food Security

• Current linkages between formal knowledge sources and technology delivery system are weak.

• Continuing education is lacking for GO and NGO staff as well as for private sector agro- dealers and service providers.

CISISA-BD will partner with research institutions, universities, and professional societies to create broad-based education programs.

Many players, insufficient strategy

Training and continuing education

Linking national systems with the private sector.

CSISA has a close working relationship with machinery manufacturers in India. These ties are being leverage to identify new market opportunities for scale- appropriate mechanization in Bangladesh, including new seeders for the Chinese ‘two wheel’ tractor.

Bangladesh to India and back again…..

Strengthening regional linkages

Impact pathways and enterprises

Farmers manage enterprises, not single commodities. CSISA-BD focuseson integrated approaches to agricultural development.

Canal management (increase water supply)

AWD to reducerice water requirements

Intensified rabi croppingImproved feeding and income generation

Thank You

APPENDIX – CIMMYT PRIORITIES BASED ON FGD

Characteristics of the Southern Hubs

• Cropping systems that do not favor winter crops (late transplanting of rice, and in cases longer duration rice varieties)

• Insufficient winter irrigation silted canals with limited storage capacity (no groundwater)advancing riverine salt front high costs of pumping and declining water table

• Significant areas of fallow due to poorly drained fields, limited source irrigation, and late on-set salinity

• labor $ issues, outmigration for work • low rates of mechanization • inadequate internal feed sources for livestock and fish; purchased

feeds of variable quality and expensive• low or no use of fertilizer for most rabi crops

Dissemination / demonstration priorities

• Improved post-harvest storage technologies and increased capacity (avoiding early sale when prices are low)

• Better-bet fertilizer recommendations, eventually domain or site specific (linked with research progress)

• Legume seed inoculation• Mini-kit distribution of newly released winter crops varieties from Bina and

BARI, including those with better salt tolerance and shorter growth duration (Kulna, Barisal). Awareness raising of the importance of newer varieties and seed replacement.

• Introduction of high-efficiency pumps (CSU)• Highlight the issue of canal maintenance and implications for productivity /

livelihoods to the water board, LGED, and other relevant agencies• Market linkages (regional) and development (local) for emerging rabi crops

through value chain approaches• Mechanized seeding to reduce labor requirements

Applied research priorities

• Agronomic and economic performance of relay establishment of rabi crops in rice for high and medium highlands.

• Agronomic and economic performance of dedicated forage crops (barley, wheat, napier grass) in areas that remain fallow due to late drainage.

• Agronomic and economic performance of CA-based crop management practices (single-pass strip tillage + seeding or surface seeding + anchored residue retention).

• Evaluation of commercially-available maize hybrids• Yield response trials to macro, secondary, and micronutrients (• Mechanized bed planting options to increase irrigation efficiency and

arsenic mitigation (Jessore)• Bed planting for Aman season vegetable production• FEAST-type feeding evaluation tools for livestock and fish to assess the value

of increases in maize, oilseed, and fodder production

PhD Research Topics

• Landscape model of ISF as influenced by flooding, soil type, and management practices.

• Site-specific fertilizer recommendations based on water-limited yield targets and ISF.

• Strategies for enterprise-based irrigation water allocation (limited source in winter) with and without agronomic interventions (i.e. CA, cropping system modifications)

• Optimal establishment dates for rice seedbeds based on agro-climatological analysis as well as adjustments based on medium to short-range monsoon forecasts. Part of larger agronomic and modeling study (w/ IRRI and IFAD funding) to increase total yields in rice-wheat (and other rabi) systems.

• Reducing tradeoffs between livestock feeding and crop residue retention.• Irrigation timings for different crops in water-limited areas (e.g. if you have

two irrigations to give, when to give them?).

IFAD and Conservation Agriculture: research complements to CSISA

“Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Livestock Farming Systems in Hill Areas of South Asia”Jharkhand and Hill Areas of Nepal – with ILRI

“Accelerating resource-conserving technology (RCT) adoption to improve food security and rural livelihoods while reducing adverse environmental impacts in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.”India, Nepal, and Bangladesh – with IRRI

Rainfed and water-limited = low cropping intensity, low productivity

High risk, low investment agriculture

Hill areas of Nepal‘Poverty Corridor’ of India

1500

2500

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4500

5500

6500

7500

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1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Gra

in Y

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Wheat-Maize; Zero Till - All Residues Retained (Best CA-based Practice)

Wheat-Maize; Conv. Till; - All Residues Removed (Farmer Practice)

Wheat-Maize; Zero Till - All Residues Removed

Comparison of Rainfed Wheat Yields for Contrasting Tillage and Residue Management Practices over 11 Years in Central Mexico

Immediate yield gains + lower production costs = low barrier to entry

Optimal residue allocation strategies in mixed crop-livestock systems

Bedding and fuel

Soil quality

Forage

Fodder

Competing uses for crop residues

Figure 2. A significant challenge for sustainably intensifying farming system productivity is to optimally allocate crop residues by identifying and minimizing tradeoffs between competing uses.

CA can increase residue supply, thereby reducing potential conflicts (residue allocation with CA is not a zero sum game)

More effort is required to identify minimum residue requirements required to achieved the benefits of CA

Example IFAD hill maize activities• Single and layered interventions for increasing maize productivity

– CA (line sowing etc.) vs. FP– hybrids vs. OPVs – improved nutrient management vs. FP– improved weed control vs. FP

• Enabling double cropping with CA in winter fallow regions (choice of maize hybrid optimized wrt yield potential and growth duration; productivity and feed value of second crop evaluated)

• Weed population dynamics with CA establishment, residue retention levels, and soil fertility

• Mechanical options for weed control w/ CA• Improving maize planting geometry and fertilizer management practices for intercrop

systems• Identifying minimum residue retention requirements in CA-based systems for yield

and tradeoff minimization (with ILRI).• Identification of improved crop production and livestock feeding strategies to

increase farm enterprise productivity and profitability (with ILRI).

• Time of planting influences on direct seeded rice establishment, yields, and irrigation requirements (field and simulation – risk and productivity focus).

• Cultural practices and weed population dynamics in DSR• Agronomic nitrogen use efficiency as affected by crop establishment,

deep fertilizer placement, and water management• Varietal screening in DSR and conventional transplanting• Brown manuring: balancing weed suppression, N fixation, and rice

growth• Characterizing cracking behaviour in puddled and non-puddled soils:

implications for irrigation efficiency and optimal water management practices

• Evaluating the on-farm water management practices and economics of TPR, DSR, and non-puddled transplanted rice

Example IFAD DSR activities