Germany

Research information from infosysplus.org: Organisations and projects in Germany

View Projects with partners - Germany (194)

• (CP) Planning and evaluating ensembles of small, multi-purpose reservoirs for the improvement of smallholder livelihooods and food security: tools and procedures

  Major Research Domain: small multi-purpose reservoir ensemble planning Goal: To maintain water related ecosystem services, the long-term sustainability of local water supplies, and adequate downstream flows. To improve food security at the houshold level and incease sustainable livelihoods.

• Abiotic stress tolerant maize for increasing income and food security among the poor in eastern India and Bangladesh

  To enhance food and income security of resource-poor farming families and consumers in India and Bangladesh To provide poor farmers with stress-tolerant, short-duration maize varieties with improved protein quality that offer crop diversification and intensification options, greater yields under conditions of water shortage and waterlogging,and improved nutritional value as livestock feed and human food

• Accelerating Poverty Reduction by Maximizing the Impact of Social Services Expenditures on Agricultural Labor Productivity and Incomes in African Countries Details of Accelerating Poverty Reduction by Maximizing the Impact of Social Services Expenditures

  Goal: To improve the understanding among decision makers of the conditions under which public expenditures on social services can yield the highest impact on labor productivity and incomes in rural areas and, thereby, help accelerate the achievement of the MDG1 poverty target in a larger number of countries. Purpose: To identify practical strategies and policy options to guide managers and technical staff of service delivery agencies in resource-constrained countries to optimize synergies between social services provision and productivity enhancing investments in the agricultural sector.

• Adoption pathways for vegetable integrated pest management technologies reducing pesticide use and pesticide health hazards in India

  Goal: Contribute to increased health of producers and consumers of vegetables through reduced occurrence of health hazards among crop growers and reduced pesticide residues locally marketed vegetables in India. Purpose: Better understanding of factors influencing adoption of integrated pest management practices that will reduce pesticide use and enhance food safety.

• Aflatoxin risk assessment, biological control options and interventions

  Goal: To improve food quality and child health in Benin by reducing aflatoxin contamination Purpose: To fill the knowledge gaps in preparation of implementation of biological control and management options to reduce aflatoxin risk Outputs: - To know the factors that influence Aspergillus flavus strains and toxin expression in different agro-ecozones

• Agricultural economist to contribute key inputs within the 'Aquaculture Recommendation Domains' team of the FRRP

  Major Research Domain: natural resource economics, economic analysis of land use patterns (with GIS applications), economics of the generation, diffusion and impact of agricultural technologies Goal: Sustainably increase the aquaculture production of poor farmers and the number of adopters in Asia and Africa, thereby contributing to the improvement of their livelihoods

• Agricultural Policies in Sub Saharan Africa: Understanding and improving participatory policy processes in APRM and CAADP

  Goal: Better (more consistent and funded) pro-poor agricultural policies in Subsahara Africa due to - Improved understanding of information needs of and use by agricultural policy makers and other stakeholders - Improved intergration of APRM and CAADP processes into national policy processes, fully unfolding the potentials of both initiatives - Improved design of participatory policy processes in and around agriculture Purpose: - RECs and NEPAD use (element of) project recommendations to design agricultural policy processes - National APRM and CAADP processes are well linked to each other and to ongoing national policy processes - National counterparts are increasingly involved into agricultural policy processes, particularly APRM and CAADP (national level) - Political processes for and around agriculture are designed according to (elements of) project recommendations Policy makers and other stakeholders use available information (from ReSAKSS) when deciding on policies affecting agriculture

• An integrated approach for genetic improvement of aluminium resistance of crops on low-fertility acid soils

  Goal: Genetic enhancement to improve plant adaptation to infertile acid soils in order to increase food production Major Results Achieved: Beans: Superior accessions of the Durango race of bean germplasm were identified based on field performance in Kenya, Congo and Rwanda, and in Colombia

• An integrated approach to sustainable land management in dry areas

  Major Research Domain: Sustainable agriculture, soil management, water management, nutrient management Goal: Testing of an integrated and transferable approach to evaluating land use and management options in a selected project area

• An international information system for the genetic resources of crop wild relatives

  Major Research Domain: crop wild relatives, genetic resources, international information system Goal: To enhance global food security through improved conservation of crop wild relatives and their improved use in crop improvement

• Analyse der forstlichen Entwicklungshilfepolitik und Ableitung von Handlungsfeldern

  The aim of the research project is to evaluate the experiences made with forest-related development cooperation policies (aid) during the last ten years, in order to formulate improved new development policies in forestry.

• Anthropogenic risk factors and management of biodiversity for rural livelihood around East African rain forests

  The research will focus on the Kakamega district of Kenya. The object of the study is a land use gradient centering on the Kakamega Forest from peri-urban land use systems with settlements and intensive plantation crops close to the city of Kakamega to the extensively used Kakamega forest margin (subsistence agriculture and agro-forestry). The subproject will (1) study the role of biodiversity on performance indicators of agricultural production and other economic activities, (2) determine the causative factors and social and economic implications of biodiversity and (3) propose options for the sustainable management of biodiversity.

• Application of genomics and proteomics to camel Streptococcus agalactiae: development of vaccines and diagnostics to support camel milk marketing through improved control of mastitis

  Goal: To apply genome sequencing and proteomics to generate data that will underpin future development of novel control methods for mastitis in camels, caused by Streptoccocus agalactiae Outputs: - An annotated genome sequence derived from a camel S. agalactiae isolate that appears to be closely related to human isolates according to both phenotype in culture and MLST analysis of the genotype genotype - Candidate S. agalactiae antigens for application as vaccines and diagnostics

• Application of Molecular Markers to Broaden the Genetic Base of Tomato for Improved Tropical Adaptation and Durable Disease Resistance

  Major Research Domain: tomato, molecular markers, disease resistance Goal: To increase incomes of rural and urban poor in the tropics through better-adapted tomato cultivars that improve productivity for the hot humid lowland tropics in South and Southeast Asia

• Applying genetic diversity and genomic tools to benefit rice farmers at risk from drought

  Thematic Priority: Sustainable increase in productivity Conservation and efficient use of natural resources and biodiversity Goal: Enhance livelihoods of farm families at risk from drought

• Arresting the scourge of striga on sorghum in Africa by combining the strengths of marker-assisted backcrossing and farmer-participatory selection

  Major Research Domain: striga, sorghum, marker-assisted back crosssing, farmer-participatory backcrossing Goal: To increase household food security in sorghum-growing, Striga-infested areas of Eritrea, Kenya, Mali and Sudan through improved sorghum production

• Assessing the benefits of rural womens participation in natural resource management research and capacity building (Project within the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Participatory Research and Gender Analysis for Technology Development and Institutional

  Goal: To improve the ability of CGIAR-system and other collaborating institutions to develop technology which alleviates poverty, improves food security and protects the environment with greater equity.

• Assessing the contribution of diversified Musa genetic resources to poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and gender equality in rural communities

  To focus the banana research strategies and projects of Bioversity Int. and IITA more clearly on the achievement of MDGs based on the use of ex post impact assessment

• Assessing the farm-level impact of genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) in China and the Philippines

  Goal: To assess the impact of the introduction of the GIFT strain on productivity, income, food security, and livelihood of small-scale farmers Purpose: - Analysis of the farm-level impact of the GIFT strain - Effect of different dissemination strategies on adoption and impact, and - Assessment of the internal rate of return (IRR) to the investment

• Banana tissue culture: community dissemination pathways for delivery of high quality planting material to create markets for African farmers

  Goal: To ensure sustainable small-scale banana production in Eastern and Southern Africa, and to optimize the use and preservation of banana biodiversity Purpose: To generate efficient market pathways to supply, cultivate and market high quality planting material to small-scale farmers through the promotion of novel and sustainable partnerships between farmers and private enterprises, which are supported by improved institutional policies

• Bean Genomics for Improved Drought Tolerance in Central America

  Goal: To contribute to food security in bean producing areas that are subject to drought in the tropics Major Results Achieved: not yet available (new project)

• Characterization of the pathogen population structure of bacterial leaf blight of rice in West Africa as a prerequisite for the identification and deployment of durable resistance

  Goal: To develop an integrated management program for bacterial leaf blight based on varietal resistance and sound knowledge of the pathogen's population structure in order to contribute to securing stable and high-yielding rice production in smallholder rice farmers' fields. Purpose: To eliminate the information gap that has hampered the use of resistant varieties in an IPM approach for reducing BLB impact under African conditions.

• Climate change impact assessment and adaptation options in vulnerable agro-landscapes in East Africa

  Goal: To improve the livelihood of smallholders through a range of CCGP’s aiming at regional food security, poverty alleviation and sound natural resource management Purpose: National and local resource managers use cost-effective and replicable tools and approaches to appraise the likely impacts of climate change, improve the adaptive capacity of their farm systems, and increase the resilience of the agrolandscapes they live in

• CoCE- Conservation and use of the wild populations of Coffea arabica in the montane rainforests of Ethiopia

  The aim of the research project is to assess the diversity and the economic value of the Ethiopian coffee gene pool and to develop concepts of model character for conservation and use of the genetic resources of Coffea arabica in its center of diversity in Ethiopia. The concepts are to be based on the conservation of the montane rain forests as the natural habitat of the wild coffee populations, and the forest coffee systems as the traditional use of the wild coffee populations.

• Collective Action and Property Rights (system-wide program)

  To contribute to poverty reduction by identifying effective policies and practices that enhance the ways that collective action and property rights are used to build secure assets and income streams for and by the poor.To provide policymarkers, NGOs, and community groups with knowledge of the factores that strengthen rights of the poor to land and water resource and lead to more effective collective action by the poor

• Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction

  To contribute to poverty reduction by identifying effective policies and practices that enhance the ways that collective action and property rights are used to build secure assets and income streams for and by the poor To provide policymarkers, NGOs, and community groups with knowledge of the factores that strengthen rights of the poor to land and water resource and lead to more effective collective action by the poor

• Conservation, management and sustainable use of forest genetic resources with reference to Brazil and Argentina (NEW CONTRACT-NO: 81051364)

  Goal: Development of appropriate management practices which support conservation efforts through an improved understanding of the impact of human activities on the genetic diversity and ecological processes in selected ecosystems Outputs: - To quantify the relative contributions to household incomes of timber and non-timber forest products in relation to other income sources on-farm and off-farm - To describe and quantify the patterns of land-use intensity and change for a number of

• Contracting Out of Poverty: Experimental Approaches to Innovation in Agricultural Markets with Small Farmers

  Welfare of the rural poor is improved due to: - Increased access of smallholders to contract farming arrangements linking them to dynamic markets for highvalue products. - Identification of optimal institutional arrangements that provide adequate incentives to firms and farmers by reducing transaction costs in the contractual relationship. - Policy makers and development practitioners have better information to improve the welfare of the poor by implementing new institutional mechanisms that favor the inclusion of smallholders in markets for high-value products.- Contractors in public, private, and third sector organizations demanding contract farming services apply optimal institutional arrangements to improve their access to smallholders by reducing their transaction costs. - Government agencies, NGOs, and donor organizations that oversee the interests of smallholders provide better information on firms’ reputations and reliable third party quality control services for contract enforcement. - Local researchers learn the necessary skills to implement the recommendations from the study and develop a local network.

• Demand driven use of forages in fragile, long dry season environments of Central America to improve livelihoods of smallholders

  Major Research Domain: forages, extension strategies, farmer innovation, market analysis Goal: To improve the livelihoods of smallholders in Central America while protecting the natural resource base

• Demographic change and its impacts on land use - SFB552/A1

  The intended work continues the regional analysis of the cultural landscape and its processes of change in the forest margin of the Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi (see first phase of the SFB 552). Whereas in the first phase the development of the population and settlement structure was analysed in relation to the historical and political background, the focus of the following investigation concentrates on the current demographic change and the associ-ated effects on the land use. The planned study aims at an actor-orientated ap-proach and focuses on the village level. The explanation of the cultural differ-entiation of the research area makes detailed studies necessary in order to reach a fair and realistic judgement of their complexity.

• DesertNet: German Network for Research to Combat Desertification

  The German Competence Network for Research to Combat Desertification was founded to form a binding link between different scientists who aim to investigate the complex causes and effects of desertification in interdisciplinary research approaches. It also wants to involve policy makers and public institutions, as well as to link national expertise with international research. Desert*Net, as a network of scientist and experts, provides rational data outputs, gives advice on scientific methods and projects, and promotes the co-operation between and to institutions in Germany that work on various fields of desertification research.

• Determination of high-potential aquaculture development areas and impact in Africa and Asia

  Goal: To sustainably increase the aquaculture production of poor farmers in Asia and Africa, thereby contributing to the improvement of their livelihoods

• Developement of new diagnostic tools for contagious bovine pleuro-pneumonia: Identification of appropriate antigens using a proteomics approach

  Goal: Development of improved diagnostic tools for contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), as part of an integrated control strategy Purpose: A diagnostic test able to detect chronically infected animals

• Developing and disseminating stress tolerant maize for sustainable food security in Eastern and Central Africa

  Goal: Enhanced food security and improved human nutrition for resource-poor farming families and consumers Outputs: - Higher and more stable maize yields for the farmers in the ECA ecologies through the use of stress tolerant and nutritionally enhanced quality protein maize (QPM) cultivars - More efficient breeding and selection strategies for stress tolerance and a better understanding of the underlying physiological basis and gene control of these traits with special emphasis on nitrogen-use efficiency.

• Developing and initiating the implementation of AVRDC's organic vegetable program

  Major Research Domain: multidisease and pest-resistant germplasm, IPM, safe organic vegetables Goal: - To develop alternative choices for vegetable farmers for compatible and viable income generation - To contribute to sufficient supply of safe vegetables and human health

• Developing biometric sampling systems and optimal harvesting methods for medicinal tree bark in southern Africa

  Objectives: To contribute locally to the knowledge base on which sustainable management plans can be prepared for tree species from which medicinal bark is harvested. The lessons learned through the research process will be generalised to provide advice on the most efficient manner to tackle generic NTFP sampling issues. Background: Tree bark is an important component of the pharmacopoeia of traditional healers in Africa and traditional medicine is still the main source of health care for the majority of Africans. As the population grows and becomes urbanised, forests shrink and the pressure on preferred bark species increases and trade is commercialised and orchestrated by market traders. In recent years the advent of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has increased the demand for medicinal herbs, including tree bark, as traditional healers work with the hospitals to find ways of alleviating the symptoms of AIDS.

• Developing drought and heat tole rance wheat germplasm and ist utilisation for the drylands of Central and West Asia and North Africa

  Goal: To enhance the tolerance of wheat to drought and heat in the Mediterranean region in order to improve wheat productivity in the dryland and reduce risks in unfavorable agricultural environments Purpose: Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of drought and heat response in wheat germplasm und controlled and field conditions Outputs: - Drought and heat responses characterized under field conditions - Promising durum and bread wheat lines characterised with drought /heat candidate genes and SSRs/DArT - QTL map developed - Existing mapping population will be phenotyped to further identify QTLs - Pyramiding of genes using DH (bread wheat) and MAS (durum) - Wheat germplasm evaluated by partner NARS in collaboration with resource poor farmers

• Developing drought and heat tolerance wheat germplasm and its utilisation for the drylands of Central and West Asia and North Africa

  Goal: To enhance the tolerance of wheat to drought and heat in the Mediterranean region in order to improve wheat productivity in the dryland and reduce risks in unfavorable agricultural environments Purpose: Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of drought and heat response in wheat germplasm und controlled and field conditions

• Developing high intensity fruit garden agroforestry systems for small-scale farmers of Eastern Africa

  Goal: Micronutrient malnutrition concerns many food-insecure households in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in anaemia, cretinism, and blindness on millions of people. In India, studies of the already existing intensive small-scale fruit garden agroforestry systems yielded an extended tree management knowledge and improved fruit tree varieties, among others. Making available well-adapted quality germplasm and information about tree management and fruit nutritional values, among other approaches, will most likely contribute not only to improve cash income generation, but also to increase fruit consumption levels of smallholder farmers and rural populations in the target region.

• Developing institutions for sustainable use of non-timber forests products

  Goal: Identification of appropriate institutional arrangements to optimise sustainable development opportunities from non-timber forests products from forests and woodlands Major Results Achieved: All fieldwork planned under the project has been completed. Some significant communication to key constituencies has taken place, for instance through the Future Scenarios training workshop, and through the testing of the Multidisciplinary Landscape Assessmen

• Developing IPM for the potato tuber moth in cropping systems of different agroecological zones

  Goal: Development of location-specific integrated control strategies for the potato tuber moth which are compatible with farming systems of different agroecological zones in Africa and South America

• Developing strategies for effective use of the Granulosis virus-based biopesticide for Potato Tuber Moth management

  Goal: To increase farmer income, foster growth and food security by reducing pest losses while protecting the health of producers, consumers and the environment.

• Developing Striga control strategies for cropping systems in Kenya (Phase II)

  Goal: Development and extension of sustainable cropping systems adapted to western Kenya that control Striga and improve production.

• Development and implementation of a sustainable IPM program for major mango pests and opportunity for improving market information and processing in sub-Saharan Africa

  To enhance food security and income generation capacity in the targeted countries in East and West Africa To develop and implement in collaboration with international and national partners effective approaches to reduction of mango loses due to insect infestation leading to quality

• Development of a database and retrieval system for the selection of tropical forages for farming systems in the tropics and subtropics

  Goal: To develop a knowledge system for the identification of forages suitable for specified niches within smallholder farming systems. Major Results Achieved: Design of database completed, based on interaction of partners involved in project and expert consultation in Bangkok workshop.

• Development of carbon market and conservation financing mechanisms for multifunctional landscape bio-corridors in the Upper Mekong

  Goal: To support enhanced and connected multifunctional landscape corridors with both positive livelihood and environmental benefits, managed by smallholder farmers through integrated management and financial mechanisms; and hence contribute to sustainable land-use policies and practices Purpose: To identify and develop landscape corridors, stepping stones, and framework species within secondary vegetation and agricultural landscapes in the region. The proposed project seeks to build regional, national, and local capacities for improving livelihoods and landscapes with integrated conservation and development mechanisms.

• Development of conservation agriculture technologies for adoption by smallholders in Central Asia

  Goal: Improved resource use efficiency and rural livelihoods in the five countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) through the adoption by farmers of conservation agricultural technologies that support crop diversification and sustainable nutrient management.

• Development of locally adapted, multiple disease-resistant, high yielding chili (Capsicum annuum) cultivars for China, India, Indonesia and Thailand

  Major Research Domain: chili, capsicum annuum, multiple disease resistance, crop management practices Goal: To contribute to increased income and reduced risk of resource-poor chili farmers in Asia

• Entwicklung von Keimplasma mit Phytophthora-Resistenz (Kraut- und Braunfäule) auf breiter genetischer Basis (Solanum-Arten) und züchterischer Anpassung an Langtagbedingungen

  Potato belongs to the crops with the highest chemical plant-protection demands, with their main part directed to Phytophthora infestans, the causative agent of late blight on foliage and tubers. Costs for plant protection and damage caused by late blight amount to 470 ¤ per hectare and year. For this reason, a long-term programme was started to select new sources of blight resistance among wild species and to introduce the genes for durable resistance into the cultural potato genome by six to seven cross steps.

• Entwicklung von Strategien zur Bekämpfung des Andischen Kartoffelkäfers

  Development and testing of environmetally friendly biopesticides (Beauveria spp.) for control of the Andean potato weevil.

• DNA Marker assisted breeding and genetic engineering of ICARDA mandated crops

  Goal: Establishment of a system of marker assisted selection for ICARDA mandated crops and increased genetic variability through the use of genetic engineering and tissue culture technology Major Results Achieved: A high density codominant marker map of the chickpea genome has been developed in an interspecific cross

• Domestication and marketing of indigenous fruit tree of the Miombo for improved household nutrition and incomes in Southern Africa

  Goal: To improve the well being of rural dwellers (farmers, marketers and consumers), in the Miombo ecosystem through improved domestication, utilization and commercialization of indigenous fruit trees and their products Major Results Achieved: The priority species list was updated in Zambia and Malawi, using more participatory approaches

• Domestication of indigenous wild fruit trees of the Miombo woodlands of Southern Africa

  Goal: Examination of the constraints hampering the cultivation and domestication of wild fruit trees and initiation of the domestication process of a few species of importance Major Results Achieved: Surveys confirmed that Uapaca kirkiana and Zisyphis are the most preferred species. New collections of Parinari, Strychnos and Uapaca germplasms were made

• Dynamics and sustainability of farming and regional systems in the South American Savannahs

  Goal: Development of a strategy for ecologically sound and economically viable management of the savannah's resources and farming systems

• Ökonomische Untersuchungen zu den Ursachen der Entwaldung sowie zu den Möglichkeiten ihrer Eindämmung anhand von Beispielländer (z.B. Madagaskar)

  The project will analyze the causes of deforestation, methods for baseline development as approved negotiated rate of deforestation developed and examined approaches to benefit transfer efficiency

• Ökonomische und Ökologische Restrukturierung der Land- und Wassernutzung in der Region Khorezm (Usbekistan)

  The basic idea of the project is to designate part of the area currently used for agriculture for ecological purposes. Possible losses in agricultural production are to be compensated for through more efficient but sustainable land and water use based on the introduction of modern and profitable agricultural production systems. Project objectives: 1. Concepts for landscape restructuring in Khorezm, an intensively used agricultural region in the Aral See basin. The concepts are to contribute to a more effective and at the same ecologically sustainable land and water use. 2. Based on the concepts for sustainable management of natural resources, proposals for both legal-administrative and ecological restructuring measures are to be developed. 3. At the same time, scientific collaboration based on a close partnership between Germany and Uzbekistan in the field of development research is to be established. Here, special attention is to be given to the training of young scientists.

• Economic and ethical evaluation of biological diversity in the Cape Horn region

  •To jointly evaluate scenarios of nature conservation and socio-economic development on Navarino Island (Tierra del Fuego). •To include local aspects of environmental ethics into the evaluation process. •To support decisions on regional development strategies. •To assess the economic value of various biodiversity components on the island

• Economic impact assessment of biological control of the diamond back moth in crucifers in East Africa

  Major Research Domain: yield loss, cabbage pests, impact assessment, biological control, crucifers Goal: Contribute to the reduction of pesticide use in vegetable production in Africa

• Effects of genotype and environment on sweetpotato yield and quality in developing countries

  Goal: Contribution to poverty alleviation through sweetpotato varietal improvement Major Results Achieved: Final Report: Germplasm and its response to environmental factors were assessed. Breeding lines and released varieties had on average a considerable yield advantage, but were in general inferior to traditional farmer cultivars and local checks in terms of eating quality and dry matter content.

• Efficient management of genetic diversity in wheat: DNA markers for use in wheat breeding programs and gene banks

  Major Research Domain: Genetic diversity, germplasm improvement, molecular markers Major Results Achieved: Trinucleotide repeat SSRs were developed, but these SSRs did not amplify in only one of the three genomes in hexaploid bread wheat, and it could not be determined which bands corresponded to which genomes

• Erarbeitung eines Wirtschaftsplanes für eine nachhaltige Teakholzplantage in Ghana

  Private forest industries in Ghana realised that succes in the sustainable management of forest plantation heavily relies on cooperation with the local population. The trial-plantation area is located 30 miles north of the city of Kumasi in the Ashanti-Region at the interface of the tropical moist semi-deciduous forest and the tropical savannah zones. The vegetation around the area is composed of grassland and some remnants of degraded natural forests. This region in Ghana is also called „transition zone“, because the grassland is gradually replacing natural forests.

• Enhanced control of CBPP in sub Saharan Africa through development of better diagnostics and vaccines

  The goal of the project is to alleviate negative impacts of CBPP on pastoralist and other livestock keepers in endemic areas of sub-Saharan African countries. Purpose: The purpose of the project is to provide the tools and knowldge needed to enable national veterinary authorities to develop improved control measures and policies for CBPP.

• Enhanced food and income security in SWCA through potato varieties with improve tolerance to abiotic stress

  Conservation and efficient use of natural resources and biodiversity Tolerance to selected abiotic stresses Rural institutions and their governance To increaswe food and income security of resource-poor farmers in SWCA by reducing their vulnerability to abiotic stresses affecting crop production

• Enhancing access to genetic diversity through scaling up participatory plant breeding: Roles of different types of farmer and development organizations in Mali

  Major Research Domain: participatory plant breeding, genetic diversity, sorghum, decentralized seed production Priorities: 2, 4 Goal:To improve farmers productivity and stability of production of sorghum Purpose:Farmer and community organisations enable farmer participatory variety testing on a large scale, and inititate decentralized seed production and distribution of preferred varieties Outputs: - To realize large scale testing of new varieties through participatory breeding - To create a basis for decentralized, demand responsive seed production system for sorghum varieties,

• Enhancing adaptive capacity to climate change impacts through well-managed water use for aquaculture integrated with small-scale irrigation in the Chinyanja Triangle in Africa (Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia)

  Goal: To contribute toward improving food security and well-being of sub-Saharan rural households trapped in a cycle of poverty and vulnerability exacerbated by climatic vagaries and climate change impacts, through well-managed water use for aquaculture integrated with small-scale irrigation. Purpose: To enhance the benefits of integrating aquaculture and small-scale irrigation by reducing conflicts over water use and improving capacity for adapting to drought and flood occurrences that are expected to be more frequent in the face of climate change.

• Enhancing and stabilizing the productivity of salt-affected areas by incorporating genes for tolerance of abiotic stresses in rice

  Goal: To increase and stabilize food productivity and enhance livelihood and food security in saltaffected areas through salt-tolerant rice varieties. Purpose: - To develop and distribute to NARES varieties possessing QTLs for enhanced tolerance of salt stress, together with accompanying management options, for dissemination, with the potential to double yield under stress conditions in target areas - to provide NARES with varieties combining tolerance of submergence and salinity for coastal areas.

• Enhancing the quality, diversity and productivity of farmers pearl millet genetic resources in Rajasthan, India

  Major Research Domain: Genetic diversity, pearl millet Goal: Contribution to enhancement of quality and diversity of pearl millet genetic resources Outputs: - To understand and document farmers methods of pearl millet seed selection, processing, storage, exchange and procurement - To quantify the impact of different strategies for local landrace and introgressed population seed management on key aspects

• Umweltschonende, wertschöpfende Nutzung von Pflanzenproteinen und Nebenprodukten aus Getreide und Kartoffeln

  The direct use of plant protein is environment-friendly and healthy. Appropriate procedures to isolate the proteins and modifications of the proteins are required to promote the use of plant proteins as (novel) foods.

• ERA-ARD: The Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) dimension of the European Research Area (ERA)

  Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) plays a critical role in fighting poverty and hunger and in supporting more rapid and sustainable development in the poorest countries of the world. In European Member States, the responsibility for ARD programme planning and funding is often dispersed and shared between different ministries, public institutions and/or foundations. This means that there are substantial potential efficiency gains from enhanced cooperation and coordination. This project fulfils an urgent need to better understand how ARD programmes are identified, selected, designed, funded and managed at the national level. These mapping exercises will facilitate the construction of a shared vision and a strategic agenda on ARD in Europe. Innovative approaches and institutional arrangements will then be explored and used to implement joint and, during the second half of the project, transnational ARD activities.

• Evaluation and application of advanced tools for molecular breeding for drought and salinity tolerance in chickpea

  This project aims at evaluating novel tools for molecular breeding to facilitate the rapid development of new varieties with enhanced terminal drought and salinity tolerance. Direct beneficiaries of the project are molecular breeders and physiologists at ICARDA, and national agriculture research systems (NARS) scientists. They will gain access to and training in the use of an innovative, easily applicable and reliable technology that, nevertheless, is highly informative and may have extreme power for predicting dehydration-stress-responses in germplasm and breeding lines.

• Expanding biological control of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L. in Eastern and Southern Africa

  Major Research Domain: diamond back moth, Plutella xylostella, biological control, Diadegma semiclausum, parasitoids Goal: Enhance food security and reduce poverty through sustainable vegetable production.

• Expanding the rational and biological control of invasive Liriomyza leafminer flies to major horticultural production systems of East Africa

  Goal: Enhance food security and reduce poverty through sustainable crop production. Purpose: Natural control of vegetables and potato leafminers in East Africa improved (long term).

• Exploiting scents of distress: Making maize plants more attractive to beneficial insects

  When plants are attacked by insect herbivores they respond by emitting specific volatiles that are highly attractive to the natural enemies of the herbivores, such as predators and parasitic wasps. It has been proposed that this natural indirect defense of the plants can be exploited to improve the biological control of pest insects. Maize plants have been particularly well studied in this context and are amenable for enhanced attractiveness to parasitic wasps. We propose to identify the key volatile compounds that are used by parasitic wasps to locate and parasitize caterpillars that are pests on maize in Mexico. Recent research results imply that such compounds exist and methods have been developed for their identification. Upon identification, a combination of behavioral, chemical and molecular methods will be employed to obtain maize varieties that are particularly attractive to the dominating native parasitic wasps. It is envisioned that with this approach we can take the first step towards the incorporation of a natural indirect plant defense trait into an ecologically sound and sustainable pest control strategy.

• Exploration of genetic resources collections at ICARDA for adaptation to climate change: Identification and utilization of sources of stress tolerance

  Goal: Sustainable food production in developing countries of the CWANA region under increased abiotic stresses arising from the climate change

• Facilitating the widespread adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) in maize-based systems in Eastern and Southern Africa

  Major Research Domain: conservation agriculture, maize based systems, conservation tillage, zero tillage, direct seeding Goal: To improve livelihoods and food security for smallholder farmers in ESA through accelerated and widespread adoption of CA practices.

• Factors influencing the development trajectories of lowlands in West Africa

  To contribute to the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals in Africa, with a particular focus in poverty alleviation and food security

• Farmer participatory research in action: selection and strategic use of multipurpose forage germplasm by smallholders in production systems in hillsides of Central America

  Goal: Smallholders in Central American hillsides integrate forage-based technologies in novel ways in their production systems to enhance food security, income generation, land use efficiency, resource utilisation and resource conservation Major Results Achieved: The participatory procedure for forage selection was completed. By utilising farmer, a sequence for data analysis was developed which helps to define profiles for forage species with high potential acceptance and adoption by farmers.

• Farmers participatory improvement of production technologies for rainfed rice-based systems in West Africa with emphasis on Nigeria and Benin (NEW CONTRACT-NO: 81051376)

  Major Research Domain: Rice-based farming systems, technology generation, dissemination approaches Goal: Development of approaches that ensure generation and dissemination of demand driven technologies in rainfed rice-based cropping systems in West Africa Outputs: - To extrapolate available approaches to other sites and crops - To measure the impact of adapted technologies - To generate more complex technologies that effect farm household and village - To make available a system of demand driven technology generation and dissemination

• Fighting drought and aluminum toxicity: Integrating functional genomics, phenotypic screening and participatory evaluation with women and small-scale farmers to develop stress-resistant common bean and Brachiaria for the tropics

  Goal: To contribute to food security and sustainability of crop-livestock systems in tropical areas prone to drought stress and aluminum (AI) toxicity Purpose: To discover drought and Al resistance candidate genes that are involved in maintaining root elongation under stress; to develop phenotypic and molecular tools to facilitate marker assisted selection (MAS) in common bean and Brachiaria; and to increase benefits to resource-poor farmers from stress-adapted, improved common bean and Brachiaria

• Food and water security under global change: Developing adaptive capacity with a foucs on rural Africa

  Major Research Domain: food and water, policy analysis, adaptive capacity Goal: Development of capacity to adapt to global change for vulnerable rural areas in developing countries

• Food safety in fruits and vegetables in Viet Nam - consumer demand and firms compliance

  Major Research Domain: food safety, foods and vegetables, policy advice Goal: To better understand the implications of the rising demand for quality and safety on supply chains of FVP by analyzing economic and institutional factors related to provision of quality and safety of fruit and vegetable products in Viet Nam

• Food security and commercialization in uplands of northern Vietnam

  Major Research Domain: upland rice, land use patterns, northern Vietnam, food security, commercialisation Goal: To develop strategies for reducing food insecurity in the uplands of northern Vietnam

• Food security and poverty alleviation through improved valuation and governance of river fisheries in Africa

  Major Research Domain: inland fisheries, policy advice, fishery policies, economic valuation Goal: To sustain and improve the livelihoods of the rural poor who depend on inland fisheries for their income, employment and food security along the rivers and fringing floodplains of the Lake Chad and Zambesi Basins

• FOR 431 Protected cultivation - an approach to sustainable vegetable production in the humid tropics

  The principles of our basic research concept, described in detail in the proposal for phase I of the project, are still valid for phase II: · Sustainable production of tomatoes as a vegetable model crop under the climatic and socio-economic conditions of the humid tropics in a peri-urban production area. · Protected cultivation (net-houses) and biological plant protection. · Interdisciplinary, system orientated approach with ‘satellite experiments’ to produce basic data and single problem solutions and an continuously running ‘central experiment’ (CE), integrating and optimising the findings from the satellite experiments.

• FOR 536 Matter fluxes in grasslands of Inner Mongolia as influenced by stocking rate (MAGIM)

  Increasing stocking rate provoked extensive degradation of grasslands in Inner Mongolia accompanied by increased soil erosion and desertification. By now China is one of the countries facing the most serious desertification problems in the world. The total area affected by desertification is approximately 2.6 million km 2 , covering 27.3 % of total territory of China. Since grasslands represent one of the largest stocks for organic carbon, its degradation has a significant feedback on the biosphere-atmosphere exchange for carbon and nitrogen. Hence grassland degradation leads to volatilization and dislocation by erosion of huge amounts of C and N previously stored in this ecosystems.

• Forest conversion: Ecological and socio-economic assessment of biodiversity

  •To study the impact of different forest management strategies on forest biodiversity. •To assess the individual willingness to pay for increased levels of forest biodiversity. •To provide advice to decision makers

• From genes to farmers’ fields: enhancing and stabilizing productivity of rice in submergence prone environments

  Major Research Domain: submergence-tolerant rice, submergence tolererance, marker assisted selection Goal: Farmers adopt submergence-tolerant rice cultivars and suitable management practices in ecosystems where plants are inundated for up to 2 weeks by flash floods

• Gene flow analysis for assessing the safety of bio-engineered crops in the tropics

  Biosafety, transgenic crops, wild species, gene flow analysis Major Results Achieved: Beans: The survey on wild wild bean populations was completed. Estimations on natural outcrossing of cultivated types are carried out. Wind has proved to have a major effect on pollination vectors/mechanisms. Biochemical and molecular markers are used to determine gene transfer. First results indicate that favourable conditions may allow gene flow and subsequent introgression from cultivated to wild forms.

• Gene flow analysis for environmental safety in the Tropics

  Major Research Domain: gene flow analysis, genetic engineering, biosafety Goal: Contribute to food security and enabling the co-existence of different types of agriculture in the Neotropics while preserving environmental safety and biodiversity in tropical centers of diversity

• Generating a framework for strategic improvement and adoption of superior dual-purpose (groundnut) cultivars in mixed crop livestock systems in drought prone areas

  The study will look at how the new technology affected the livelihoods of small-scale groundnut-growing households, the changes in intra-household decision-making on which activities would be undertaken and by whom, and how this influenced the innovation process as well as adoption and impact outcomes. The socio-economic results of the impact assessment at the household level will be linked to a better understanding of structures, decisions and processes along the information pathway from breeding the new cultivar to farmers‘ expressing their specific demand in the market for this technology. This innovative approach will allow valuable lessons to be learnt in regard to bridging the gap between formal agricultural research, administrative and development institutions, market actors and small-holder farmers. The purpose of this study is to document and understand the impact, adoption and dissemination of this variety, thereby providing lessons for introduction and dissemination of new crop varieties in particular and improved technologies in general.

• Genetic resources policy initiative: Strengthening capacity to analyse national options

  Major Research Domain: genetic resources policy, legal frameworks, southern countries demand analysis (SCDA), Policy Information Brokerage Service (PIBS) Priorities: 2, 3 Goal: To optimise the contribution of genetic resources to food security, economic development and environmental protection, by promoting national policies and laws that promote secure conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits deriving from genetic resources

• Genetic, Physiological, and Molecular Approaches to Improve Heat and Drought Tolerance of Tropical Tomato

  Goal: To contribute to stable and increased production of tomato through development of heat and drought tolerant varieties Purpose: Development of heat and drought tolerant tomato breeding lines through molecular genetics and genomics, and effective identification and utilization of genetic resources Outputs: - Screening methods development for drought and heat tolerance and tolerant germplasm identified - Head and drought tolerance characterized and QTLs identified in tomato - Candidate genes for abiotic stress tolerance mapped onto tomato genetic map - Primary QTLs identified and candidate genes validated for heat and drought tolerance through comparative and composite analysis - Breeding lines and linked molecular markers developed for drought and heat tolerance - Increased NARES/ commercial seed companies/academic institutions´ capacity to screen for drought and heat tolerance and apply molecular markers in breeding

• Genetically engineered resistance to African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) in cassava

  African cassava mosaic disease (ACMD) is the most serious disease threatening cassava production in Africa at present. The losses caused by ACMD throughout the continent are 40%, and locally the harvests can be lost completely. ACMD is caused by the geminivirus African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) and transmitted by whiteflies (Bemisia tabaci). ACMV has circular single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) denoted DNA A and B, which is encapsidated in twin icosahedral particles. No cassava variety completely resistant to ACMV could so far be produced by traditional breeding. e want to engineer resistance against the African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) using two different approaches and to study the effectiveness of these methods in conferring cassava resistant against ACMV. The first approach involves expression of antisense RNAs as 3' untranslated regions of a selectable marker gene. The second approach relies on mimicking the hypersensitive reaction (HR) of incompatible host-pathogen interactions by taking advantage of the regulation of the ACMV promoters. The ultimate goal is to produce transgenic cassava plants resistant to ACMV in the field.

• Genomics and biodiversity: Providing new opportunities for smallholder potato farmers

  Major Research Domain: potato breeding, molecular markers, genomics, biodiversity Goal: To significantly improve income, food security, human health, and environmental well being by providing resource-poor farmers with effective technological options for controlling late blight disease and Potato Virus Y.

• GLOWA

  GLOWA focuses on the problem of water availability. The medium and long-term availability of water is not only called into question by the continuous growth of the world population and in some areas by the excessive use of water resources, but is also increasingly influenced by global environmental changes. The aim of GLOWA is to develop simulation-tools and instruments which will allow to develop and to realize strategies for sustainable and future-oriented water management at regional level (river basins of approx. 100.000 km/2), while taking into account global environmental changes and the socioeconomic framework conditions. Within GLOWA five large cluster projects have been started. Two of them are located in Germany (Danube, Elbe), the other are investigating river catchment areas in North and West Africa (Draa, Queme, Volta) as well as in the Near East (Jordan). Each of these projects is tackling the following scientific core themes in an interdisciplinary and integrative research approach:

• Global facilitation unit for underuntilized species

  Underutilized plant species contribute increasingly to food and nutritional security and poverty alleviation of the rural and urban poor.

• GLOWA-Volta: Sustainable Water Use under Changing Land Use, Rainfall Reliability, and Water Demands in the Volta Basin

  The central objective of the proposed GLOWA project is the analysis of the physical and socio-economic determinants of the hydrological cycle, and based on this the development of a scientifically sound decision support system for the assessment, sustainable use and development of water resources in the Volta Basin. Integration of climatic, ecological and socio-economic factors and correlations with respect to the hydrologic cycle is the main scientific challenge. The GLOWA Volta project applies a multi-disciplinary methodology. Early on in the project, new tools for interdisicplinary observations, data gathering, and modeling were developed in small teams consisting of scientists with different disciplinary backgrounds such as meteorology, hydrology, soil science, economy and law.

• Identification of anti-fungal compounds in Andean root and tuber crops as biotechnical tools for the improvement of potato resistance to pathogens

  Goal: Realisation of the potential of specific Andean root and tuber crops as sources of anti-microbial proteins against potato pathogens Major Results Achieved: Final Report: A number of new antimicrobial proteins have been shown to affect fungal disease development in potato. The expression of a synthetic cationic antimicrobial peptide gene, derived from the insect proteins cecropin and melittin, has also been shown to confer resistance to several phytopathogens of transgenic potato.

• Identifizierung von geeigneten Flächen zur Rehabilitierung und Aufforstung in der Mata Atlantica/Brasilien und Entwicklung von Strategien zu deren nachhaltiger Nutzung

  he program supports the comprehensive approach towards achieving the Overall Objective (sustainable development of Mata Atlantica) outlined below. The project includes immediate Objectives reflecting concrete projects where the Institute for World Forestry (IWF) of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (BFH) and its principal co-operation partners in Germany (UFZ in Lepizig, University of Hamburg) cooperates with Brazilian scientists. The IWF has an operational working relationship with the Environmental Systems Research Centre (Leipzig, modelling) and the Institute for Ethnology (University Hamburg, social sciences). The required know-how in all relevant disciplines is directly available under the roof of IWF and its cooperation partners.

• Implementing ecological approaches of pest management for enhancing sustainable potato production of resource-poor farmers in mountainous regions in CIP’s target countries of Southwest-Central Asia

  Enhance food security, reduce poverty and improve human health through sustainable crop production and reduced use of toxic pesticides PTM losses reduced under the control threshold by introduced parasitoids

• Improving field resistance of wheat against Fusarium Head Blight and mitigating the amount of mycotoxin in the grain

  Major Research Domain: Resistance breeding, fungi characterization, mycotoxins, digital infrared thermography

• Improving small farm production and marketing of bananas under trees: Resource partitioning, living soils, cultivar choice and marketing strategies

  Goal: Rural communities increase their income and food security through more productive, higher quality and more strategically marketed niche and gourmet Musa grown with locally adapted ecologically efficient, clean and profitable agro-forestry techniques Purpose: Rural development agencies, non governmental organizations, community based organizations and agricultural research, education and extension programmes use innovative knowledge and tools for prioritizing research, piloting tactics to improve grower management and strengthening grower observation and decision making to increase the small holder productivity of Musa in agro-forests targeted to expanding high value and specialty markets.

• Improving soil management recommendations for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa using new infrared technology for rapid diagnosis of soil constraints

  Goal: To increase smallholder agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa while protecting the environment through evidence-based targeting of improved soil management recommendations by agricultural research and development organizations and the private sector Purpose: National agricultural research organizations and private sector advisory services in sub- Saharan Africa adopt soil infrared spectroscopy to help target soil management and fertilizer recommendations

• Improving the livelihoods of poor live-stock keepers in Africa through community based management of indigenous farm animal genetic resources

  Major Research Domain: livestock, animal genetic resources, community based management Goal: To improve the livelihoods of poor livestock-keepers in Africa through community-based management of indigenous farm animal genetic resources

• Improving the management of trypanocide resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa: a coordinated regional study

  Major Research Domain: Trypanosomosis, trypanocide resistance, agro-pastoral production systems Priorities: 3, 4 Goal: Improve the sustainability of smallholder agro-pastoral production systems in West Africa Purpose: Ensure the efficacy of trypanocides as a component of integrated control of trypanosomosis in the cotton zone of West Africa

• Improving the value of maize as livestock feed and to enhance the livelihoods of maize-livestock farmers in East Africa

  Major Research Domain: maize, livestock feed, dual-purpose maize Goal: To investigate the potential of dual-purpose maize to enhance the livelihoods of resource poor crop-livestock farmers of East Africa

• Improving Water Productivity of Crop-Livestock Systems of Sub-Saharan Africa

  Goal: The goal of this project is to improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in mixed croplivestock systems, and mitigate land degradation of the semi-arid of Sub-Saharan Africa through increased productivity o fwater and improved governance of water resources. This coincides with IWMI´s mission to improve water and land resources management for food, livelihoods and nature, and IWMI, ICRISAT and ILRI´s commitment to the CGIAR priorities to develop livestock related options to improve management, conservation and use of water in Sub-Saharan Africa. Purpose: The project´s purpose is to develop and promote options for enhancing water productivity in the semi arid areas based on improved management options for livestock in mixed farming systems.

• INCO 2:Control of rinderpest (rp) and peste des petits ruminants (ppr) infections: development of oral vaccine, role of wildlife in the maintenance of these diseases

  Project Reference: ICA4-CT-2000-30027 PROPOSAL for INCO-DEV (call identifier: ICFP599A4PROl): PROPOSAL ABSTRACT (maximum 1000 characters) Because of their high mortality and high morbidity rates, rinderpest (RP) and peste des petits ruminants (PPR) are dreaded animal diseases which are drawing back the animal production in many developing countries (Africa, Asia).

• Integrierte Bekämpfung im Boden lebender Schädlinge Südamerikas

  Goal: To increase crop yields and reduce environmental degradation due to exessive use of pesticides Major Results Achieved: Preliminary field surveys in Quindo, where large scale farmers dominate, revealed that white grubs and burrower bugs were almost not present, as they are well controlled through the application of synthetic insecticides.

• Integrated control of thrips in vegetables in eastern Africa

  Enhance food security and reduce poverty through sustainable crop production Pest status of thrips greatly reduced by environmentally friendly control methods

• Integrated management of major insect pests and diseases of cashew in east and western Africa

  Goal: To improve livelihoods through sustainable production and utilization of cashew. Purpose: To develop and implement in collaboration with national and international partners, sustainable integrated management strategies for major cashew insect pests and diseases in SSA; and to train a cadre of scientists to enhance national capacity to implement biocontrol-based IPM in cashew production in Benin and Tanzania.

• Integrated pest management of maize stem- and cob-borer in Western Africa

  Major Research Domain: integrated pest management, maize stem- and cob-borer, biological control, Mussidia ssp., habitat management Goal: Improved food security in western Africa through more effective and environmentally rational management of maize pests

• Integration of multipurpose trees in mixed crop-livestock watershed systems for feed production and soil conservation

  Major Research Domain: Integrated watershed management, multipurpose trees, soil fertility, improved crop-livestock systems Priority: 3 Goal: Improved natural resource management on watershed level through livestock oriented agroforestry, soil conservation and nutrient management Purpose: Develop sustainable livestock-cropping systems for small scale farmers

• International Workshop on 'IPM in a changing world - innovative pathways towards food security and food safety'

  Goal: To provide guidance to institutions and organizations -including the CGIAR Centers- which work towards a world with less poverty and hunger, improved human health and more resilient ecosystems on how to address crop losses effectively for rapid impact on food security and safety. Purpose: To identify the priority areas in crop protection and plant health management that have to be immediately addressed by the international community for significant impact on food security and safety within the next two decades. To propose suitable approaches which support low-income countries in benefiting from existing advanced technologies and enable them to build their own sufficient and durable innovation capacity.

• Investigating the pathogenicity mechanisms of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) - the most devasting cattle disease in Africa

  Goal: Contribute to a reduction in poverty in drought prone rural environments through increased food security and income generation. Purpose: Enhancing yield and yield stability of cassava in these environments

• Wissenstransfer zur Aus- und Weiterbildung in der Holzwirtschaft, einschl. internationaler Zusammenarbeit

  The knowledge transfer is formalized with different intensities. It is most obviously visible in the academic study ‘wood science and forest products’ where scientists of the institute are involved. They contribute their specific knowledge and experience on a contractual basis as docents and supervisors (of diploma theses). Less formalized are seminars, performed after request, for various wood working professions and the interested public. Within the framework of international co-operations (COST, DAAD, GTZ and others), knowledge is dissiminated also to foreign partners, students (including PhD students) and scholarship holders.

• Large-scale deployment of improved sweetpotatoes in sub-Saharan Africa

  Goal: To strengthen and extend a platform for partnerships that will deliver new sweetpotato production technologies to large numbers of farmers quickly and efficiently

• Less loss, more profit, better health: reducing the losses caused by the pod borer (Maruca vitrata) on Vegetable legumes in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa by refining component technologies of a sustainable management strategy

  Goal: To contribute to improving livelihoods through sustainable vegetable legume production systems in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Purpose: To increase income of farmers through sustainable management of legume pod borer on vegetable legumes. To increase income of farmers through sustainable management of legume pod borer on vegetable legumes.

• Making local government more responsive to the poor: Developing indicators and tools to support sustainable livelihood development under decentralization

  Goal: To improve local government will and capacity for sustainably increasing economic benefits and livelihood security of the rural poor

• Making Rural Services Work for the Poor - The Role of Rural Institutions and Their Governance for Agriculture-Led Development

  Goal: Direct benefits for target groups - Provision of services to the rural poor is improved due to - Increased ability of the rural poor to demand sevices and hold service providers accountable - Increased ability of the rural poor to engage in collective action and to co-produce services - Improved ability of service providers to supply quality services to which the poor have access Purpose: Intended utilization of outputs by recipients / direct clients

• Managing crop residues for healthy soils in rice ecosystems

  Goal: Farmers adopt recommended crop residue management practices that will improve soil fertility and environmental quality Purpose: NARES in Asia start to further elaborate and promote practices to manage crop residues Outputs: - To develop soil organic matter indicators to determine soil fertility for evaluating the effects of different crop residue management practices - To develop and test recommendations for crop residue management for emerging changes in irrigated rice cultivation

• Managing micro-organisms to enhance plant health for sustainable banana production in Eastern Africa

  Goal: Exploiting microbial interactions for enhanced banana plant health and productivity Outputs: - To find, test and apply microbial antagonists to control banana pests and diseases such as banana weevil, plant parasitic nematodes and Fusarium wilt - To establish modes of action, persistence, distribution and competition among different species and strains

• Managing micro-organisms to enhance plant health for sustainable banana production in Eastern Africa (Phase II)

  Goal: To improve banana crop production through better, cost-effective protection against pests Purpose: To develop and deliver to farmers endophyte-enhanced tissue-culture plants with sustained protection against banana pests

• Marker-based estimation of effective population size: Application to the conservation of indigenous African cattle populations

  The main objective of the study is the investigation of a new method, using chromosome segment homozygosity, to estimate effective population size, population history and genetic diversity of livestock breeds when no demographic data is available. In particular: Investigate through simulation studies marker based estimation of effective population size using chromosome fragments identical by descent. Estimate additional populations demography factors relevant for conservation (i.e. demographic trend, migration rates). Evaluate the proposed factors on data from taurine African cattle populations. Define a general protocol for field application.

• Market information System for West Africa

  Appleid research for the development of a decentralised and GIS based information system for monitoring agricultural markets in West Africa.

• Matching product quality, hillside environments and market demand for agricultural highvalue diversification - DAPA (Diversification Agriculture Project Alliance).

  To reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmer incomes in tropical hillsides to volatility in commodity market prices and decrease their long-term.To facilitate collaboration among farmers, industry and research partners in developing systems that identify higher value products for specific sites in hillsides and generate the knowledge required to meet market demands.

• Mitigating the impact of climate change on rice disease resistance in East Africa

  Goal: To increase well-being of farmers growing rice in East Africa despite climate change. Purpose: To mitigate the impact of climate change on occurrence and virulence of rice pathogens affecting rice yield in East Africa.

• Mobilizing regional diversity for creating new potentials for pearl millet and sorghum farmers in West and Central Africa

  To enhance rural livelihoods and household food security in pearl millet-and sorghumgrowing areas of WCA through cultivation of adapted, higher-yielding and stable cultivars of these staple cerealsTo assist NARS in the target countries to more effectively utilize genetic diversity of locally adapted, farmer-preferred photoperiod-sensitive, pearl millet and sorghum germplasm in their breeding programs

• Modeling of water and nitrogen dynamics under conservation tillage

  Goal: To enhance productivity while protecting or improving the natural resource base Major Results Achieved: Out of the selected models, APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) and CropSyst (Cropping Systems Simulation Model) bring all necessary tools to model conservation-tillage-cum-residue agricultural systems. CropSyst was tested with data from CIMMYTs D5-trial. Analysing the rainwater use productivity it became evident that CropSyst has a very simple plant-growth module. I

• Modellierung des Wachstums von tropischen Feuchtwäldern unter Einwirkung von großflächigen Störungen

  The assessment of growth and yield of tropical moist forest is very complex. Long-term obeservations of managed forests are generally very sparsely distributed. Monitoring plots established in the 50ies are normally managed as research plots, i.e. they are particularly treated under specific, common silvicultural systems. However, the vast majority of tropical moist forests are exploited and standards of silvicultural systems are neglected. Thus, alternative methods are needed to predict growth behaviour. Ecophysiological process models precisely describe forest dynamics, once a comprehensive set of ecological parameters are available. FORMIX, a growth simulation model for lowland dipterocarp forest in Malaysia has been developed and applied for several timber harvesting scenarios. For selected scenarios, where standards of the present silvicultural system are used and for various theoretical strategies the annual allowable cut has been calculated. The model is currently under further development to assess the effectiveness of silvicultural treatments and economic implications.

• Neuchâtel Initiative

  During the 1980s and early 1990s there was a broad consensus among development partners that agricultural extension systems play a major role in the economic and social development of Africa. However, a heated debate was going on about which system was most suitable for the continent. Some donors preferred pluralistic, participatory, farmer-controlled approaches involving Farmers’ Organisations and NGOs, whereas the World Bank pushed their favourite, the Government operated and controlled T&V (training&visit) extension system. The most affected were, on the one hand, the recipient governments who had to deal with as many systems as donors were operating in their country, and the farming families on the other hand, being confronted with many different approaches. So, in 1995 representatives of the World Bank, the French Cooperation and SDC took the initiative to call for an informal consultation of donors with the objectives: * to get a dialogue started among donors * to identify key issues relevant to sustainable extension systems * to find common grounds for joint activities

• New opportunities for hillside farmers: Matching product quality, environments and market demand for high-value agricultural products

  Major Research Domain: high value crops, product quality, market demand, supply chains, market analysis Goal: To reduce the vulnerability of smallholder farmer incomes in tropical hillsides to volatility in commodity market prices and decrease their long-term.

• New policy mechanisms to mitigate wildlife-livestock conflicts in Bandhavgarh National Park in India

  The goal of this interdisciplinary project is to assess the potential of new plicy mechanisms, in particular performance payments, to mitigate wildlife-livestock conflicts. Performance payments are made to livestock herders based on the number of carnivore offspring that are certified on the livestock's grazing grounds.

• Novel resistance to control wheat blast caused by Magnapothe grisea, a new disease threatening global wheat production

  To identify novel genetic resistance in wheat against blast and make it available to NARS To limit the risk of spread of this threat to global wheat produ

• Nutrient management in aerobic rice systems

  Thematic Priority: Conservation and efficient use of natural resources and biodiversity Development of sustainable production systems Goal: To ease water scarcity as a constraint to agriculture and economic development through the develpment of nonflooded, aerobic rice systems that achieve high yields while sharply reducing water use

• Opportunities for economic incentives to promote sustainable land and Opportunities for economic incentives to promote sustainable land and water management in the sloping lands of South and Southeast Asia

  Goal: Sustainable agricultural development in the sloping lands of South and South-East Asia for food security, poverty reduction and the conservation of land and water resources Purpose: To generate viable institutional and economic benefit sharing mechanisms that promote equitable incentive systems for sustainable upland watershed management in Vietnam and Laos by making use of the needs of current and planned large dams.

• Optimal regeneration strategies to manage genetic diversity in ex situ germplasm collections of African leafy vegetables

  Major Research Domain: Conservation and efficient use of natural resources, biodiversity, ex situ conservation, genetic resources Goal: To enhance the maintenance of genetic integrity of ex situ germplasm collections of under-utilized crops through the development of improved regeneration protocols

• Participatory development and testing of strategies to reduce climate vulnerability of poor farm households in East Africa through innovations in potato and sweet potato technologies and enabling policies

  Goal: Reduce climate vulnerability of poor farm households in East Africa through adoption of potato- and sweet potato-based technologies and enabling policies that increase the resilience and sustainability of agricultural systems Purpose: Adaptation strategies for poor farm households in East Africa based on new potato and sweet potato technologies and enabling policies are adopted by farmers and other stakeholders

• Pharmaceutical Values of Onions and Related Species (Allium L.)

  The project attempts a survey of valuable Allium species in the repub- lics of Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Their distribution in certain areas and traditional uses as vegetable and medicine by the local population will be inventorized during field work. Allium species that are characteristic of certain areas will be cultivated, and their active ingredients will be determined by modern analytical methods (e.g. biosensors). The chemical analysis will focus on sulphur containing compounds, saponins and further natural substan- ces assumed to have an antibiotic activity (e.g. a red coloured sub- stance characteristic of the subgenus Melanocrommyium). Additionally, biological effects of plant extracts will be investigated. Project re- sults may be beneficial for the people in terms of a healthful diet.

• Physiological Mechanisms and their Variability for Drought Tolerance in Cassava

  Goal: Contribute to a reduction in poverty in drought prone rural environments through increased food security and income generation. Purpose: Enhancing yield and yield stability of cassava in these environments

• Policies for improved soil nutrient management in sub-Saharan Africa

  Major Research Domain: Policy, soil fertility, agricultural productivity Goal: Identification of effective policy strategies to improve soil fertility in the highlands of Uganda Outputs: - To identify the main factors affecting land management and its linkages to agricultural productivity, poverty, and resource sustainability in Uganda;

• Policy Analysis for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Eastern Europe and Southern Africa - PASAD

  The PASAD project aims at contributing to a deeper understanding of sustainable rural development. Its major objective is to draw a more comprehensive picture of the rural economy through integrating various determinants of rural development and several methodologies, which allows the evaluation of linkages and interaction effects. Decreasing soil fertility implies decreasing yields over time and hence lowers the real incomes of already poor farmers even further. Sustainability in agricultural production depends on various interdependent aspects that require integrated analytical approaches to address the complexity involved. Smallholder production of food crops in poor countries is particularly vulnerable to hazards that are related to (i) production technologies as well as (ii) factor and commodity markets. The former aspect includes appropriate input use and land management, while the latter particularly considers rural labor markets, intermediate input markets, and commercial output markets.

• POST HARVEST LOSS INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR BETTER ESTIMATES OF FOOD AVAILABILITY

  Crop production figures are normally adjusted for post harvest (PH) loss in order to obtain the estimates of food availability on which any relief actions are based. To date, the origin and justification of figures used to make adjustments for PH losses have not been well founded. To remedy this situation, MARS-Food Sec, in association with AIDCO and FAO, has commissioned a project to obtain more realistic figures for the PH losses of cereal grains.

• Potassium management for irrigated rice on degraded soils in the red river delta of Vietnam

  Vietnam has 33 million ha of land, of which 7 million ha are agricultural land and rice occupies 4.2 million ha. Rice is the staple food of the Vietnamese people providing 80 percent of the carbohydrate and 40 percent of the protein intake in the diet. It is the predominant crop in most of the ecological regions of the country . The sown area was 7.5 million ha in 1998 producing 30 million tonnes of paddy . The national average yield is 4 t/h. During the last 10 years the rate increases per year of rice production, sown area and average yield in Vietnam were 5.3, 3.0 and 3.5 percent, respectively. Thanks to the continuous increase in rice production, Vietnam could supply rice to the world from 1989 and has now become the world’s second largest rice exporter. The quantity of rice exported reached 3.8 million tonnes in 1998

• Practical Strategy and Guidelines for Introducing/Maintaining Fish Production in and Around Refugee Camps and Settlements to Secure Food Production and Generate Income

  Goal: To contribute to the improvement of food security and well-being of refugees as well as the local population living around the camps. Purpose: To gain an understanding of fish production techniques most suitable for providing food and income to people living in and around refugee camps or settlements and to create a set of practical guidelines for integrating fish production into refugee settings which specifically include the natural and political conditions in Zambia.

• Precision phenotyping for improving drought stress tolerant maize in southern Asia and eastern Africa

  Goal: to enhance food security and raise incomes of resource-poor farming families and consumers in southern Asia (Thailand and South China) and eastern Africa (Kenya). Purpose: To provide poor farmers with abiotic stress (mainly drought and low fertility) tolerant quality protein maize and breeders of national programs and seed companies with innovative phenotyping platforms to assess genotypic variability in drought adaptation and water use in field trials

• Predicting climate change induced vulnerability of African agricultural systems to major insect pests through advanced insect phenology modeling, and decision aid development for adaptation planning

  Goal: African agriculture (farmers, national agricultural research institutions, policy makers, etc.) copes with the risk of exacerbating and expanding insect pests due to climate change; and, adaptation strategies minimize major pest-related crop losses. Purpose: • Vulnerability of crops to pests induced by climate change determined through phenology modeling, and a database on temperature-driven phenology models developed and computeraide tools provided for pest risk mapping and adaptation planning. • Scientists and IPM practitioners use the project tools for: country-specific pest risk assessments, adaptation planning, improving their pest management strategies, and for providing information to policy makers to improve national pest management and quarantine programs.

• Preventing and containing trypanocide resistance in the cotton zone of West Africa (Phase II)

  Goal: To protect and improve the sustainable livelihoods of resource-poor livestock keepers in agro-pastoral production systems Purpose: To enhance the current and future efficacy of trypanocides as an effective component of improved integrated trypanosomosis control strategies

• Process-oriented development of a model for a fair benefit-sharing for the use of biological resources in the Amazon lowland of Ecuador

  •To work out an agreement for a fair sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources in the Amazon lowland of Ecuador. •To develop this agreement with local communities, relevant NGOs, the Ecuadorian authorities and a German pharmaceutical company. •To improve methods for locating plants of pharmaceutical value. •To eventually produce a plant extract with documented pharmacological properties.

• Promotion of neglected indigenous vegetable crops for nutritional health in Eastern and Southern Africa

  Major Research Domain: vegetables, neglected crops, hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus), African eggplants (Solanum aethiopicum, S. Macrocarpon, S. Anguivi), Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) Ethiopian Mustard (Brassica carinata), Spiderflower (Gynandropsis gynandra), Jute Mallow (Corchorus olitorius), Nightshades (Solanum scabrum, S. americanum, S. villosum, S. Nigrum), Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus, A. Caillei), Pumpkin (Curcubita pepo, C. moschata), Moringa (Moringa olifera), Hyacinth Bean (lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet, syn. Dolichus lablab L., Lablab niger Medik, Vegetable Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Goal: To improve household food security of resource-poor groups in Eastern and Southern Africa through better uitilization of neglected indigenous vegetables

• Ermittlung der Eigenschaften überseeischer Sekundär- und Plantagenhölzer sowie von Baumarten aus Anbauversuchen

  est material for determination of porperties of foreign secoandary and platation timber as well as from cultivation tests has its origin in very different region of the planel. Investigated was the wood of Paulownia tomentosa, Taxodium distichum und Melia azedarach, Carya illinoensis, Cordia trichotoma, Enterolobium contortisiliquum, Grevillea robusta, Hovenia dulcis, Peltaphorum vogelianum, Xylopia brasiliensis(allesamt aus Argentinien), Tectona grandis (from Africa and Indonesien), Kokosholz, Nipa-Plame, and others. in Addition the wood of genetically modified poplar clones which had been cultivated under strict surveillance was investigated.

• QTL analysis by molecular markers of agronomically important characters of barley for dryland conditions

  Goal: Development and use of molecular markers linked with agronomic traits. Major Results Achieved: In the population Tadmor/Sel160 markers were identified for Powdery Mildew, Rynchosporium secalis, and agronomic traits. The combination of AFLP technology, providing abundant polymorphic DNA marker and the bulk-segregant approach help to identify a number of markers closely linked to the trait of interest. In the Arta/H.spontaneum population markers were identified for the brittle rachis traits and plant height under drought stress

• Re-thinking water storage for climate change adaptation for sub-Saharan Africa

  Goal: To improve livelihoods and increase resilience of rural poor in SSA vulnerable to climate change risks through better water storage mechanisms, improved investments and institutional support Purpose: To guide policy and investment decisions of international development agencies, state bodies, NGOs, private funding institutions and local authorities towards storage options and strategies that ensure optimal adaptation to CC-induced impacts on water availability in SSA

• Reconstructing agricultural livelihoods in post-conflict situations: Reconstructing agricultural livelihoods in post-conflict situations: The case of Northern Uganda

  Major Research Domain: Post-conflict reconstruction, agricultural policy, rural development, program evaluation, demobilization, gender, vulnerable groups, coping, assistance, livelihoods

• Research program: Science and Technology for the Mata Atlântica

  The program Mata Atlântica aims to develop strategies and action plans for the conservation, sustainable management and use of endangered remnants of the Brazilian Atlantic forest. These strategies will be based on interdisciplinary research and provide a long-term vision. The application of scientific results should improve the efficiency of measures to protect the biodiversity of the Mata Atlântica, and thereby provide an ecological basis for regional landscape planning, in order to promote the persistence and regeneration of the typical biodiversity within this region. Mata Atlântica is part of the Brazilian - German co-operation program: 'Science and Technology for the Mata Atlântica' launched by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico Cnpq, Brazil and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung BMBF, Germany.

• Revisiting sweetpotato weevil sexual pheromone research and development: Scale-up synthesis of improved chemistry, field evaluation and integration into rational mass trapping devices for field application

  Goal: Enhance food security, reduce poverty and improve human health through sustainable sweetpotato production and reduced use of pesticides. Purpose: Sweetpotato weevil population effectively controlled by the use of sex pheromones in innovative trapping devices. Long term: Sweetpotato production losses by Cylas sp. substantially reduced through the integration and effective use of sex pheromones in sweetpotato IPM in SSA and ESEAP.

• Rice and global climate change: candidate genes for preventing heat- and drought-induced yield losses due to spikelet sterility

  Goal: The major goal of this project is the alleviation of global food insecurity, poverty, and malnutrition in potentially highly food- and climate-insecure regions of the world. Purpose: The purpose is the development of rice cultivars that are tolerant of heat, drought, and combined heat and drought stress through the introgression of validated tolerance genes into rice mega-varieties by marker-assisted breeding.

• RIVERTWIN - A regional model for integrated water management in twinned river basins

  The 'RIVERTWIN' project aims to support the goals of the Global Water Initiative by adjusting, testing and implementing an integrated regional model for the strategic planning of water resources management in twinned river basins. The regional model will assist planning authorities and decision makers to assess the impacts of economic and technological development, and the effects of global climate and land use changes on the long-term availability and quality of water bodies. The model is based on a Geographic Information System, which integrates ecological (water availability and quality) and economic aspects (water demand and water use) of water management in user-friendly software.

• Safe food, fair food: Building capacity to improve the safety of animal-source foods and ensure continued market access for poor farmers in sub Saharan Africa

  Goal: The goal of the project is to contribute to poverty alleviation by protecting both the health of low-income consumers and livestock-based livelihoods of the poor through improved food safety of livestock products in domestic markets in east, west and southern Africa. Purpose: The purpose of the project is to establish capacity for the sustained promotion of risk-based approaches thus improving food safety and participation of the poor in informal markets for livestock products in sub Saharan Africa.

• Secondary Forests and Fallow Vegetation in the Eastern Amazon Region, Brazil - Function and Management

  The management techniques of the proposed mulch based systems should contribute: - to an improved use of the secondary vegetation as a source of organic matter and nutrients, - to the temporal maintenance or even shortening of the fallow period without affecting the regenerative function of the fallow. In the long run they should contribute: - to avoid farmers migration to new colonization frontiers, i.e. the primary forests, - to avoid migrations to the outskirts of the cities, to contribute to the sustainable development of the agricultural sector of the northeast of the state of Para.

• Social organization and processes of ecological stabilization and destabilization: A comparative analysis

  Project A2 is concerned with the investigation of social and cultural factors, which are expected to have a decisive impact on modes of individual and collective forest use and its local management. Whereas in the 1st phase of research mainly villages in the eastern border areas of the Lore Lindu Nation al Park have been investigated, research in the 2nd phase will concentrate on the western part of the Park (Kulawi valley). This focus aims at a comparative analysis under partly different socio-economic, socio-cultural and organizational conditions.

• Bodenbiota und Biogeochemie in Küstenregenwäldern Südbrasiliens -Evaluierung von Diversität und Bodenfunktion unter anthropogenem Einfluß (Mata Atlântica, Paraná)

  SOLOBIOMA studies the soil biota, ranging from microorganisms and tiny decomposers like pot-worms to ecosystem engineers like earthworms and top predators of the food web like spiders and ants. Their diversity and their function in the nutrient cycling processes of the forests are of special interest. The coastal region in the Brazilian state of Paraná encompasses the best preserved continuous forest remnant of the Mata Atlântica. Lying at the transition from the tropical to the subtropical zone, coastal forests in Paraná grow from close to the sealine on sandy podzol soils and ground-water influenced gleysols on the coastal plains up to the mountains where they grow on cambisols. Soils influence the biotic conditions, the vegetation structure and the land use as well as the regeneration capacity of the forests.

• Soil conservation options in the Savanna of West-Africa: new approaches to assess their potential

  Major Research Domain: sustainable productivity, natural resources, farming systems, policy, soil erosion Goal: Contribute to food security, income generation and poverty alleviation in rural communities through enhanced and sustainable land use systems

• Soil conservation options to improve food securityin the Savanna of West Africa: Application of radionuclide technology

  Goal: - Contribute to food security and poverty alleviation in rural communities through enhanced land use managment Purpose: - To explore the scope for soil conservation interventions and to develop methods for assessing thei perfomance in the short and long term

• Soil crusting and sealing, its causes and impacts on surface run-offs, water household and plant growth as shown by different land use systems in the Columbian Andes

  Goal: Development of environmentally sound cropping systems including a sustainable fertilizer management

• Paketantrag 'Boden und Umweltforschung'

  The aim of the research project is to quantify the stocks and turnover of soil nitrogen in Western and Southern China as dependent from soil structure an land use. Key soil characteristics are determined at representative sites with regional specific land use and degradation status. The investigations will follow a land use gradient of natural forests, arable and pasture soils, the latter ones considering different degradation and rehabilitations status.

• Spatial and Temporal Variability of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Farmers‘ Rice Fields under Water-Saving Strategies in the Philippines

  Goal: The overarching goal of the project is the regional up-scaling of CH4 and N2O emissions under different water-saving/management characteristics. The specific goals are to 1. Assess temporal variability of CH4 and N2O emissions in farmers‘ fields practicing watersaving techniques. 2. Study the spatial variability of emissions as affected by distinct water-saving practices of different farmers. 3. Calibrate and validate a bio-geochemistry model (DNDC) to the specific conditions in two regions of the Philippines (Central Luzon and Central Visayas). 4. Implement the DNDC model into the newly developed modeling framework for ricecropping systems (APSIM). 5. Develop a methodological framework for using remote-sensing data for regional upscaling of GHG emissions from rice-cropping systems.

• Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: Targeting the Most Vulnerable

  Goal: Reduced vulnerability of rural households to climate change through better-coordinated and targeted food system adaptation strategies Purpose: To provide regional organizations, policymakers and farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa with tools to identify and implement appropriate adaptation strategies

• Strategies for pro-poor growth and investment in lagging rural regions

  Goal: To coordinate research activities, collect and analyze secondary data and jointly build the regionalized CGE (computable general equilibrium) models for Ghana and Viet Nam Purpose: To be responsible for the training of Ghanaian and Vietnamese collaborators on economywide modelling and coordinate outreach and dissemination of results to national audiences and international research community

• Strategies to use Biofuel Value Chain Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa to respond to Global Change - Enhancing low-productivity Farming in Tanzania and linking to SMEs

  Goal: Identify the potential for linking low-productivity farming to small and medium enterprises (SME) to enhance livelihoods through biofuel value chains in the scope of increased global energy demand. Purpose: To provide farmers, regional organizations and local authorities in sub-Saharan Africa with feasible strategies to benefit from biomass production potential and mitigate food insecurity.

• Strengthening Rural Institutions to Support Livelihood Security for Smallholders Involved in Industrial Tree-planting Programs in Vietnam and Indonesia

  Rural smallholders in Southeast Asiaadvance livelihood security and poverty alleviation through involvment in industrial tree-plantingprogramsRural institutions strengthened and innovative partnerships promoted to increase productivity, profitability, and access to land, credit, and markets for smallholders involved in industrial tree-planting programs in Vietnam and Indonesia

• Strengthening the scientific basis of in situ conservation of agriculture biodiversity on-farm: Morocco country component

  Major Research Domain: in situ conservation Priorities: 1, 2, 3, 4 Goal: The in situ conservation and utilisation of crop genetic diversity are ensured for sustainable agricultural development, food security and ecosystem health Purpose: To strengthen the scientific basis, institutional linkages and policies that support the role of farmers in conservation and use of crop genetic diversity

• Supply or Demand: Evaluation of the Family Allowance Program (PRAF) in Honduras

  Major Research Domain: family allowance program, proverty reduction, poverty alleviation, policy analysis, conditional cash transfer program, health and nutrition Goal: To foster human capital formation among the poorest households of Honduras, by promoting school attendance and increased performance among 6-12 year old children, and improving the health and nutrition of mothers and young children from the poorest families of Honduras

• Supporting the vulnerable: Increasing the adaptive capacity of agro-pastoralists to climatic change in West and Southern Africa using a transdisciplinary research approach

  Goal: To increase the adaptive capacity of agro-pastoralists, who are one of the most vulnerable groups in Africa, to climate variability and the expected effects of future climate change Purpose: To co-generate methods, information and solutions between local communities, local and international scientists, policy makers and other actors involved in climate change and adaptation programmes, for coping mechanisms and adapting strategies to climate change and variability in West and Southern Africa, and more particularly in Mali and Mozambique

• Sustainable conservation and utilization of genetic resources of two underutilized crops - finger millet and foxtail millet - to enhance productivity, nutrition and income in Africa and Asia

  The goal is to enhance rural livelihoods and household food and nutritional security in the finger millet and foxtail millet growing areas of Africa and South Asia through cultivation of adapted, higher-yielding and stable cultivars of two underutilized crops - finger millet and foxtail millet.To achieve this goal, the project will assist NARS in the target countries to more effectively utilize genetic diversity of locally adapted finger millet germplasm in their breeding programs.

• Sustainable use of African savannas

  Savannas are intriguing ecological systems that cover a substantial proportion of the earth. They are defined as tropical or sub-tropical systems characterised by a continuous grass cover and a discontinuous tree cover. Many of the properties of savannas are determined by the relative abundance of grasses and trees. Our research on savannas aims to unravel the relative influence of the biophysical processes that shape the interactions between grasses and trees. Our research is based in empirical research being conducted in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. These empirical data are used to parameterise models and to test competing theories of savanna dynamics. A new research project is testing these models and theories in Venezuelan savannas. The ecological models are also being used as a biophysical basis for the exploration of sustainable landuse strategies for savanna systems. The stochastic and non-linear dynamics fundamental to savannas have motivated us to use intenstive numerical techniques to define these sustainable landuse strategies.

• Tackling abiotic production constraints in pearl millet and sorghum-based agricultural systems of the West African Sahel

  Goal: The project‘s goal is to enhance pearl millet and sorghum productivity and production stability, and therefore food security, in the West African Sahel under rain-fed low-input conditions. Purpose: The project‘s outputs aim to strengthen partner NARS in improving pearl millet and sorghum for adaptation to low-P soils in combination with water stress, and in developing new crop management options that reduce abiotic stress pressure. Knowledge generation about the complex interactions of P deficiency with drought stress will help refining selection methodology to improve tolerance to both stresses in future. In the longer term, farmers are expected to cultivate improved cultivars resulting from the research undertaken in this project and to apply the new, efficient crop management techniques that will enhance and stabilize cereal yields under the risky Sahelian conditions.

• Tackling Liriomyza leafmining flies: invasive pests of global proportions

  Enhance food security and reduce poverty through sustainable crop production Pest status of leaf-mining flies greatly reduced by introduced exotic parasitoids and other environmentally friendly control methods

• The Economics of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought: Towards an integrated global assessment of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought

  This study will serve as a reference document for the integrated global assessment study which will be articulated around regional assessments to be delivered for the 2nd Scientific Conference of UNCCD in 2012.

• Projeto Elo Brazil

  Working with the Dom Helder Camara Project, a regional development agency, and other interested organizations, a ‘Challenge Fund’ will help finance small-scale local initiatives.Emphasis will be on income generation through productivity, diversification and marketing, and the fund’s advisers will invite grant applications on a wide range of technology improvements, local capacity building and go-to-market competencies.

• The influence of markets and policies on resource use A3/SFB552

  The objective of project A3 is to identify, explain and evaluate the 'patterns' and 'pathways' of resource use at village-level which have arisen in the forest margin zone of the study area. 'Pattern', is seen as referring to the observed combination of resource-use systems at the village-level which in the study area include agroforestry use, maize cultivation, the construction of forest gardens and the use of primary forest resources in particular.

• The Invasion Potential of Alien Species

  •To develop concepts for identification, ecological and economic assessment and risk management of alien species. •To create a prevention framework for biological invasions.

• The role of major phasic development genes (Vrn and Ppd) in the adaptation of wheat to diverse production environments

  Goal: Breeding wheat varieties with improved adaptation to diverse production environments

• Towards Improved Farmer Access to Agricultural Information in Uganda – the Question and Answer Service (QAS) Voucher System (VS)

  This project will directly target 300 small-scale farmers in 3 districts. Results will be broadcasted by rural radio to an estimated audience of 2 million farmers in English and three local languages, namely Luganda, Luo and Runyakitara. The radio programs will be uploaded onto the Internet on a website that will be developed fot the project (http://cta.isicad.org ) and CTA’s virtual library - Anancy. Results will be analised to evaluate farmes information and research needs.

• Transcriptome profiling of hybrid rice

  Goal: - Generation of complete transcriptome maps - In-depth analysis of 100 transcripts Purpose: - Generate new and unique complete transcriptome maps of one hybrid and its respective parents from the IRRI hybrid rice breeding collection - Investigate heterosis in rice by generating transcriptome maps using a genome-wide approach based on Illumina technology available at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and signature validation based on the Ge-XP platform available at IRRI.

• Trees in multi-use landscapes in South-East Asia (TUL-SEA): A negotiation support toolbox for integrated natural resource management

  Goal: Local resource managers in mul¬ti-use landscapes with trees use cost-effective, replicable tools and approaches to appraise the likely im¬pacts of new technologies and changes in market access and to support evidence-based negotiations of contentious issues

• Understanding and catalyzing learning-selection processes of multi-purpose forage based technologies in Central-America with focus on dry season options and farmer-led seed systems

  Major Research Domain: Learning-selection processes, development of farmer-led forage seed systems, development and testing of dry season feed strategies, ex-ante assessment of feasible forage options, effective organisational structures to facilitate market access Goal: Impact of multipurpose forage based technologies on livelihoods of smallholders in Central America is strengthened through researching and catalyzing learning-selection processes in which farmers adapt multipurpose forage technologies to their needs and conditions

• Understanding and reducing barriers to adoption of sustainable forest management practices

  Goal: Management of tropical natural forests improved by increasing the adoption of sustainable forest management practices by forest managers, from industries to communities

• Unlocking the potential of maize genetic diversity: DNA maps for use in maize breeding programmes and gene banks

  Goal: Contribution to an increase of the scope and efficiency of global maize breeding and genetic resource conservation through improved understanding of the genetic diversity of maize as well as a contribution to an accelerated development of improved maize cultivars Major Results Achieved: Final Report: In the first phase of this proposed project, the genetic diversity within CIMMYTs elite maize populations and inbred lines was determined with microsatellites. A sampling strategy was developed to accurately assess the genetic diversity within maize populations.

• Unravelling the potential of neglected crop diversity for high-value product differentiation and income generation for the poor: The case of chili pepper in its centre of origin

  Goal: To generate higher incomes for poor farmers in developing countries based on the enhanced and sustainable use of native and neglected crop diversity. Purpose: In response to the growing demand for differentiated, high-value foods and ingredients, and focusing on Capsicum peppers as an example for the universal problem of the under-use of crop genetic diversity, Bioversity along with its partners in Germany and two developing countries (Bolivia and Peru) will combine innovative methodologies (e.g. molecular studies, GIS, biochemical screening) and market intelligence to promote the use of native varieties and species that respond to market opportunities and trends, all sourced from representative national germplasm collections.

• Utilization of wild relatives of wheat in developing salinity tolerant winter wheat with improved quality for Central Asia

  The main goal of the project is to improve salinity tolerance and the end-use quality of bread wheat in Central Asia using synthetic wheat for enhanced and sustainable wheat productivity in irrigated and marginal lands. This will diversify the genetic basis of the varieties being grown, increase farm income and hence, improve the livelihood of resource-poor farmers.

• Utilizing multipurpose legume diversity to improve soil and feed quality, including application in a watershed in the Central American hillsides

  Goal: To identify high quality legume options for improved livestock feed during the dry season and to contribute to enhanced soil fertility management in smallholder production systems

• Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Europa

  VSF Europa is an international non-profit association. Its nine members are the individual national VSF associations of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Three quarters of the world's poor depend entirely or partially on livestock for their survival. VSF Europa members have a common vision: better living conditions for the most vulnerable. They are all working towards reducing poverty and increasing food sovereignty on the planet. VSF Europa was created to strengthen the collaboration between its members in terms of information exchange, strategic thinking, geographical coverage, human resource sharing and adoption of innovative solutions. VSF Europa members implement altogether more than 100 projects in over 40 countries. The annual budget for these projects is above 20 million Euros.

• Working together for market access: strengthening rural producer organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa

  The goal of the project is to improve the lives of smallholder farmers by strengthening the ability of RPOs in Senegal, Uganda and Zambia to improve their members‘ access to input and output markets. It will do this by identifying specific interventions that can improve the capacity of RPO members to better access and benefit from input and output markets.