The Enabling Environments for Sustainable Regional Agriculture Extension (ENSURE) is a 3-year project, soon to be launched, and financed through an AfDB ADF grant of USD 13.14 million. The project is implemented by the East African Community (EAC) and covers Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its overall objective is to build efficient, modern, and resilient agricultural extension systems that provide farmers across the EAC region with consistent and up-to-date advisory services. Specifically, the project aims to: • Create pluralistic extension policies and best practices tailored to the EAC region. • Deploy innovative public and private extension approaches, including digital solutions, that support the sustainable delivery of bundled technologies. • Strengthen regional extension capacity across member states. ENSURE focuses on priority EAC value chains, including maize, rice, sorghum, millet, beans, cassava, bananas, poultry, and livestock.
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Weed Management for Optimal Yield The "Mechanical and Chemical Weed Management" technology is a game-changer for bean farmers, especially in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa. Weeds can cause major losses in bean crops, and this technology offers a more efficient and cost-effective solution compared to manual weeding. By using herbicides and mechanical weeders, farmers can save time, increase their yield, and ultimately improve their income. This innovation is a powerful tool in ensuring food security and economic stability for bean farmers in various African countries.
We know cassava The AKILIMO application offers personalized agronomic advice for cassava farmers, aiding in decisions related to land preparation, planting and harvesting schedules, fertilizer use, and intercropping. It predicts yields and provides tailored recommendations to maximize profits. Utilizing decision trees and algorithms based on field trials and modeling, it's accessible as a printable guide, smartphone app, interactive voice response system, and chatbot. Currently available in southern Nigeria and Tanzania, it caters to users of all literacy levels through various formats, including paper-based tools and a smartphone app downloadable from the Google Play Store.
From Waste to Resource Peels from bananas and plantains, often overlooked, hold significant value in various applications. They serve as animal feed, organic soil input, and even find uses in cooking, water purification, and beauty products. However, the challenge lies in their chemical composition and nutrient ratios, necessitating proper handling for animal feed and soil treatment. Despite their potential, a lack of awareness about the diverse utility of peels has led to unnecessary waste accumulation in urban areas. Understanding and harnessing the multifaceted benefits of peels is essential for both sustainable agriculture and waste reduction.
Bean Flour Made Easy The technology of producing bean flour and flour products is of paramount significance, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. It addresses the challenges posed by the time and energy required for traditional bean preparation, making it more appealing to urban consumers. This innovation not only facilitates the creation of a wide range of processed and ready-to-eat products but also serves as a crucial first step in their production. By using bean flour, homemakers can save substantial time and reduce fuel costs when compared to the traditional method of lengthy boiling. Additionally, it enhances the bioavailability of essential vitamins and micronutrients in food products derived from beans.
Revitalize Your Pastures, Sustain Your Livestock Pasture improvement technology managed areas supporting grass and vegetation for grazing animals. Unlike rangelands, pastures receive intensive inputs like fertilizers, seeds, and irrigation. The aim is to maintain the best species and maximize productivity through various approaches, including weed control, partial land disturbance, and strategic planting of improved grasses and legumes. This technology addresses the critical need for affordable and practical feed sources, particularly for small ruminants, ultimately boosting livestock production compared to traditional rangeland management practices. Additionally, the system emphasizes climate-adapted selection of pasture species and encourages sustainable practices to prevent degradation.
Enhancing cassava yields and quality for greater food security in Africa. Improved cassava roots with higher dry matter and starch content are crucial for farmers. These qualities determine how cassava can be used, whether for making flour, chips, or industrial materials. In Sub-Saharan Africa, cassava crops often have low levels of these important traits due to limited accessible varieties. Enhancing root quality is a significant opportunity for the future, benefiting both food security and the agri-food industry. Breeding cassava for these traits is essential to meet local and regional market demands. This leads to higher economic yields for farmers, providing more food and income from the same area of land.
Revolutionize the cassava value chain with CBC, ensuring seamless communication and robust market linkages for enhanced income opportunities. The Cassava Business Connector (CBC) is a digital tool that bridges communication gaps in the cassava value chain. It links producers, processors, and end-users, enhancing market access and income opportunities. The CBC enables real-time tracking, communication, and information sharing, improving market linkages. It's a powerful tool for cassava market innovation, benefiting various stakeholders. Developed as a public good, CBC strengthens the cassava value chain.
Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Farming In regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, where dry tropical conditions and diminishing soil fertility pose significant challenges to wheat production, the adoption of Minimal Tillage and Surface Mulching of Soils is paramount. Traditional farming practices, characterized by excessive tillage and minimal organic matter incorporation, have led to the degradation of crucial soil functions, including nutrient retention and water management. With dwindling water resources due to drought spells and overexploitation, Conservation Agriculture (CA) emerges as a cost-effective solution. CA enhances wheat grain yields, ensures resilience to water scarcity, and benefits both farmers' incomes and the environment by promoting soil biodiversity, reducing emissions, and sequestering carbon, making it a vital strategy for sustainable wheat production in dryland farming systems.
Affordable animal feed for breeders The technology of "Cassava Peels for Animal Feed Production" holds significant importance in Sub-Saharan Africa, where large quantities of cassava peels are generated as byproducts of cassava processing. These peels, if not properly managed, create environmental hazards through uncontrolled dumping and burning. However, their potential as a valuable resource for rearing livestock and fish remains largely untapped. Cassava peels have the potential to serve as an excellent source of feed and fiber for animals, but their utilization has been hindered by drying constraints, the risk of aflatoxin contamination, and poor storability when traditional methods are employed. The introduction of simple equipment to mechanize the conversion of cassava peels into animal feeds offers solutions to these challenges. This technology reduces labor costs, shortens drying times, and improves the shelf life of feed products. By effectively utilizing cassava peels as animal feed, smallholder farmers and agri-food manufacturers can enhance the value derived from their cassava crops and address the scarcity of nutritious animal feeds. Additionally, the mechanized processing of cassava peels into wet cakes and dry mashes presents opportunities for job creation and business development in rural areas of Africa. Overall, this technology not only mitigates environmental issues but also contributes to improving food security, livestock production, and economic prospects in the region.
Enhance meat quality while prioritizing animal welfare. Humane Slaughtering and Meat Inspection ensures animals are slaughtered without pain or distress, improving meat quality and consumer health. It addresses the ethical treatment of animals in the meat processing industry.
Reduce milling losses, enhance nutritional and organoleptic quality Parboiling is a process whereby rough rice is steeped in cold or warm water, heated with steam under pressure or in boiling water to gelatinize starch with minimum grain swelling, followed by slow drying. The nutritional, flavor and textural characteristics of parboiled rice are better than non-parboiled counterparts and can match the quality of imported rice making it more appealing to consumers. Traditionally, parboiling is carried out in a cast iron drum with a false bottom for soaking and steaming that is placed on a three-stone fire, which is severely expose processors to air pollution from emissions of carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). These easy-to-build systems are highly suitable for small to medium scale processors in rice growing areas of Sub-Saharan Africa that have poor energy and market infrastructures.
Yellow-fleshed cassava rich in vitamin A Low level of vitamin and mineral in the common varieties of cassava grown by farmers leads to widespread malnutrition and hidden hunger, and numerable desease in the African continent. Therefore, it comes to raise the provitamin A in the conventional cassava throught breeding technics by parking the Golden cassava’s roots with beta-carotenoid for the color caracteristic, these to be convert after ingestion into vitamin A by enzymes as per the need in the body.
Nutrition-boosting, income-enhancing maize. Provitamin A Enriched Golden Maize Varieties are biofortified maize crops with significantly higher levels of provitamin A, addressing widespread malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. They play a crucial role in reducing vitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of preventable blindness and weakened immunity.
Turning hides into leather to enrich communities The technology "Hide Curing and Secondary Leatherworks" emphasizes the importance of properly treating animal hides for maximum value. Hides, after meat, are the next most valuable product from livestock. They can be processed into various products like shoes, handbags, and clothing, provided skilled artisans and appropriate materials are available.
Extend Freshness, Expand Opportunities with Cassava Flour! The technology of producing High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF) and industrial starches is of paramount importance. It addresses the critical issue of rapid spoilage and mold in fresh cassava roots due to their high water content, a significant challenge for farmers in storing or selling their produce. African communities have long relied on various processing methods to extend shelf life and eliminate toxic cyanide compounds. Traditional cassava flour production techniques do not offer substantial market opportunities for smallholder cassava farmers.
Balanced Protection for Sustainable Harvests Integrated Management of Insects, Diseases, and Weeds in Wheat (IPM) is an approach designed to minimize the use of chemical pesticides while maximizing natural control mechanisms for pests. It involves a combination of biological, mechanical/physical, and cultural techniques tailored to local conditions. IPM is crucial in preventing the emergence of pesticide-resistant pests, ensuring lasting crop protection, and maintaining food safety and environmental integrity.
Boost maize yields while eliminating the issue of Striga infestation The technology of Imazapyr resistant maize for Striga management (IR maize) is of paramount significance in addressing the persistent challenge of Striga weed infestations in maize crops, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Commercial seed manufacturers are introducing improved maize varieties that have been genetically modified to resist imazapyr, an herbicide effective in safeguarding crops from parasitic Striga weeds. This technology is a game-changer for regions where Striga significantly impacts maize production.
Safeguarding Chickens and reducing Costs The "Low-Cost Cage and Free-Range Containment" is a special way to keep chickens safe and healthy while also saving money. It's like a movable house for chickens. During the day, the chickens get to run around outside and eat natural food like insects and plants. This makes them strong and healthy. This special chicken house is not expensive to build and is easy to move around. It's perfect for small farmers who can't afford big, fancy chicken houses. It also helps make sure the chickens are happy and well taken care of.
Empowering Beans, Sustaining Growth! The technology is a low-cost and sustainable solution for staking climbing beans, offering lower-cost, environmentally friendly alternatives, reducing the required number of stakes and addressing yield limitations associated with traditional staking methods.
Pest control for optimum yields The "Seed Dressing with Fungicide and Insecticide" technology is crucial in mitigating yield losses in common beans caused by fungal diseases like anthracnose and insect pests such as stem maggots in Africa. These issues significantly impact crop productivity and jeopardize the profitability of improved varieties and fertilizer inputs for farmers. The use of chemical control agents in seed dressing offers an affordable and eco-friendly approach to prevent losses and boost production. This method, utilizing minimal pesticides, facilitates better seedling emergence and enhances the crop's resistance throughout the growing season, thereby aiding in maintaining and improving common bean yields in the face of prevalent diseases and pests.
Maize-legume: Savings in Soil, Growth in Profit Maize-legume rotation and intercropping is an innovative agricultural practice that combines the cultivation of maize and legumes on the same plot of land. This technique has proven to be highly beneficial, enhancing soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, increasing land and resource use efficiency, reducing weed and pest infestations, and ultimately leading to higher crop yields. It not only provides subsistence farmers with a more balanced and nutritious diet but also helps mitigate the risks associated with crop failure due to factors like drought or pests. This sustainable approach has made a significant impact in Sub-Saharan Africa, improving food security and agricultural productivity.
Empowering Cassava Farmers: More Yield, Less Labor, Better Quality Mechanized cassava planting and harvesting technology plays a crucial role in addressing the challenges faced by cassava farmers in Africa. With the goal of increasing yields and economic benefits, mechanization offers a faster, more efficient, and cost-effective alternative to manual planting and harvesting. By significantly reducing labor requirements and minimizing root damage, this technology contributes to improving cassava production and the competitiveness of African cassava farmers in the global market.
Efficiency Unleashed: Poultry Processing, Simplified Mechanized Defeathering and Egg Sorting technology addresses the labor-intensive and time-consuming processes of defeathering chickens and manually sorting eggs. It offers efficient, quick, and precise solutions for poultry farmers, enhancing productivity and product quality. The technology is crucial for small to medium-scale poultry producers, providing benefits such as increased throughput, reduced handling costs, and premium prices for high-grade eggs.
Transforming Cassava, Mobile Processing for Sustainable Agriculture The Mobile Cassava Processing Plant (MCPP) addresses challenges in cassava commercialization by providing an alternative to immobile processing factories. The MCPP, developed by the TAAT Cassava Compact, is a six-wheel truck with modern processing machinery, an electricity generator, and a loader crane. It facilitates on-site processing of cassava into shelf-stable products, reducing postharvest losses and transportation costs.
NERICA: Higher Yields, Resilience, and Profitability for African Farmers. NERICA varieties mark a pivotal shift in African agriculture. Bred by crossing native landraces with Asian rice, they deliver higher yields and robust resistance to pests and diseases compared to conventional varieties. Their innate resilience to nutrient and water limitations makes them a strategic asset for enhancing farmers' productivity and profitability while reducing reliance on staple food imports. With lowland NERICA tailored for valleys and floodplains with sporadic water stress, and upland NERICA ideal for hilltops and elevated plateaus facing more frequent challenges, this technology is reshaping farming landscapes across Sub-Saharan Africa. It empowers farmers with a reliable, high-yielding resource that not only boosts food security but also drives economic stability in the region.
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