A. Diagne’s research while affiliated with Africa Rice Center (Africarice) and other places

Despite continued progress in the development and promotion of improved agricultural technologies, and the gradual process in agricultural research for development (R4D) programmes, adoption rates are relatively low in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Recommendations have, therefore, been made by national and international research institutions and stakeholders for more involvement of the smallholders in evaluating promising agricultural technologies. This study assessed the impact of the participatory research demonstration on the adoption of the technologies promoted by the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) using the innovation platform (IP) concept. Results showed that 67 and 59% of the IP and non-IP farmers, respectively, reported that researchers and extension personnel decided on the technologies for research or demonstration. Fifty-two and 43% of the IP and non-IP farmers, respectively, perceived research and demonstration to be very useful. The type of technology or demonstration that farmers mostly participated in was crop variety (IP farmers=72.87%; non-IP farmers=70.19%). Following our analyses which are based on the Instrumental Variable (IV) approach, participation in research and demonstrations significantly increased adoption of the demonstrated technologies by 99%. We observed a 100% significant increase in adoption of the demonstrated technologies in the sample of IP participants. The main factors that determined the adoption of the demonstrated technologies included membership to farmer group, and distances to input and output markets.

In developing countries, smallholder farmers face many constraints including lack of information, and lack of access to credit and markets. To overcome these constraints, smallholder farmers can engage in contract farming. However, contract farming needs to meet farmers' preferences in order to be sustainable. This study aimed to analyze rice farmers' preferences for contract farming in Benin. Stated choice data were collected from 574 rice farmers. To account for heterogeneity, data were analyzed using a mixed logit model. Producers preferred contracts with seven major attributes: short term, payment on delivery, collective selling, agreement on quantity, no provision of credit, application of the market price, and no control by the partner. However, there was heterogeneity in the contract preferences of rice farmers. The study suggests that these differences and the preferred attributes are important in the design of best-fit contract farming models by agribusiness firms and policy-makers.

The suitability of 10 different rice varieties cultivated in Benin for parboiling was assessed through physical, chemical and sensorial analysis. Paddy rice samples were soaked at three different water temperatures (60, 70 and 80°C) under laboratory conditions. Using these temperatures, significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in the chalkiness, hardness and grain homogeneity of the parboiled rice after milling. The paddy rice soaked at 80°C presented the best results: the majority of the parboiled grains were homogeneous (overall mean = 85.16%) and had favorable scores for hardness (overall mean = 8.99 kg) and chalkiness (score =1). In the field, At soaking temperature about 80°C the professional parboilers preferred NERICAL56, BERIS21 and IR841 as the most suitable for parboiling from the investigated rice varieties, due to the grain homogeneity (> 90 %), head rice ratio ( > 86.67 %) and low rate of broken grains after milling (<13.33 %). These three varieties were the most appreciated by the panelists before and after cooking, whereas BL19 and NERICA2 were the least. Findings from this work are important for guiding rice parboiling stakeholders in Benin and other countries in West Africa. NERICAL56, BERIS21 and IR841 were the suitable rice varieties for parboiling to be advised to the processors. To this end, passport data on the varieties suitable for parboiling will be produced and widely disseminated to the stakeholders for rice parboiling.

This study evaluated the impact of improved rice varieties adoption on the multidimensional poverty index of rice farming households in North Central Nigeria. Stratified random sampling technique was employed to select 149 rice farming households in the study area. Data were collected by trained enumerators using Mlax application installed in tablet computers. Descriptive statistics, Alkire and Foster Multidimensional Poverty Index methodology and the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) Model were the major analytical tools employed in analyzing the data. The multidimensional poverty index for the adopters and non-adopters of improved rice varieties were estimated as 0.32 and 0.40, respectively. LATE result showed that improved rice varieties adoption significantly reduced multidimensional poverty index of the rice farming households by 0.18. Generally, the results of the study showed that poverty is more intense among non-adopters of improved rice varieties than adopters and the adoption of improved rice varieties has a negative and significant impact on multidimensional poverty. Consequently, efforts should be made by the government and development institutions to ensure increased access of rice farming households to improved rice seeds varieties to encourage its adoption.

Physico-chemical grain quality traits and nutritional contents were evaluated in parboiled and non-parboiled samples of ten rice varieties produced in Benin. These included four existing varieties cultivated in Benin (BL 19, BERIS 21, IR 841 and TOX 4008) and six newly introduced varieties (NERICA 1, NERICA 2, NERICA 4, NERICA-L 14, NERICA-L 20 and NERICA-L 56).These traits were compared with those of two popular brands of imported rice; Special rice (non-parboiled) and Arosso (parboiled). Results show that non-parboiled grains were harder in the locally produced varieties than in Special rice. Non-parboiled grains of NERICA 1, NERICA 2, NERICA-L 56 and BL 19 had lower homogeneity than Special rice; and non-parboiled grains of the locally-produced rice showed higher alkali spreading values than Special rice. The physical characteristic (hardness, chalkiness, grain homogeneity, alkali spreading value, water uptake) of parboiled of the ten rice varieties analyzed was almost similar to the imported rice brands Arosso (parboiled). The protein, vitamin B3, vitamin B12, sodium, magnesium and calcium contents detected in the 10 tested rice varieties are not significantly different from the values found in imported rice. However the mean overall lipid content is low in the parboiled rice as compared with non-parboiled rice of the same variety: 0.29% and 0.85% respectively. Like imported parboiled rice, local parboiled rice varieties tested are easy to cook as well as non-parboiled samples of local varieties NERICA 4, NERICA-L 14, NERICA-L 20 and BL19. But NERICA 1, NERICA 2, NERICA-L 56, BERIS21, TOX4008 and IR841 do not cook easily because the warping of grains during cooking. The result of sensory evaluation indicated that the parboiled forms of NERICA 2, NERICA-L 20, BERIS 21, BL 19 and IR 841 were more appreciated by the panelist than their non-parboiled form. Non-parboiled forms of NERICA 1, NERICA 4, NERICA-L 14, NERICA-L 56 and TOX 4008 were preferred by panelists than their parboiled forms.

This chapter focuses on the adoption and turnover of cultivars of crops, such as soyabean, maize, pigeon pea, wheat, cassava, rice, potato, barley, yam, groundnut, bean, sorghum, cowpea, pearl millet, chickpea, faba bean, lentil, sweet potato, banana and pea, in Africa South of Sahara. The changes in on-farm productivity, poverty and food security brought about by the adoption of improved cultivars are also discussed.

This chapter focuses on the improved cultivar generation of various crops (maize, cassava, rice, bean, potato, cowpea, wheat, soyabean, sweet potato, yam, sorghum, groundnut, banana, chickpea, pigeon pea, barley, pearl millet, faba bean, lentil and pea) in Africa South of the Sahara. Information of cultivar output of these crops is also presented.

This study estimates the adoption gap of NERICA that exists in the population when access to seeds is a constraint. Treatment evaluation technique is applied to consistently estimate the potential NERICA adoption rate and its determinants using panel data from a stratified random sample of 515 rice fanners in The Gambia. The results show that the NERICA adoption rate could have been 76% instead of the observed 66% sample estimate in 2010 provided that every rice farmer had been aware of NERICA's existence before the 2010 rice growing season. However, further investigation finds that if all the rice farmers had been aware of and had access to NERICA seeds, adoption would have been 92%. This reveals that if awareness had not been a constraint, 16% of farmers would have failed to adopt NERICA due to lack of access to seeds. Farmer contact with extension services and access to in-kind credit are significant determinants of access to and adoption of NERICA varieties.

Setting: Drug resistance threatens tuberculosis (TB) control, particularly among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected persons. Objective: To describe practices in the prevention and management of drug-resistant TB under antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs in lower-income countries. Design: We used online questionnaires to collect program-level data on 47 ART programs in Southern Africa (n = 14), East Africa (n = 8), West Africa (n = 7), Central Africa (n = 5), Latin America (n = 7) and the Asia-Pacific (n = 6 programs) in 2012. Patient-level data were collected on 1002 adult TB patients seen at 40 of the participating ART programs. Results: Phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) was available in 36 (77%) ART programs, but was only used for 22% of all TB patients. Molecular DST was available in 33 (70%) programs and was used in 23% of all TB patients. Twenty ART programs (43%) provided directly observed therapy (DOT) during the entire course of treatment, 16 (34%) during the intensive phase only, and 11 (23%) did not follow DOT. Fourteen (30%) ART programs reported no access to second-line anti-tuberculosis regimens; 18 (38%) reported TB drug shortages. Conclusions: Capacity to diagnose and treat drug-resistant TB was limited across ART programs in lower-income countries. DOT was not always implemented and drug supplies were regularly interrupted, which may contribute to the global emergence of drug resistance.