Annex 4 workshop report and programme : Annual Project Planning

IITA is a member of the CGIAR consortium and the University is honored to be hosting an activity from this research institution; IITA is contributing to a long term objective of making the Nelson Mandela African Institution for Science and Technology (NM-AIST) a center for academia, research and innovation in the east and southern African region by the location of some of its research for development activities in the region at this centre. The presence and the participation of the Director of Science and Research of the MoA (Dr. Hussein Mansoor) in this conference is very much appreciated by the Chancellor of the NM-AIST University.

The support of the banana sector is crucial both for food security and for income generation in the region; banana should be preserved as the most important crop in the region. Currently Tanzania produces 15% of the regional production but this should be expanded and increased in order to enhance food security.

Pests and diseases are one of the main issues that the crop is dealing with and research must be conducted to boost production from its current production potential (9%). This meeting will be able to provide a solid forum for the interaction between scientists, practitioners and the steering committee in order to ensure that the final objectives of this project will be achieved.

Dr. Mansoor was appointed in August 2015 as the Director of Research & Development of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MoAL&F) of the Tanzanian government. Before his current position, he was the assistant director for crop research at the MoAL&F. He has a long standing experience working as a research coordinator in several projects in Tanzania related to soil health, soil management, and sustainable water usage and land degradation. He also holds a series of responsibilities in several National Institutions and plays a key role in other Regional Forum for strengthening and promotion of research and science in East Africa.

General acknowledgments are provided to the Tanzanian representatives of the government and IITA organizing committee. The MoAL&F welcomes all participants to the workshop and expresses its most sincere gratitude to the NM-AIST for hosting this meeting. Such workshops are paramount to ensure proper coordination and exchange of information among scientists participating in this project.

The NM-AIST has put science at the forefront of its priorities and mandate and has put banana research into the spotlight of regional research. Currently, 3.7 million small-holders in Tanzania live off the production of banana and it is one of the most important crops in the country. Consumption, at 250 kg/capita is amongst the highest consumption rates in the world and highlights the importance of this crop on food security in the region. Despite the importance of this crop, production has failed to increase and to cover the demands of the county. Yields have been declining during the last four decades and are actually at a 9% of their potential which is 5.7 MT/ha 6- MT/ha. Factors linked to a decline of productivity are mainly: i) use of poor agronomic practices (GAPs) by farmers; ii) poor genetic material available; and iii) limited capacity to control pests and diseases attacking this crop.

Bacterial wilt is one of the most important diseases and monitoring on this disease is currently being conducted at all levels. Farmers are encouraged to adopt GAPs in order to control such diseases; good progress has been done in the development of new banana varieties and on the management of pest and diseases, but still these are insufficient; positive steps have been taken already in his project but there is still a long way to go to ensure that the maximum production potentials for banana in the region are being achieved, specially for cooking bananas. The outcomes of this project should benefit small-holders and especially youth from the rural areas. It is important to ensure to promote adaptation of the banana crop to climate change.

The MoAL&F is grateful to IITA for the regional program established in Tanzania and for the undergoing activities, its close collaboration with the NARO Uganda and Tanzania (i.e. Horti-Tengeru) and with other international organizations. The participation of both international and national Universities it is also very important; integration of approaches and information exchange among the members of the research consortium is necessary in order to maximize the benefits, achieve the expected outcomes and ensure impact of this project. Participatory banana selection is crucial and farmers must play a key role on the development and scale-up of selected banana breeds in each participant county. The outcomes of the project will indeed help to achieve a sustainable increase of banana yields to achieve food security and combat climate change. All actors involved in the banana value chain are important to translate the project’s outcomes into an increase of production.

10:45 AM IITA East Africa Operations, Ylva Hilbur- IITA Deputy Director (presentation on behalf of Dr. Manyong- Introduction to partners on IITA)

HQ of IITA are located in Ibadan, Nigeria; the organization was created in 1967 and currently its projects are mainly being implemented in West and East Africa. IITA operates in four decentralized hubs located in West, Central, East and South Africa. IITA objectives for the period 2012-2020 are to: i) bring 11 million small holders out of poverty and; ii) rehabilitate 7.5 million ha of land into sustainable use. Aspects such as poverty reduction are being studied and analyzed by the Social Science Team and project components on Sustainable Land Use are tackled by the NRM team (this team is currently working on how to measure sustainable land use and what proxies could be used; this is done in coordination with researchers and other institutions from all over the world, and it is still a work in progress). The entry points for the establishment of activities in the sub-regions have been through the traditional mandate crops of IITA and linked to the agro-ecological zones in the areas of implementation; these are: cassava, yam, banana & plantain, cowpea, soybean and maize.

The IITA EA-Hub is covering 8 countries (approx. 250 mill people – 70% rural poor); the team is composed of 150 staff (incl. 30 international scientists) and encompasses a broad range of expertise. Plant health is a key thematic area of the EA-Hub (banana, cassava, vegetables -tomato) and breeding programs around these crops. Another focus is also on the processing of agricultural produce and on the improvement of small-holders’ business skills, postharvest management/ storage and food safety (i.e. local production of Aflasafe® that is being distributed in the region). IITA’s business Incubation Platform (BIP) based in Nigeria, builds up a bridge between research and dissemination; some o the products being produced by IITA in the BIP are: Nodumax® (inoculums for legume production) and GoSeeds® (foundation for breeding seed). IITA has also a strong focus on the Youth Agripreneurs; youth are being trained on agricultural value chains at IITA campus in order to gain skills and knowledge on several agricultural technological innovations that could help them to jump into this sector.

11:00 -11:10 AM. Remarks Scientific Committee- SC Chair Ylva Hilbur

The current project “Improvement of Banana for Smallholder Farmers in the Great Lakes Region of Africa” is a 5 year project funded by B&M Gates Foundation (B&M GF) and is built upon a multi-shareholder and interdisciplinary group; it is structured in 5 work packages (WP):

WP1.-Banana breeding pipeline- led by NARO.

WP2.- Pest and disease control- led by Stellenbosch University.

WP3.- Leveraging Genetics- led by IITA.

WP4.- Regional testing- led by Bioversity.

WP5.- Harnessing Data- led by Cornell University.

Role and Responsibilities of the SC: Ensure that primary outcomes are delivered on time; a close linkage between the SAG and the WP leaders is worked out and to ensure that all the suggestions and recommendations are included in the current development of the project.

11:10-11:15 AM Remarks of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) (Jane Gibbs)

During November 2015 the SAG had its first meeting on Skype to agree on how to work together and how to integrate their work, and the recommendations of the PL and the PM and the WP leaders. First personal interaction is actually happening during this workshop in Arusha. Unfortunately not all members of the SAG have been able to attend to this workshop.

One of the main objectives of this workshop is to promote face to face interaction and facilitate familiarity among all the members participating in this project; after the working sessions, the entire team should have:

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  Clarity on reporting.
  
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  Assess achievements up to date.
  
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  Reasoning for under achievements and discuss mitigation measures.
  
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  Appraise complementing projects/activities among WPs.
  

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  Team Leader – Rony Swennen – Principal Investigator (PI) & Project Leader (PL) for technical
  
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  Scola Ponera- Admin.
  
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  Danny Coyne – Program Manager (PM), maintain project progress and support PL
  

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  All partners are now on board- all the banana breeding programs are together under this project now.
  
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  Contracts and funds have been dispatched; funds will be provided only after reports have been provided timely; efforts to avoid delays on disbursement of funds have to be achieved by all (see Rony’s session on day 2).
  
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  High number of students on board (PhD & MSc).
  
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  There is now clarity on technical performance, but there is a need to make sure that under-achievement is openly discussed and that mitigation measures can be put in place to minimize impact and report appropriately on the same to B&M GF.
  
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  Communication is a key component of this project. It should be two-way process: providing communication and collecting information from the field.
  

FRI is an NGO based in Canada, and they work to ensure that small-scale farmers are reached with information that can help them to improve their productivity and their agronomic practices. The NGO works with already existing African Radios in order to ensure massive dissemination of new technologies; Farmers can also provide feedback to the radio; FR work is currently in: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Mozambique. It reaches 600 radio partners in 38 sub-Saharan Africa. The interactive radio project is based on:

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  Participatory Methods (interactive radio help farmers to learn, discuss and adopt).
  
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  Proven techniques.
  
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  Multi-stakeholder approach.
  
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  Enhancing traditional extension.
  

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  Regular farmer program.
  
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  Participatory radio series.
  
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  Participatory radio campaign.
  
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  Radio Marketplace.
  
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  Reality radio.
  
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  Radio drama.
  
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  Listening Post.
  

Integration of an ICT Innovation system: a two-way communication (information sent back and forth to and from farmers); this is done at a very low cost (sometimes at zero cost) and can help to provide immediate feedback at a large scale on some of the information required- could be very useful for data collection on baselines. FRI has also developed coverage maps to understand from where the information is being collected, and this can be matched to any type of map (i.e. crops, geographical, etc). Reaching 1 farmer is less than 1 US$ (per year per farmer). For data collection from the farmers ordinary mobile phones can function and there is often no need of androids or smart phones.

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  Tests conducted to determine fertility of different cultivars.
  
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  Improve pollination by manipulating floral structures- results seem to indicate that this is feasible, although these are preliminary observations (more observations are on-going). The impact on seed production still is under assessment.
  

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  30 available¹ lines of Matoke diploids have been planted and data collection has started on these, and this will have to continue in the next phase. Expecting material from EMBRAPA (to be confirmed) to improve the genetic quality.
  

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  Trials established (0.5 ha) EET of 550 diploid hybrids from 2x – 2x crosses.
  
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  3,663 diploid hybrid seeds from 2x – 2x crosses.
  
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  1,161 diploid embryos.
  
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  Blocks to test pollination on several Matoke hybrids established (3x -2x) crosses.
  
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  Hybrid seeds have been produced from 4x-2x crosses.
  
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  1,360 out of 12,500 hybrids from 4x-2x crosses in EET conducted.
  

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  Stigma can be receptive before the flower opens, but the seed production can be improved and seed quality still needs to be tested and more data collected.
  
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  Framework of the project is quite flexible so in the case that some outcomes may require more funding and effort for achievement, some modifications could be applied to ensure successful achievement of project.
  
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  Better GAPs/improved agronomic techniques have been identified as a cause of better production of seeds in Banana and IITA will continue exploring this line on the field trials established.
  

Main diseases and pest in East African Bananas:

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  Fusarium wilt.
  
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  Sigatoka disease.
  
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  Nematodes.
  
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  Banana weevil.
  

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  Determine relevance of these D/P in EA (surveys in testing sites and collection characterization, Rapid ID methods).
  
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  Screen selected lines for resistance to D/P (EAHB hybrids, Mchare diploids, NARITA).
  
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  Develop rapid screening methods (in vitro-screening + determine reliability of tests).
  
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  Train technical staff and scientists (surveillance and screening).
  

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  Financial delay; there is a need to ensure that reports are being sent on time to IITA for compilation to M&B GF.
  
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  Technicalities: sufficient inoculums being obtained - Radophulus spp. does well at low altitudes-. And some field trials have to be done in already infested fields.
  
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  Delay of training of the technical staff has prevented the project to move further. Now this issue is sorted out.
  

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  Project slightly delayed but this should not affect overall project’s objectives.
  
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  WP2 is dependent on the outcomes of other packages, so this could delay a bit the outcomes. Better coordination and clarity with other packages is needed.
  
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  Students are already in place and all equipment procured.
  
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  Protocols in place and now yielding results.
  
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  All disease resistance are based on multiple gene resistance although some other researchers may say it is single gene resistance. There is some controversy that yet needs to be clarified.
  
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  Nematology- how to boost the nematology component? Collection of nematodes in Tanzania has been done- need to discuss with Nessie Luambano in order to ensure that there are no overlaps but a complementary action on the same- especially related to the collection of samples and identification of species.
  

Fourteen parents of the mapping populations were tested for resistance to R. similis. The parents of the above-mentioned population (Kasaska × Borneo) were found contrasting (one is susceptible and another one resistant). Subsequently, segregation was tested in the offspring and their response ranged from “more resistant than Km5” to “more susceptible than Valery” (Km5 and Valery are used as resistant and susceptible controls respectively), hence showing a good segregation. Screening of the whole mapping population (about 250 genotypes) is ongoing in series in the screenhouse.

Development of the predictive models for yield and agronomic traits in Matoke: the training population has been genotyped. Phenotyping of the same is going on in three fields, two at Sendusu with contrasting field management, and a third field has been established at Mbarara. Phenotypic data are being collected at flowering and harvest. Data collection is advancing well. In the first two fields data is being collected for three cycles. For the third field (Mbarara), flowering has just started. Preliminary results show promising results for genomic selection. BRR and BL have given prediction accuracies ranging from 0.83 to 0.99 for pulp diameter and total number suckers.

Genomic prediction could be done instead of QTLs? Works better for polymorphic traits (i.e. yields). For pest and disease resistance, QTL mapping remains the best option as these traits are often governed by a few genes.

Resistance is often affected by the plant environment, such as soil fertility, pH, etc. How are you controlling the effect of the plant environment in your work? For now the team is focusing on the effect of the plant genetics as much as possible. This is why the experiments are being conducted in screenhouses, and not in the field. Maybe later on the focus will extend to the plant environment, and look at how the plant environment affects its resistance.