deployment of rust resistant wheat in ethiopia 23 april 2014v3

Controlling Wheat Rusts and Ensuring Food Security through Deployment of

Resistant Varieties in Ethiopia

A. Atilaw, Z. Bishaw, F. Eticha, S. Gelalcha, Z. Tadesse, O. Abdalla, A. Fikire, S. Ahmed, S. Silim

Introduction

• Wheat is grown by ~ 5 million smallholders

• Area under wheat increased steadily ~ 2 million ha

• Wheat production has reached ~ 4.5 million MT in 2014

• National average yield increased three fold (0.6-2 t/ha); 5–6 t/ha by good farmers

Major wheat growing areasMinor wheat growing areas

Wheat diseases and pests

• Three wheat rusts

• Septora blotches

• Fusarium head scab

• Insect pests (RWA)

Major wheat production constraints

Weak seed delivery system• Limited availability of basic

seed from NARS

• Limited certified seed availability from suppliers (demand vs supply)

• Limited range of varieties (>50% of seed supplied was Kubsa- susceptible to Yr)

• Limited capacity for quick response to shifts in demand due to disease epidemics

2005

/06

2006

/07

2007

/08

2008

/09

2009

/10

2010

/11

2011

/12

2012

/13

-

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

DemandSupply

Major wheat production constraints…

Two Major Events…..

1. Emergence, spread and potential threat of Ug99

• Accelerated seed multiplication to control threat of stem rust in wheat: ICARDA and CIMMYT

Regions Zones Districts Area affected

(ha)

Area sprayed (ha)

% sprayed

Oromia 13 118 292,866 123,357 42.1

Amhara 8 77 161,348 26,579 16.5

SNNP 15 94 137,376 32,089 23.4

Total 36 289 591,590 182,025 30.8Source: MoA, 2010; Kubsa and Galama are varieties most affected

• Rapid deployment of yellow rust resistant varieties to achieve food security in Ethiopia: ICARDA & EIAR

Two Major Events…..

2. Yellow rust epidemics in 2010 crop season

Rapid Deployment of Rust Resistant Wheat Varieties for Achieving Food

Security in Ethiopia

Main Objectives….

Fast track testing and

release

Accelerated seed multiplication

Popularization /demonstration

Scaling-out of technologies

Strengthening NARS Capacity

Farmers

Framework for Fast Track Variety Testing and Release and Accelerated Seed Multiplication

Establishing functional platform of project partners and stakeholders

Increase productivityEnsure food securityImprove livelihoods

NARS (EIAR & RARIs)

MoA (BoA & DoA)

Donors

Farmers

Seed producers

International

collaborations (ICARDA

and CIMMYT)

Project Achievements

USAID Famine Fund (2009-March 2012): Ethiopia

1. Number of wheat rust resistant varieties released: Eight with high yield & combined Ug99 and/or Yr

2. Sr resistant varieties produced and distributed in subsequent years: 758, 5,622 and 27,000 MT

3. Popularization and promotion of rust resistant varieties reaching over 500 farmers per year

4. Provide critical equipment and organized training courses to strengthen capacity

5. LAID GROUNDWORK FOR RAPID DEPLOYMENT PROJECT

Project achievements…

1. Supporting NARS in fast track variety testing and release

– Evaluated international nurseries from ICARDA and CIMMYT (40 sets of 6523 entries)

– Evaluated segregating populations from NARS breeding program (41 sets of 3504 entries)

– Identified five rust resistant promising lines for verification and potential release in 2014

Project achievements… Rapid deployment 2001….

2. Accelerated seed multiplication by NARS– 6,021 MT early generation seed (breeder to

basic) multiplied by federal and regional research institutes

– Main and off-seasons (irrigation) used including both nationally/regionally released rust resistant varieties

– All seed provided to commercial seed producers or used for on-farm seed multiplication, variety popularization and technology scaling-out

Project achievements…

3. On-farm seed production with farmers

• 45 AGP and non-AGP districts in four major wheat producing regions

Project achievements…

3. On-farm seed multiplication with farmers

- Farmers identified, clustered, provided with seed and trained to produce and distribute seed informally or formally supervised by WBOA

- Achievement • Seed distributed to 13,296 farmers (7%

women) and producing 15,100 MT seed sufficient to plant 100,668 ha

• Average wheat yield reported was 3.5 MT (range 2.5 to 4.2 MT/ha)

• Estimated average net income from rust resistant varied from $50-$200 depending on land size

Project achievements…

4. Popularization/scaling-out of technologies

– Variety popularization and demonstration using FTC, seed production fields • Demonstrations in 41 districts (field days

with attendance of 3,895 farmers ~ 10% women)

• WBoA and Administration conducted additional field days

– Support EIAR’s pre-scaling out of wheat technologies in four major regions• 3,110 farmers (8.2% women) supplied

with seed and producing 2,626 MT seed/grain sufficient to plant 17,506 ha

Project achievements…

5. Emergency seed relief– Immediate response to areas highly

affected by Yr in Gedeb & Ambo districts, Oromia region

– Distributed seed to 3,471 farmers (8.8% women farmers)

– Produced 1,912 MT seed/grain sufficient to plant 12,825 ha

Project achievements…

Project achievements…

6. Partnering with public and private sector and farmer seed producers associations

– 276 MT seed provided to 8 seed associations and 3 commercial seed suppliers producing 5,526 MT sufficient to plant 36,840 ha for seed multiplication

– In 2013/14, formal sector distributed a combined 85,943 MT seed of rust resistant varieties sufficient to plant 572,956 ha of wheat area at national level

Project achievements…7. Strengthening capacity of NARS

and partners

– Infrastructure for NARS and partners: vehicles, farm machinery, mobile cleaners

– Human resources • Two regional courses (9 staff);

several in-country courses (125 technical staff); and (250 SMS and DAs (10.4% women)

– Workshops • Two workshops on wheat rusts with

participation of 134 stakeholders

Summary• NARS (federal & regional) produced 6,021 MT

seed and successfully distributed for different purposes

• About 815 MT seed was distributed and planted on 5,660 ha producing 19,637 MT sufficient to plant 127,377 ha

• About 19,877 farmers (7.3% women) reached benefitting 119,262 hhs through on-farm seed production, technology scaling-out and emergency seed relief

• Public and private sector distributed a combined 85,943 MT seed of rust resistant varieties sufficient to plant 572,956 ha of wheat area at national level

Key lessons learnt• Effective interventions with long-term

impact to ensure sustainability– project investment enabled sustainable source

(basic) seed supply by NARS

• Long-term strategy in controlling wheat rusts – Diversification of cropping systems (durum wheat,

mono-cropping, expansion of irrigated wheat)

– Recent outbreak of stem rust (constant reminder “Rust never sleeps”)

• Strong and effective partnership among NARS (EIAR + stakeholders), IARCs (ICARDA, CIMMYT) and donor support (USAID)

Some Issues• Is variety release lengthy and a hurdle for

normal or emergency situation?

• Is rust resistance alone sufficient for adoption of new varieties?

• Are farmers less responsive to new varieties?

• How best we can avoid mega-varieties in the future?

• How we can reconcile advise on fungicide uses and withdrawal of susceptible varieties?

Acknowledgements

• NARS partners at federal and regional levels

• Development partners at federal, regional and district levels: MoA, BoA and Woreda Administration

• Wheat projects: Famine Fund, EAAPA, AGRA, DRRW

• International partners: CIMMYT, ASARECA

• USAID for providing financial support to Famine Fund and Rapid Deployment projects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9sNLa-sCHM

Thank You