Opportunities for sub-regional

collaboration

Fina Opio

Executive Director, ASARECA

ASARECA (Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa)

An association of 11 Country NARs in the ECA region

Association cont.

It covers 11 countries namely: Burundi, DR.

Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya,

Madagascar, Rwanda, South Sudan Sudan,

Tanzania and Uganda

It was established in 1994

The Association cont.

It was noted then that:

These countries share boarders and have a lot in

common

The problems and opportunities in most cases cut

across boarders

Hence a need for collective action to avoid

duplication of effort and resources.

Leverage on resources where possible

ASARECAs Mission

To enhance regional collective action in:

agricultural research for development,

extension and

agricultural training and education

To promote:

economic growth,

fight poverty,

eradicate hunger and

enhance sustainable use of resources in Eastern and

Central Africa.

ASARECAs Mission is Aligned to the MDG and

Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development

Programme (CAADP) Goals

This mission highlights ASARECA’s commitment to the:

• Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty and hunger by half by 2015 and

• To attain CAADP’s target of regional agricultural production growth rate at an annual rate of 6% by 2015

Core functions of ASARECA

1. Develop a shared vision and sub-regional goals

2. Empowerment of end-users to ensure their meaningful

participation in setting priorities

3. Coordinate collective action at the sub-regional level

4. Contribute to improving networking in the sub-region on

research, extension, agricultural training and education

5. Contribute to the development of appropriate knowledge,

methodologies, information and technologies

6. Facilitate the transfer of knowledge, information and

technology

Core functions cont.

6. Mobilize and allocate resources for research, extension,

agricultural training and education through working with

African and International organizations

7. Strengthen capacity for agricultural research for

development, extension, agricultural training and education

8 Facilitate sharing of research outputs and benefits among

national agricultural research systems

- Promotion of economies of

scale

- Identification of sub-regional public

goods

- Ensuring Science &

Technology leads to

Innovations

ASARECA adds value to National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) through:

ASARECA secretariat takes a coordinating role

Opportunities for collaboration

Identification of regional priorities cutting across

the different countries and

Developing strategies and setting an agenda to

address them through collective action.

Convening the countries to address the regional

problems and sharing responsibilities instead of

duplication – hence leveraging resources.

Opportunities cont.

Being able to respond collectively to emergent

problems and threats.

Enhancing and facilitation of harmonization of

policies across the countries to enhance trade

and other barriers to agricultural development

Enhancing of sharing of knowledge, information

technologies and innovations across the sub-

region – (information and Knowledge hub)

Capacity building, mentoring and opportunities

for learning among the different countries.

Opportunities cont.

Leveraging strengths of strong NARS to build

capacity of other NARS

The case of EAAPP- using center's of Excellence

Effective Partnership Required to Implement CAADP And

Achieve 6% Growth Rate at ECA Regional Level

REGIONAL

LEVEL

SUB-REGIONAL

LEVEL

NATIONAL

LEVEL

AU/NEPAD Regional compact

CAADP

PILLARS I, II III & IV

COMESA Sub-Regional Compact

NATIONAL

FOCAL UNIT National Compact

CAADP

PILLAR IV

FARA Regional Compact

ASARECA Regional Compact

NATIONAL

FOCAL UNIT National Compact

Examples of effective collaborative activities

in ASARECA

Sustainable Intensification of Sorghum legume systems in ECA

•Uganda

•Kenya

• Tanzania

•Sudan

•Eritrea

•Exchange of

sorghum

germplasm

between countries

facilitated

•Sharing of

information and

data on sorghum

has hastened the

time for release of

new varieties

ICRISAT Scientist Dr. Mary Mgonja and

Eritrean breeder Negusse Abraha examine

the sorghum crop at Serere, Uganda

NACO Mtama ! was released in Tanzania

after 1 season of testing. The variety was

accessed from Kenya

Eritrean farmers at Goluj

have accessed sorghum

germplasm and hybrids

from ICRISAT and partner

countries

Outcome of water harvesting on maize and nappier grass

production in drier parts of ECA – the case of Kenya

(Upto 1,600 households pulled out food insecurity & maize

production increased from 0.5t/ha to 3.5 t/h over 3 yrs)

Onion productivity enhanced through drip irrigation and

market creation - Madagascar

Off-season

market-oriented

onion productivity

increased by

between 50-70%

over the last 3

years for 600

farmers

Enhancing access to quality seed potato in ECA

ASARECA is upscaling quality seed

potato production innovations in

ECA

Facilitating the movement of certified

seed between the participating

countries

Exchange of potato germplasm

enhanced

Potato field planted with quality seed

potato at Ngozi, Burundi

The small seed plot techqnique has

been promoted at Meru, Kenya

Small seed-plot for producing quality

potato seed at Kabale, Uganda

Success story of Maize project

ASARECA and its partners (Kenya,

Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and

Sudan) have introgressed drought

tolerance conferring genes into the

Maize

Sudanese Maize transformed with NHX1

gene

Glass house care of transfomats

Ms Rasha Adam invented a

drought tolerant gene & named it ASARECA AnxZm35 gene

Thank you