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ISSUE #27 FEBRUARY 2014
Feed the Future is the U.S. Government's global hunger and food security initiative. For more information, or to subscribe to this publication
please visit www.feedthefuture.gov.
SCALING UP TO INCREASE GLOBAL IMPACT ON FOOD SECURITY

In Tanzania, Feed the Future is introducing good agricultural practices and basic technologies such as greenhouse planting to smallholder farmers. Credit: Fintrac Inc.

"Scaling up" sounds a lot like development jargon, but it actually applies to any big idea. You see examples of things that have been scaled up every day: if you've browsed the internet, used a mobile phone or even flipped a light switch today, then you've benefited from technologies that now belong to the masses where they once lived only in the heads of a few forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

 

The concept of scaling up also applies to agricultural development. We know that to end hunger, we need to start with agriculture, which employs the majority of the rural poor in developing countries. And while it's important to tell the stories of the individual farmers and business owners who are benefiting from new seeds, modern equipment or nutritious foods as a result of global efforts to end hunger, we also want to be able to tell the story in a few decades of how we helped the more than 842 million hungry people around the world achieve food security in an environmentally sustainable way.

 

Continue reading this Feed the Future blog on scaling up food security, or read on to learn more about what scaling looks like in practice and how this approach will increase Feed the Future's impact in the areas where we work.

How to Reach Millions of Poor Farmers by Scaling Up Agricultural Technology

 

By Johannes Linn, Senior Resident Scholar at Emerging Markets Forum and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution

Using rice intensification techniques, farmers in Haiti can increase yields by planting rice more efficiently. Credit: David Rochkind



 

The world faces huge challenges: according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), about one billion poor rural people live in developing countries; and, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), global food production will have to increase up to 80 percent by 2050 in order to meet growing demand.

 

But there are also great opportunities: IFPRI has identified a number of proven agricultural technologies that are not yet widely utilized in the developing world (including no-till farming, integrated soil fertility management, precision agriculture, water harvesting and drip irrigation).

 

Thus there is great scope for increasing agricultural production, especially among smallholders, and with it great potential to reduce rural poverty and hunger. To realize this potential, the use of agricultural technology must be rapidly scaled up. Unfortunately, disconnected, one-off, short-lived, unsustainable initiatives in support of technology adoption have been the rule. To achieve the needed productivity improvements, governments, aid agencies, foundations, NGOs and the private sector need to focus interventions systematically on scaling up the use of agricultural technologies. Read more.

Feed the Future Agri-Nutrition Manual Rolls Out across Kenya

Rose Aloo cuts kale as she prepares a mid-day meal at her home in Kenya, where Feed the Future is partnering to improve nutrition and build resilience. Credit: David Mutua/USAID Kenya


A Feed the Future program in Kenya has teamed up with the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and the Ministry of Health to improve the nutrition of rural Kenyan farming families at a large scale.

 

Feed the Future's flagship project in Kenya, managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is leveraging the resources of the two government ministries to disseminate key nutritional messages contained in the project's Applied Basic Agri-Nutrition Resource Manual for Trainers, which is designed to transform dietary behavior and build the resilience of families who may face shocks such as drought or high food prices. Read more.

Accelerating Progress on Hunger and Poverty in Africa through the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership

 

When the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched in 2012, President Obama and others pledged to leverage technology's transformative potential by taking innovation to scale. To accomplish this goal, they committed to a series of measures to promote the adoption of agricultural technologies, including setting yield targets that support country-defined agricultural goals; identifying key innovations that can help farmers reach those targets; harnessing information and communication technologies to support agricultural growth; and promoting policy reforms to improve the enabling environment for agricultural investment that will lift millions out of poverty.

 

One important vehicle for advancing and delivering on these New Alliance commitments is the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership, a $47 million, three-year partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) intended to accelerate smallholder farmer access to transformative agricultural technologies. Read more.

New Assessment Tool Builds the Case for Scalability

 

The most recent  Feed the Future Progress Report showed that in 2012, the initiative reached more than seven million smallholder farmers with new technologies and management practices to improve agricultural production, more than four times the number of people reached in 2011. The stories of individuals around the world who are reaping the benefits of these innovations demonstrate the return on investment that is possible when farmers, processors and others have access to cutting-edge technology and reliable information on agriculture and nutrition.

Onion vendors in Tajikistan, where Feed the Future's piloted an assessment to evaluate constraints to scaling proven agricultural technologies. Credit: Fintrac Inc.

 

In the coming year, Feed the Future strives to bring the most promising agricultural technologies to even greater numbers of smallholder farmers. But in order to scale up, we first need to have a comprehensive understanding of which technologies have the greatest potential, and what we need to do at a policy or infrastructure level to create the conditions where these technologies can take off. We call that building an "enabling environment" for scalability.

 

As part of that process, Feed the Future has developed a methodology to assess agricultural technologies, markets and policies in order to tackle the biggest obstacles to reaching smallholder farmers with the tools and services they need to improve production and food security. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID's) Enabling Agricultural Trade project, Feed the Future is piloting a new Agricultural Technology Commercialization Assessment that evaluates constraints and opportunities for technology commercialization and adoption. Read more.

Vouchers and Insurance Help Smallholder Farmers Build Confidence in Agricultural Technologies

West African cotton farmers learn about insurance and risk
management. Credit: Michael Carter

 

Has a new restaurant or shop in your neighborhood ever offered you a promotional coupon to try their product or service? Businesses use this tactic all the time to give consumers an incentive to take a chance on something new, in the hope that first-time customers will become repeat customers.

 

The same concept - lowering financial barriers to entry while building consumer confidence - applies to scaling up agricultural technologies. That's because, like many people, smallholder farmers aren't always eager to make big changes in their businesses and livelihoods, even if a new technology offers a chance to earn more money. They may be uncertain how a new technology works, or they may understand the technology but be unwilling to take a risk: for example, if they need to borrow from a bank to buy improved seeds, and then face a debilitating event like drought during the growing season, they risk defaulting on their loan.

 

If farmers aren't willing to adopt a new technology, then even the most groundbreaking innovation in agriculture won't have impact on a large scale. That's why the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Assets and Market Access (AMA), based at the University of California, Davis, has been using randomized control trials to explore how uncertainty and risk limit farmers' adoption of potentially profitable technologies and testing different strategies to overcome these constraints. Read more.

Partnering with the Private Sector to Disseminate Cutting-Edge Technology to Dairy Farmers in Rwanda

In Rwanda, Feed the Future is helping smallholder dairy farmers use technology to detect disease early in their cows. Credit: Fintrac Inc.

 

In the United States, we're familiar with messages that encourage us to consume milk and other dairy products as part of a balanced, nutritious diet. Globally, demand for milk is increasing at a rapid pace: today, milk generates nearly $200 billion in annual sales, with demand projected to quadruple by 2050.

 

To meet this growing demand, dairy farmers around the world will need to find sustainable ways to scale up milk production. But to do this, they need to ensure that their milk-producing animals are healthy, a challenge that becomes more complex as dairy operations expand. Read more.

Mechanization and Irrigation Project Demonstrates Sustainable Ways to Scale Up Technology Adoption in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, a local service provider plants wheat on raised seed beds that save irrigation water and reduce labor costs. Credit: CSISA

 

  

Scaling up agricultural technologies is rooted in a basic economic principle: economies can only grow so much without technological advancement to improve efficiency in production. That's why a Feed the Future program focused on cereal crops in South Asia is helping smallholder farmers in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, adopt innovative technologies and farming practices that will enable them to sustainably grow more of their own food.

 

Since 2009, Feed the Future's Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) has combined innovative research, extension and market-oriented solutions to boost farmers' capacity to produce staple crops in more efficient, climate-resilient and ecologically responsible ways. The program has already demonstrated success in popularizing improved cropping techniques, introducing new and more productive crop varieties and linking farmers to markets.

 

But for Feed the Future to have transformative impact on agricultural production in Bangladesh, a critical mass of smallholder farmers in the areas where the initiative works need to have access to more advanced and efficient technologies at affordable prices. Read more.

Technology Incubation Centers Set the Stage for Growth in African Food Processing Enterprises

A technology incubation center in Niger helps local food processors produce couscous. Credit: Bruce Hamaker, Purdue University

 

A 2012 military coup d'�tat in Mali left many of the country's rural food producers struggling to recover from months of violence and instability that disrupted their livelihoods and threatened regional food security. But six months after the coup, a group of women entrepreneurs in Mopti, a town in the northern region of Mali, was still processing sorghum and millet and successfully selling their products, all while making loan payments on new, modernized equipment that supports their expanded operations.

 

The women's group in Mopti is reaping the benefits of a technology incubation center launched in 2011 by Mali's Institute of Rural Economy with support from USAID. In addition to supplying seven grain processing enterprises in northern Mali with mechanized equipment and training, the center worked with small- and medium-scale processors to produce high-quality, marketable products, and with local commercial bakeries to produce sorghum and millet flours for bread making. Read more.

Aligning to Reduce Poverty and Stunting in Honduras: Newly Elected President Launches Multi-Donor Food Security Initiative on First Day in Office

Signing ceremony for the Dry Corridor Alliance. Credit: USAID

 

Newly elected President Juan Orlando Hernandez signed an agreement on January 28 establishing the Alianza para el Corredor Seco, or Dry Corridor Alliance, a multi-donor and Government of Honduras initiative for the sustainable development of the southwest border area in Honduras. 

 

With an estimated value of $130 million, the Alliance aims to lift 50,000 families out of extreme poverty, reduce stunting of children under five by 20 percent and improve more than 280 kilometers of rural roads, providing market access to thousands. The signing ceremony took place on the first full day of Hernandez's presidency, in a community in the Dry Corridor area that is benefiting from Feed the Future assistance. Read more.

Scaling Up Community-Based Breeding Programs through Local Capacity Development

Community-based breeding programs involve smallholder farmers in decisions about herd management. Credit: AGIN

 

One of the ways Feed the Future strives to achieve sustainable impact at scale is by investing in smallholder farmers as full partners in agricultural development. In practice, that means that many Feed the Future programs are participatory in nature, directly involving smallholders in decision-making and building their knowledge and skill sets so they can continue to improve food security in their communities after a development assistance project ends.

 

Feed the Future is engaging African partners in this approach through participation in the African Goat Improvement Network (AGIN). Supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, AGIN is developing state-of-the art tools through genetic research to enable smallholder communities to breed goats that can thrive in challenging climates and help sustain farming families. Read more.

Promoting Entrepreneurship and Food Security through Microfinance in Liberia

With financing, Blasin improved his cabbage farming and launched a new business endeavor in pig farming. Credit: USADF

 

  

Mr. Lannon, a restaurant owner and father of eight, and Mr. Blasin, a cabbage farmer and father of ten, have a great deal in common. Both men live in Nimba County, Liberia and faced enormous difficulties during and after the country's civil war. Both love to talk about their families and are elated to be able to feed and educate their children. And both are hardworking businessmen who represent the power of finance to transform economically marginalized communities.

 

Lannon and Blasin are just two of the thousands of entrepreneurs who have received training, mentoring and access to capital through the Liberia Entrepreneurial and Asset Development (LEAD) microfinance organization. After receiving a grant from the U.S. African Development Foundation in 2009 to support microbusinesses and subsistence farmers, LEAD was able to expand beyond the capital of Monrovia into areas of the country where people were not served by commercial banks. In addition to building loan capital, LEAD used the grant to acquire computers and vehicles, hire and train field staff and provide business training for clients like Lannon and Blasin. Read more.

Global Learning and Evidence Exchanges Convene Feed the Future Partners to Chart a Course on ScalingGLEE

In December 2013 and January 2014, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) convened the first Scaling Agricultural Technologies Global Learning and Evidence Exchange (GLEE) events in Ethiopia and Thailand, bringing together Feed the Future partners throughout Africa and Asia to share challenges and best practices for achieving greater impact on food security. An additional GLEE event is planned in March 2014 for Feed the Future partners in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

More than 150 representatives from the U.S. Government, CGIAR centers, Feed the Future Innovation Labs and the private sector came together for the GLEEs to advance Feed the Future's learning agenda around the challenges and opportunities of scaling so the U.S. Government and its partners can more effectively bring promising agricultural technologies to greater numbers of smallholder farmers and entrepreneurs. Through highly interactive discussions, presentations and demonstration sessions, participants identified how factors such as public-private partnerships, extension services and policy can effectively drive technology adoption at scale.

 

Want to learn more about what scaling up means for agriculture and food security? Read a blog from USAID Bureau for Food Security Chief Scientist Julie Howard on the Scaling GLEEs, or visit the Scaling Technologies page on Agrilinks to find more information and resources.

UPCOMING EVENTS UE
NEWS & NMMEDIA
News News
Opinions & Blogs Op-Eds
February 24, 2014 (Feed the Future)

February 20, 2014, Andria Hayes-Birchler (MCC Poverty-Reduction Blog)

Is 'the Struggle' the Baby or the Bathwater?
February 14, 2014, Owen Barder (Center for Global Development)
Videos Blogs
ABOUT TATNHIS NEWSLETTER
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information about Feed the Future, please visit our website. 
In This Issue
SCALING UP TO INCREASE GLOBAL IMPACT ON FOOD SECURITY
How to Reach Millions of Poor Farmers by Scaling Up Agricultural Technology
Feed the Future Agri-Nutrition Manual Rolls Out across Kenya
Accelerating Progress on Hunger and Poverty in Africa through the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership
New Assessment Tool Builds the Case for Scalability
Vouchers and Insurance Help Smallholder Farmers Build Confidence in Agricultural Technologies
Partnering with the Private Sector to Disseminate Cutting-Edge Technology to Dairy Farmers in Rwanda
Mechanization and Irrigation Project Demonstrates Sustainable Ways to Scale Up Technology Adoption in Bangladesh
Technology Incubation Centers Set the Stage for Growth in African Food Processing Enterprises
Aligning to Reduce Poverty and Stunting in Honduras: Newly Elected President Launches Multi-Donor Food Security Initiative on First Day in Office
Scaling Up Community-Based Breeding Programs through Local Capacity Development
Promoting Entrepreneurship and Food Security through Microfinance in Liberia

Universities Fighting World Hunger Annual Summit
International Women's Day
World Water Day


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