Category: Reports

This annual progress report is a synopsis of activities under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program over the period July 2015 to June 2016 in the SIMLESA implementing countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique. The program, in its second year of the second phase – utilizes pathways for the intensification of maize-legume cropping systems through the promotion of resilient and adopted technologies. Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), SIMLESA was launched in March 2010 and is a multi-stakeholder collaborative research program managed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and implemented by National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in the core countries, with backstopping inputs from other partners. Botswana, Uganda and Rwanda are spillover countries benefitting from ongoing SIMLESA research activities, (See map on page i).

Collaborators of the program include: Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

The program aims to create more productive, resilient, profitable and sustainable maize-legume farming systems that overcome food insecurity and help reverse soil fertility decline, particularly in the context of climate risk and change. The program is helping farmers to diversify their crops, increase food production, and withstand the risks of climate variability and drought. SIMLESA is envisaged to reach 650,000 small farming households in the five countries over a 10-year period. The second phase of the program (SIMLESA II) was launched in July 2014 with modified program objectives and emphasis on scaling out evaluated technologies.

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The Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume cropping systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) is a multi-stakeholder collaborative research programme managed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and implemented by national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique with backstopping inputs from other partners. The programme focuses on leveraging science and technology to develop and deliver technological and institutional innovations in relation to maize-legume production systems. In turn it is envisaged that these will make significant measurable positive changes in the livelihoods of all categories of smallholder farmers.

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This report present some of the key achievement made in the previous annual reporting period, July 2013 to June 2014. It illustrates the key results per objective, as well as aggregation of contribution from the five SIMLESA implementing countries, that is Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.

The main activities carried out are surveys (adoption monitoring, market, partial analysis, completion of baseline and topology analysis) and marketing trainings. QAAFI continue with the preparation of journal articles for publication on households’ typology across five SIMLESA countries of operation. Objective 1 achievements and scaling out plans were discussed at Annual Review Planning Meetings (ARPM) which were held between October and December 2013 in respective countries. Mozambique and Malawi meetings were combined as a cost cutting measure as well as enhancement of partner to partner collaboration and information sharing.

The period July 2013 to June 2014, has been mainly devoted to establishment of trials, technology analysis and implementation of identified scalable technologies under objective 2 of SIMLESA program. Activities carried out during this period include proper planning for effective scaling out of SIMLESA technologies to many farmers in all 5 core countries. Selection of scalable technology was conducted based on statistical results and target farmer’s preference using participatory methodologies. Minimum tillage-maize-legume intercropping was identified as best-bet technology by farmers in most regions. Exchange visit, field days, trial evaluation, IP meeting and farmer training were conducted in all SIMLESA countries during the reporting period.

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