S.C. Jutzi¹ Abate Tedla¹, Mesfin Abebe² and Desta Beyene³
1. International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) PO Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia2. Alemaya University of Agriculture PO Box 138, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
3. Institute of Agricultural Research PO Box 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Abstract
Introduction
Rationale for inter-institutional activities in Vertisol research and development
Present features of inter-institutional research and development agreements for the Ethiopian highlands
Potential and envisaged developments in the inter-institutional coordination of Vertisol-related activities
References
Research and development activities on improved Vertisol management technologies in Ethiopia have been considerably strengthened in recent years. National as well as international agencies are directing sizeable efforts into the better agricultural utilisation of this vast crop-land resource which, in the Ethiopian highlands, covers 7.6 million ha. For a number of technical, ecological and sociopolitical reasons there is scope for very substantial returns from these research and development efforts in terms of grain and crop residue production.
Formal and informal links have been established between the agencies involved in these activities in order to develop coordinated programmes. The objectives of these institutional links go well beyond mutual information exchange and avoidance of effort duplication into areas of activity programming and execution across institutional borders. A critical mass of information can therefore be assembled in several areas where individual institutional efforts might fail to achieve the aims set.
Areas of activity include agroecological and socioeconomic resource assessment of Vertisol areas, soil and water management, new cropping systems for drained Vertisols, investigation of the available power sources (particularly traction animals) for the improved land management, on-farm technology verification and validation, and technology extension, staff training and institution building.
These inter-institutional arrangements are being made in order to generate maximum returns from scarce available resources. Given the large acreage of Vertisols in high rainfall, high potential Ethiopian highland areas, and given the large gap between actual and potential production from these soils, these returns may have a significant bearing on the national thrust towards food self-sufficiency.
Almost 2 million ha of Vertisols are presently cropped in the Ethiopian highlands. They represent more than one quarter of all highland Vertisols and about the same proportion of total Ethiopian crop land. Severe waterlogging of most highland Vertisols, a common feature of these heavy clay soils in high rainfall areas, drastically constrains their productivity: average grain yields of the common Vertisol crops range from 290 to 860 kg ha-1 (Berhanu Debele, 1985). However, this problem can be almost entirely overcome with the help of adequate surface drainage structures, and hence the potential productivity of these soils, given the ecological circumstances in which they occur, is considerably higher. Improved surface drainage technologies, once validated on-farm, should therefore be brought into the extension phase as soon as possible. This will involve the extension services of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as institutes mandated with research.
Convincing evidence for the strong impact of Vertisol surface drainage on crop production has motivated a number of international and national agencies to direct increased attention to the agricultural utilisation of these soils. A formal agreement on the coordination of these efforts has been adopted and quite detailed procedures for the implementation of inter-institutional research and development initiatives have emerged from this agreement.
This paper reports on the formation, rationale and operational features of these arrangements, and also on potential future developments.
Improved Vertisol management technologies are the result of multi-disciplinary efforts. These efforts deal with agroecological and socioeconomic resource assessment of Vertisol areas, improved soil and water management, new cropping systems for drained Vertisols, improved land management techniques, on-farm technology verification, extension and manpower training. Such a diversity of activities requires a large degree of intra-and inter-institutional coordination. The work of individual institutes can be substantially upgraded if directly or indirectly assisted by collaborators of partner institutes working along similar lines. The assembling of a critical mass of information is thus more likely to be achieved in more areas of work and in less time.
Funding for development, and especially for research activities, tends to be chronically deficient. The coordination of efforts is therefore crucial for the judicious use of scarce available resources in order to maximize the returns from the respective investments.
Agricultural research centres such as those within the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) system have an important innovative potential given the considerable human and material resources allocated to them. However, these centres can only fully exploit this potential for the benefit of their mandate areas if they are all properly linked with national research and extension systems.
In 1985 the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) decided to set up an African Vertisol Management Project. The project was to deal with research, training and outreach topics in a collaborative mode involving these two CGIAR centres and the Ethiopian national agricultural research and extension system in a first five-year phase. It was proposed that an Advisory Committee, composed of the executives of the participating agencies, would be responsible for ensuring the inter-institutional implementation of the project, and that the project should be based at ILCA, Addis Ababa, to implement the first phase in Ethiopia.
The Advisory Committee was constituted in March 1986 after the project found adequate funding. Its members are the Ethiopian Vice-Minister for Animal and Fishery Resources, who is currently chairing the committee: the General Manager of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR); the President of Alemaya University of Agriculture (AUA); the Director of Research of Addis Ababa University (AAU), and the Directors General of ILCA and ICRISAT.
The Advisory Committee has agreed on its terms of reference as follows:
(1) to consider key policy issues associated with the project,(2) to maintain a watching brief on the project's progress,
(3) to ensure adequate coordination of all agencies involved,
(4) to assign relative responsibilities for key actions,
(5) to supervise the work of the technical committee appointed to implement the project, and
(6) to develop and assess overall guidelines for resource acquisition and allocation.
The technical project-implementing committee was appointed by the Advisory Committee at its inaugural meeting on 28 March 1986. It is composed of specialist personnel from the participating agencies, and is currently chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in the Alemaya University of Agriculture. The Technical Committee was given the following functions:
(1) to implement the project as a joint activity thereby ensuring inter-institutional flow of information with the aim of avoiding duplication of efforts,(2) to propose mechanisms for strengthening relevant activities in national institutions by suggesting activities in areas of inadequate, or of no, coverage, and to make efforts to acquire funds for these activities where necessary,
(3) to advise on the nature, location and extent of outreach activities in the context of the project,
(4) to organise information exchange and briefing sessions for staff from participating agencies, in order to increase general awareness and commitment,
(5) to keep a comprehensive inventory of research protocols and development-oriented activities of participating agencies, and
(6) to report annually to the Advisory Committee on project progress and any other functions assigned by the Advisory Committee.
Both committees meet about three times per year. Given the constitution of the two committees, and the functions agreed upon, the degree of inter-institutional interaction is actually and potentially very significant. This interaction is taking place at all levels of institutional responsibility and at all stages of project planning and implementation.
It is generally understood that each participating agency will, in principle, independently fund its own Vertisol-related activities. The CGIAR centres involved are, however, determined to provide strategic inputs into national research and development institutions and to be instrumental in catalysing incremental funding for national partner institutes to implement agreed activities.
Strategic ILCA or ICRISAT inputs are basically in the form of the provision of research and transport equipment and the secondment of qualified scientific staff, as well as conventional research support. Within the framework of the project, a considerable number of research protocols have already been established in inter-institutional agreement between ILCA and JAR, ILCA and AUA, ILCA and MA (Ministry of Agriculture), IAR and MA, and AUA and MA. These protocols concentrate, in general, on crop germplasm, new cropping systems for drained Vertisols and soil fertility management. ILCA has provided extensive training opportunities in the manufacturing of the animal-drawn surface-drainage implement, and in handler and oxen training, to all national partner organisations. ICRISAT has provided specific training in economics and agroecology to staff of IAR and ILCA. IAR has formed a Vertisol management team to direct and coordinate the research activities on Vertisols in the various research centres. A general agreement on the inputs of each institution into the collaborative activities has been adopted, as shown in Table 1. The commitment of the institutions is, in principle, made on the basis of their respective comparative advantages.
The constitutions of the Advisory and Technical Committees, and the general agreements on institutional coordination, can potentially be the basis for a very considerable degree of integration of work. The extent to which this can be implemented is a function of time, project success and individual institutional commitment.
It is planned to address this project development in three stages:
(1) Consolidation of Vertisol-related activity planning and implementation in participating agencies with necessary support organisation across institutional borders,(2) Organisation of comprehensive programmes. for research and development with the aim of implementing project-internal procedures for the formulation of priorities, strategies and work and reporting routines for collaborative projects across institutional borders,
(3) Acquisition of funds and major strategic inputs, including qualified manpower for national institutes in order to remove operational constraints.
Table 1. Areas of institutional collaboration in the joint Vertisol Management Project in Ethiopia.
|
Area of interest |
ICRISAT |
ILCA |
AUA |
IAR |
MA |
AAU | |||
|
1. Agrometeorology, soil and socioeconomic studies |
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
(a) Agrometeorology data analysis |
x |
x |
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
training |
x |
x |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
crop modelling |
x |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
(b) Soils |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
survey, characterisation |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
classification, |
x |
|
x |
|
x |
| |
|
|
|
soil physics |
x |
x |
x |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
soil microbiology |
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
x | |
|
|
|
soil chemistry |
x |
x |
x |
x |
x |
| |
|
|
(c) Socioeconomics |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
baseline surey |
|
x |
|
x |
|
| |
|
|
|
monitoring |
|
x |
|
|
|
| |
|
2. Soil and water management agronomy, animal husbandry |
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
(a) Soil and water management |
x |
|
x |
x |
x |
| ||
|
|
(b) Crop improvement/agronomy |
x |
|
x |
x |
x |
| ||
|
|
(c) Animal husbandry |
|
x |
|
x |
x |
| ||
|
3. Farm power (animal) and implements |
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
(a) Animal power |
|
x |
|
x |
|
| ||
|
|
(b) Farm implements |
x |
x |
|
x |
|
| ||
|
4. On-farm verification and extension |
|
|
|
|
|
| |||
|
|
(a) Verification |
|
x |
x |
x |
x |
| ||
|
|
(b) Outreach |
|
x |
x |
x |
x |
| ||
The joint Vertisol Management Project is in itself a national Ethiopian network in research, training and development of these issues. It is therefore to be considered as a natural national cell of the IBSRAM (International Board for Soil Research and Management) auspiced international network on improved utilisation of Vertisols.
ILCA and ICRISAT have supra-regional and regional mandates and will therefore make arrangements with the governments of their mandate areas to initiate such concerted programmes for research and development of this important land resource in other areas.
Berhanu Debele. 1985. The Vertisols of Ethiopia. their properties, classification and management. In: Fifth Meeting of the Eastern African Sub-Committee for Soil Correlation and Land Evaluation, Wad Medani, Sudan, 5-10 December 1983. World Soil Resources Reports No. 56. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), Rome. pp. 31-54.
