Objectives

LegumeCHOICE Planning meeting: Feb 2-4, Addis

Discuss progress on activities accomplished in the first year, identifying gaps and modifications that might be needed from initial project plans Plan field interventions for the forthcoming seasons, and activities for the whole of year 2

Discuss student projects (PhD , MSc ) and Minor Field Studies

Plan for data analyses from output 1

Expected outputs

Plans for year 2 activities for each project output Agreement on field interventions for the coming seasons within year 2

Agreement on student projects and timelines

‘Realizing the underexploited potential of multi-purpose legumes towards improved

livelihoods and a better environment in crop-livestock systems in East & Central Africa’

LegumeCHOICE

Universite Catholique de Bukavu (UCB), DR Congo

Partnership

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KARLO), Kenya

International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Kenya [lead]

Universitat Hohenheim (UniHoh), Germany

World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), Kenya

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Ethiopia

Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI), Ethiopia

Humidtropics

Partners

Most African farming systems contain a legume component but the area under different types of legumes is very limited in space or time.

Legumes have great potential to contribute to improving rural livelihoods and natural resource status :

Income: grains for home consumption or sale, fodder for livestock feed, Food protein for health and nutrition, available soil nutrients, fuel wood. Others

The potential benefits are expressed in different ways for different legume classes.

Rationale

Legume classes and their potential benefits

Legumes classes and their potential benefits

Tree legumesCoppicing or not

Seasonal orPerennial

Herbaceous

Questions

1. Can we understand the disconnect between the potential of legumes and their actual uptake by smallholder farmers?

2. Sub-questions: (i) do we have a clear understanding of the production objectives of

smallholder farmers?

(ii) do we understand the nature of the socio-ecological niches for specific legume classes, including the enabling conditions for their uptake (e.g., presence of markets)?

(iii), do we know which practices will optimize legume productivity thereby maximizing the use efficiencies of agro-inputs?

Goal

To improve food and nutrition security, reduce poverty, and enhance the production environment of smallholder farmers and rural populations, through facilitation of the smart integration and use of multi-purpose legumes.

Purpose

To provide knowledge and tools to farmers and stakeholders interacting with farmers to make rational decisions for enhancing short and long-term contributions of multi-purpose legumes to farmer livelihoods.

[By the end of the project, at least 4,500 smallholder farmers within the target areas are actively engaged in legume intensification and system diversification with legumes, based on specific needs and niches identified in cooperation with R4D platform partners]

Purpose

To provide knowledge and tools to farmers and stakeholders interacting with farmers to make rational decisions for enhancing short and long-term contributions of multi-purpose legumes to farmer livelihoods.

[By the end of the project, at least 4,500 smallholder farmers within the target areas are actively engaged in legume intensification and system diversification with legumes, based on specific needs and niches identified in cooperation with R4D platform partners]

The project operates in DRC, Ethiopia, and Kenya, within existing Action Sites (1 per country), Field Sites (2 per Action Site), Implementation sites (2 per field site).

Sites

1. (i) Farming system diagnosis and related entry points for multi-purpose legumes in farming systems and synthesis of lessons learnt across all Action Sites [ICRAF]

2. (ii) A suite of proven, farmer- and system-specific legume-based options for system intensification [IITA/UniHoh/NARS]

3. (iii) LegumeCHOICE – a decision support framework for enhancing the contributions of legumes to farmer livelihoods [ILRI]

4. (iv) Effective partnerships within Humidtropics R4D platforms facilitate and enabling environment for the dissemination of multi-purpose legumes [IITA/Humidtropics]

Outputs