AnnuAl RepoRt 2013 -...

Africa free of hunger, poverty and malnutrition

AnnuAl RepoRt

2013

Africa Harvest’s Board Chairman Dr Moctar Toure, and CEO Dr Florence Wambugu display the organization’s 10-year Strategic Plan.

Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI)Nairobi • Johannesburg • Washington DC • Toronto

2014

2013 AnnuAl RepoRt

Citation: Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) 2014. Africa Harvest Annual Report 2013. Nairobi, Kenya: AHBFI. 68 pp.

All information in this booklet may be quoted or reproduced, provided the source is properly acknowledged, as cited above.

© 2014 Africa Harvest

ISBN 978-0-620-62635-4

For further information about Africa Harvest or additional copies of this publication, contact Africa Harvest at:

nAIRoBI (HQ)3rd Floor, Whitefield PlaceSchool Lane, WestlandsPO Box 642Village Market 00621Nairobi, KenyaTel: + 254 20 444 1113Fax: + 254 20 444 1121Email: [email protected]

JoHAnneSBuRG34 Forbes RoadBlairgowrie, RandburgPO Box 3655Pinegowrie 2123Gauteng, South AfricaTel: + 27 11 079 4189Email: [email protected]

WASHInGton DCBlake BuildingFarragut Square1025 Connecticut Avenue NWSuite 1012Washington DC 20036, USATel: +1 202 828 1215Fax: +1 202 857 9799E-mail: [email protected]

Or visit the Africa Harvest website: www.africaharvest.org

Cover: 1) Weighing bananas at a collection center in Murang’a; 2) Africa Harvest CEO, Dr Florence Wambugu (center) with

Director, Dr Blessed Okole and a scientist in a tissue culture lab in Tanzania; and 3) Farmers hold discussions in a sorghum field in Mulala.

editing and design: BluePencil Infodesign, Hyderabad, India (www.bluepencil.in)printing: Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, India (www.pragati.com)

Content and internal editor: Daniel Kamanga

toRontoScotia Plaza40 King Street West, Suite 3100Toronto, ON Canada M5H 3Y2Tel: +1 416-865-6600 Fax: +1 416-865-6636Email: [email protected]

Contents

Statement from the Chairman, Dr Moctar toure 1

executive summary from the Ceo, Dr Florence Wambugu 3

Introducing Africa Harvest 6

Food, nutritional Security and Sustainable livelihoods of Smallholders program 8Africa Harvest’s 10-years of effort in banana value chain crops helps transform 9Kenya’s third most important cropImpact of TC banana interventions 11Testimony of how the positive impact of tissue culture banana technology 12continues to transform rural livelihoods

technology Development and Deployment program 16The Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Project 17Confined field trials in Kenya and Nigeria consolidate success of the Africa biofortified sorghum project 19

natural Resource Management program 24Innovative bio-digesters help improve rural communities’ health and protect the environment 25Case study: Karai Secondary School 26Case study: Mr Evans and Mrs Ann Wanjiki Njenga 27Impact of sand dams on the women of Mulala and Wote in Makueni County 30

Agricultural Markets and policy program 34Unlocking value for farmers by improving competitiveness of banana value-chain 35in Kisii and Nyamira CountiesBanana collection and marketing center – Moitunya in Nyamira County 37Increasing sorghum productivity to improve food security and income generation 38The brief summary of achievements of the AFIM-UNDP project 41Strengthening smallholder farmers’ participation in the sorghum value-chain in Tanzania and Kenya 42

Communication for Development and Knowledge Management program 44Africa Harvest, Environment and Agricultural Institute, Open Forum on Biotechnology, and 45Faso Coton explore improved biotech reporting with Burkina Faso radio journalistsStrategic biosafety issues management towards the commercialization of genetically modified 46organisms in KenyaAfrica Harvest and biotech partners engage government on impact of ban on genetically modified 46organisms on pathway to commercialization Africa Harvest social media strategy takes root 46Africa Harvest 2012 Annual Report online distribution, new website and @ahbfi Twitter account 48

Finance, Administration, and new Business Development program 52Maintaining the confidence of development partners and stakeholders in a difficult 53economic environmentBiographies of Board of Directors 55

Summary of financial performance Expenditure allocation in 2013 59 Africa Harvest 2013 – List of Donors 59 Income and expense indicators 60 Annual Financial Report for the year ended December 31, 2013 61

Acronyms and abbreviations 63

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Statement from the Chairman, Dr Moctar Toure

Statement from the Chairman

In 2013, the global economy continued to grow at a modest pace. Europe remained in recession while growth in the US continued to be subdued. In Africa, economic activity was robust, supported by strong investment demand, and private consumption. The region’s growth prospects remain favorable despite emerging challenges such as weaker commodity prices, and tighter global financial conditions.

Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) declined during the year under review. An estimated 58% of Africans were living on less than US$ 1.25 per day around the turn of the millennium. Within a decade, poverty declined by almost 10% to an estimated 48.5%. In Africa Harvest’s view, these levels are still not acceptable. With nearly 400 million people living on less than US$ 1.25 per day, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Africa Harvest’s response to the challenge of poverty, hunger and malnutrition is captured in our 10-year Strategic Plan (SP). During the year under review – despite a challenging funding environment for our work – Africa Harvest achieved excellent progress. Apart from creating greater depth in our programs and activities we made early efforts at geographical diversification. Our regional South African office stepped up engagement with potential partners – the Southern African Development Corporation (SADC) countries – more specifically, Malawi and Zambia. Africa Harvest is now registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and we look forward to the possibility of implementing projects there.

In West Africa, we continue to have projects in Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. In East Africa, together with strategic partners, we have begun exploring the possibility of a three-country project in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

2 Africa Harvest Annual Report 2013

The Board is pleased with the management’s plan to expand its activities in a strategic, methodical, and sustainable manner. A project-driven approach is critical to avoid expansive growth that has limited depth or impact. We are glad to note that management is focusing on core capabilities and strengths. We continue to encourage focus on building an organization that successfully disseminates technologies along the whole-value-chain to smallholder farmers and grassroots communities.

Africa Harvest has the technical capabilities to allow a smooth and effective evolution of activities, projects and programs. This continuity is critical for success. It underlines the need to create depth, refine key competencies, and then expand or replicate our products and services. The county-focused strategy underlines the need to replicate and expand our models, working from the grassroots to the national and regional levels.

We believe this is the way to achieve our vision to be a lead contributor in making Africa free of poverty, hunger and malnutrition. The emphasis on “contributor” is critical; we recognize that there are many other players in the space in which we operate, and we applaud their contribution. Our aspiration is to be a leader in this space. To achieve respect among peers, there is need to add value through partnerships. We remain committed to working better with our current partners, while expanding our portfolio of partners across the countries of interest.

3Executive summary from the CEO

While the effects of the global financial crisis continued to be felt in the development sector, Africa Harvest has remained focused and continued to reach thousands of beneficiaries through its programs. Changes undertaken to make the organization more resilient and better focused in the face of a challenging funding environment have begun to bear fruit. Alignment and synergy within and between programs, broadening and strengthening of partnerships, and greater depth in projects helped achieve our goals.

The Food, nutritional Security program for Sustainable livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers had a two-year project designed to revitalize and consolidate gains in the banana industry in Kenya. The project which was funded by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), enabled Africa Harvest to scale out the tissue culture (TC) banana technology to new areas. The AGRA-supported project reached nearly 150,0000 households, and five hardening nurseries with a holding capacity of 5,000 TC banana plantlets were established, inspected, and certified by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS). The innovation here was the establishment of a private sector driven seed distribution system for long-term sustainability.

The technology Development and Deployment program carried out four Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Project Confined Field Trials (CFTs) in Kenya for the period ending December 2013. A fifth trial was planned for the first quarter of 2014. In Nigeria there were three CFTs with the fourth trial scheduled for the first quarter of 2014. The objective of these studies is to establish the environmental safety of the ABS project and to test early stages trait transfer to popular local sorghum varieties as part of product development. All

Executive summary from the CEO, Dr Florence Wambugu


the local and international regulatory requirements were followed to the satisfaction of regulators in Kenya and Nigeria.

The CFT experiments provided an excellent platform to train and build the capacity of communication practitioners, scientists, and researchers from partnering institutions. The success achieved during the period under review can be attributed to strong collaboration among several institutions namely: The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the Institute of Agricultural Research of Nigeria (IAR), the University of Nairobi’s Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, the National Biosafety Authority of Kenya (NBA), the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS), the National Biotechnology Development Agency of Nigeria (NABDA), and Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International (AHBFI).

The natural Resource Management program implemented its first major project funded by Grand Challenge Canada (GCC). The Africa Harvest pilot project sought to develop and promote local and sustainable fuel sources using bio-digesters to improve community health while protecting the environment and generating income for farmers. The project made great progress during the project implementation period, demonstrating in households and institutions, the great opportunity for cooking energy that existed in the use of cattle dung; the project was to be completed in 2014.

The Agricultural Markets and policy program is implementing several projects.

USAID-KHCP project: The title of this project is “Unlocking Value for Farmers by Improving Competitiveness of Banana Value-Chain Projects in Kisii and Nyamira Counties in Western Kenya”. The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project (KHCP).

The Agricultural Markets and policy program is anchored in Africa Harvest’s past experience from having worked with over 100,000 smallholder banana growers in different parts of Kenya. With regard to agricultural markets, the focus has been on improving farmers’ access to clean planting materials, building their capacity in banana orchard establishment and management, besides building the necessary linkages to markets and input suppliers. In subsequent years, focus will shift to policy, now that farmers have planted over 1 million TC bananas seedlings over the last eight to ten years.

The Africa Harvest partnership with USAID-KHCP has helped improve the competitiveness of the banana value-chain. Africa Harvest’s role is to build the capacity of at least 9,000 smallholder farmers to increase banana productivity from the current 15 tons/ha to about 25 tons/ha. This is being done through farmer training in orchard establishment and management, linking the farmers to sources of tissue culture bananas and helping them aggregate their produce to attract serious traders and access markets.

UNDP_AFIM Project: Another project under this program focuses on increasing sorghum productivity to improve food security and income generation. It is funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) – Africa Facility for Inclusive Markets (AFIM). Implementation of the two-year regional project in

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Kenya and Tanzania started in 2012, and is focused on promoting inclusive markets and regional trade among selected farmers who were willing to invest on farming as a business. The selected 2000 farmers from Kenya and Tanzania had to agree to devote a minimum of one hectare of land to sorghum, train in good agronomic practices, learn how to manage micro-credit successfully, and apply farming inputs to increase productivity for the market. The project commenced in September, 2012, and was designed to improve household food security and generate considerable income for the 2,000 participating farmers by marketing of their surplus sorghum locally or trading at the inter-country level for better prices, through Africa Harvest facilitation.

Farmers were identified and selected from a large pool of smallholder farmers in Kenya and Tanzania for implementing a project with the title “Sorghum for Multiple Use (SMU)”. The development partner for the project is the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the funding source is the European Union (EU). The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT) is the main contractual institution implementing the project in partnership with Africa Harvest.

The Communication for Development and Knowledge Management program has implemented various projects: Among them was the Africa Biotech Outreach Project funded by CropLife International (CLI), which was implemented in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Kenya. The program partnered with the Environment and Agricultural Institute (INERA), Faso Coton, and the Open Forum on Biotechnology (OFAB), to train senior radio journalists from 12 stations in Burkina Faso on biotech reporting.

During the year under review, the program held several strategic meetings with Kenya’s NBA, centering on capacity building in communication, issues management, and improved coordination between technology developers and regulatory agencies. Africa Harvest intensified the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and blogs, to engage mass audiences in transforming the face of agriculture.

The Finance, Administration and new Business Development program strengthened Africa Harvest’s performance-focused financial management system. Emphasis was also placed on internal and external reporting, and accountability. There was greater involvement of project staff in the budget design as well as in the implementation and monitoring of expenditure. This resulted in increased efficiency in service delivery to the farmers, and in the overall ability to do more with less, in the face budgetary constraints.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, the management and staff, I would like to thank the ten funding agencies that supported our activities during the year under review. The funding agencies include: The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), CropLife international (CLI), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project (KHCP)/ Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center (FINTRAC), the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF), DuPont Pioneer, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Grand Challenge Canada (GCC), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and many individual donors.

Executive summary from the CEO


Vision

To be a lead contributor in freeing Africa from hunger, poverty and malnutrition.

Mission

To use innovative agricultural technologies, and institutional approaches in our endeavor to improve the livelihoods of rural communities, particularly smallholder farmers. Engaging in the use of science and technology-based sustainable models, while ensuring gender-focused agricultural development.

Strategic goals

The following are our five key goals for the next decade (2012–2022):

1. Reduce rural poverty and food and nutrition insecurity through improved agricultural systems by using science and technology

2. Ensure our target countries can cope with climate change through sustainable agri-cultural production and commercialization, with zero or minimum negative impact to the environment

3. Improve the nutrition and health of smallholder farmers, and poor consumers

Introducing Africa HarvestFarmers in Kisii, Kenya, listen keenly during an on-farm training session.

7Introducing Africa Harvest

4. Provide equitable access to information and knowledge to smallholder farmers, and other stakeholders. Focus on information designed to improve and modernize the agricultural sector, based on the whole-value-chain approach

5. Facilitate development of agricultural value-chains by involving and empowering all critical stakeholders

Approach

Africa Harvest pursues its mission and goals through:• Use of science and technology• Technology development and transfer • Value-chain development for key agricultural

commodities• Mainstreaming cross-cutting issues of climate

change, gender, HIV and AIDS• Empowerment of female farmers in rural farming

communities, where there are gender disparities• Partnership with farming communities, research

institutions, and other organizations that share our vision

Core values• Excellence• Innovation and creativity• Institutional and scientific integrity and

accountability• Gender, HIV and AIDS awareness• Diversity of opinions and approaches• Service to farm families, especially small

landholders• Cultural diversity• Valuing indigenous knowledge

• Environmental protection• Commitment to making a positive impact

Guiding principles• Adherence to its vision and mission• Value addition to national goals of the countries

in which the organization operates• Scientific and technical integrity and professional

excellence• Commitment to partnerships that strengthen

African agriculture• Programmatic approach based on developing the

whole-value-chain• Creating and responding to market opportunities• Reaching out and empowering our stakeholders• Ensuring gender equality and benefit sharing from

the development interventions• Focus on impact, and tangible results to the

beneficiaries• Mainstreaming social, human, and environmental

concerns and issues, specifically climate change, gender, HIV and AIDS


Food, Nutritional Security and Sustainable Livelihoods of Smallholders Program

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The issue of food security and sustainable livelihoods is central to all development interventions. There is a huge need to ensure that families have sufficient and nutritious food at all times. The communities cannot begin to work on development issues if their primary need for food is not met.

This program arises out of the need to deliver appropriate technology and critical farm inputs to beneficiaries. It seeks to pioneer innovative capacity building solutions for good agronomic practices, post-harvest handling, value addition, and marketing.

Other themes under this program include strong gender, HIV and AIDS mainstreaming for rural communities. Emphasis is placed on women and youth empowerment, agricultural value-chains, development, mobilization, and capacity building of agro-entrepreneurs.

Africa Harvest’s 10-years of effort in banana value chain crops helps transform Kenya’s third most important crop

Banana is the most important fruit1 and the third most import crop2 in Kenya; despite this, the crop’s value chain is still encumbered with myriad challenges. Some of these challenges are: High prevalence of pests and disease; and poor agronomy that includes sharing of diseased suckers among the small-scale farmers who ultimately form the bulk of banana farmers in Kenya. The marketing systems are also disorganized. Most of the trading takes place in informal channels and systems. Value addition, when it happens, is at the cottage level.

In view of its importance in improving household nutrition, poverty alleviation and income generation, 1. Horticulture validated report, 2012.2. Scaling out the benefits of TC banana technology in Kenya through the whole-value-chain model. A report on mapping out the status of banana production in Kenya – Africa Harvest, May 2012.

Africa Harvest has over the last 10 years worked on the banana value chain in nine banana growing counties in Kenya, namely: Kiambu, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Embu, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Nyamira and Kisii.

The projects are designed to respond to many of the challenges mentioned above and every project addresses specific challenges related to its location. Many organizations have funded various Africa Harvest projects:• Dupont-Pioneer Chura Community Tissue

Culture Project, implemented by Africa Harvest in Kiambu County for 3 years (2004–2006).

• Rockefeller Foundation supported the banana work in two phases. The first phase ran from 2004–2006, while the second phase ran from 2007–2009.

• The first phase, “Developing a Pro-Poor Tissue Culture Banana Industry in Kenya” project was implemented for three years (2004–2006) in Murang’a and Meru Counties.

Food and Nutritional Security and Sustainable Livelihoods of Smallholders Program

Left: Bananas being cleaned before they are dried and processed into porridge flour for children.


• The second phase ran for a further two years (2007–2009) and was meant to solidify the work that had been done in the first phase, and also expand to two new counties that had not been covered in the first phase. The “Tilting the Benefits of Tissue Culture Banana Technology to Create a Sustainable, Poverty Alleviating Banana Value Chain in Kenya” project was implemented in Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Meru Counties;

• The AGRA funded a two-year project, from the year 2009 to 2011, designed to revitalize and consolidate gains in the banana industry in Kenya. This project was implemented in the Meru, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Kiambu, Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Nyeri counties;

• The USAID-KHCP has funded banana work since 2011. The target counties are Nyeri, Kisii and Nyamira.

All projects are implemented based on Africa Harvest’s whole-value-chain model which ensures that identified bottlenecks receive appropriate attention. The project implementation begins after awareness creation on TC technology and its benefits within the target communities. Farmers are organized into cohesive production and marketing groups to improve efficiency. These groups eventually function as self-governing business units.

To show the superiority of TC technology, demonstra-tions are established in strategic areas. Planting mate-rials derived from suckers are planted next to the TC material as a control. The demonstrations also expose the farmers to different banana varieties.

Building of cohesive farmer groups is critical to the successful implementation of the projects. This

Left: Tony Aseta of Africa Harvest inspects a banana with high pest infection in a farm in Kisii.

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is done through regular training and mentoring of mobilized groups on group management issues as well as business skills. Farmers in business groups that respond well to training and are cohesive, function better, especially in the acquisition of inputs and in marketing produce.

To improve access to clean planting materials, entrepreneurs dealing with nursery materials are supported through training on nursery management and business skills. This has been necessary since for the longest time, most of the TC banana propagators have been within and around Nairobi, making it difficult for many of the small-scale farmers to access the TC planting material. To improve on market access and linkages, the producer groups are trained in business skills and also linked to banana traders who operate in the big cities.

Impact of TC banana interventions

The use of TC plantlets as a source of clean planting materials was introduced to Kenya banana farmers in 1997. Africa Harvest has been in the fore front of this work for the last 12 years. According to a nation-wide baseline survey conducted by Africa Harvest in 2012 that mapped the status of banana production in Kenya3, 35% of the farmers have started using the technology in the last five years. This shows that the level of knowledge on the need to use clean planting seedlings at orchard establishments has been increasing over time among smallholder banana farmers in Kenya.

Africa Harvest has directly worked with nearly 50,000 beneficiaries. To mobilize these direct beneficiaries, over 200,000 were reached.

3. Scaling out the benefits of TC banana technology in Kenya through the whole value chain model. A report on mapping out the status of banana production in Kenya – Africa Harvest, May 2012.

Over 1 million TC banana seedlings have directly been planted through all Africa Harvest projects. This adoption increased the notional area under banana to 762 ha. The beneficiaries invested Ksh 487 million in orchard establishment costs.

Technology adoption continues steadily; Africa Harvest estimates that there are 5.7 million TC banana plants in the country.

A total of 388 demonstrations established on farmers’ fields, over the years have played a great role in improving acceptability of TC bananas among the target communities.

To ensure sustainability, Africa Harvest has trained 1,616 farmers to backstop other banana farmers once the projects end. They received intensive training on capacity building in good agronomic practices in banana farming and group management.

The other sustainability measure was the establishment of satellite nurseries, as a way of improving seedling access to the farmers. Twenty four entrepreneurs have been supported to either start or expand their banana seedling business. The nurseries had an average holding capacity of 2,500 seedlings and sold 266,760 TC banana seedlings over the years.

Africa Harvest works closely with key partners in the implementation of the projects. The KARI provides the necessary technical support while the Ministry of Agriculture provides contact and links to the target communities. The Ministry’s continued support is critical especially once the project period ends. Smallholder farmers in Kenya hold the two organizations in high esteem and the success of projects often hinges on endorsement by farmers.



Testimony of how the positive impact of tissue culture banana technology continues to transform rural livelihoods

My name is liz Wangari Fundi, a small-scale subsistence farmer, and beneficiary of the AGRA-funded project

I am a wife, a mother of three, and a proud farmer. I say proud because if it wasn’t for TC banana farming, I would probably be working for somebody else, perhaps cleaning houses for a living.

When my children were young, I was a subsistence farmer focusing on maize and beans. Farming and my husband’s small business made just enough money to feed the family. I had also planted a few traditional

bananas which produced small bunches. I sold these for Ksh 50 (less than half a US dollar) per bunch. Occasionally, the bananas would produce a good-size bunch which would fetch Ksh 100. However, the broker would travel a short distance to the local market and sell the very same bunch for Ksh 400.

I was a very bright student in high school. Unfortunately, I got pregnant in high school and dropped out. When I realized that my first-born daughter was as intelligent as I was, I vowed that my children would not only go to school, but that they would pass well and further their studies to university level. Although I had a vision to see them succeed academically, the shortage of money in the household made me fear my dream would never come true. The maize and beans that I spent hours toiling over did not bring regular income. If the rains failed,

Liz (left) speaks to Wangari Kiragu of Africa Harvest

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my husband and I would struggle to get enough money to sustain the household.

In 2008, someone told me that some neighbors were forming a group to deliberate on development matters. When I went for the meeting, I was introduced to Africa Harvest and the TC banana opportunity. Most members of the group were retired. Being the youngest, I was a bit intimidated. I however thought to myself, “If these people have left employment and chosen to farm, there must be something there”.

I was assisted in purchasing my first 60 banana plantlets, and then I religiously implemented the training I received from Africa Harvest. In December 2009, I harvested the first crop of 44 banana bunches totaling 2,000 kg. They were bought at Ksh 12 per kg

giving me a profit of Ksh 24,000 (about US$ 300). I have never received so much money from my farm. Feeling encouraged, I reinvested and purchased 60 more plants, and continued until I had a plantation of 360 at my farm. I now have over 500 TC bananas on my three acre farm.

Africa Harvest taught me how to farm as a business.

It’s important to mention that my group and I were determined not to sell any of our bananas to brokers. Being in Kirinyaga, one of our challenges is that we are not aware of the current market prices, making it easy for brokers to exploit us. However, with the help of Africa Harvest, we were able to access the market in Nairobi.

Africa Harvest’s tissue culture banana project by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa reaches 150,000 households

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) funded a two-year project designed to revitalize and consolidate gains in the banana industry in Central and Eastern Kenya. Through the project, Africa Harvest reached 150,000 households, and five hardening nurseries with a holding capacity of 5,000 TC banana plantlets were facilitated, inspected, and certified by the KEPHIS.

The project optimized the banana whole-value-chain implementation strategy, which included awareness creation with strategic partners, especially the Ministry of Agriculture. Networking and mentoring of new farmers by established banana farmers fast-tracked the technology adoption. New farmers were also linked to high quality planting materials from certified TC banana nurseries.

Entrepreneurs were also trained and supported to establish hardening nurseries closer to the farmers. To ensure project sustainability, entrepreneurs and farmers were introduced to micro-finance institutions like K-Rep and Equity Bank. Some well-established, large-scale farmers have contractual relationships with private entrepreneurs who process value-added banana products.

Africa Harvest also linked farmers to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with expertise on water management; many farmers have now been trained in water harvesting.



me emphasize that the sole source of funds for their private school education was the banana crop. I can also say that the chicken and cows in my homestead are because of TC bananas. Without regular income from banana farming, I would have had to sell the chicken and cows to educate my children.

Using the income, I also managed to bring electricity to my house. After my children finish university, my husband and I plan to construct a new home. At first, my husband was skeptical of the TC banana crop and told me that I was wasting my time tending to it, as no crop from the farm could ever give us good returns. He wanted us to plant maize or a more popular cash crop. But I had a vision and I stuck to it. When he saw the cash it was bringing me, he became my number one supporter.

We were also empowered with information on current market prices, enabling us to negotiate with the buyers for the best price. As a group, we also had large volumes of bananas, giving us more bargaining power. Africa Harvest also encouraged us not to stick with the initial buyers and introduced us to form relationships with many buyers so that we could negotiate the best price as a group. Our group also became the first in the area to sell bananas according to weight. This has now become the dominant way of making sales.

Farming TC banana has transformed my life. When I began making money from the crop, I did not only reinvest in the farm, but I began to actualize my dream of giving my children the best education. I moved them from public schools into private schools. Let

Africa Harvest Program Manager Mrs Wangari Kiragu trains farmers at the Homabay field day

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Shortly after making sales from our first harvest, my group decided that we needed to start raising funds to sustain ourselves. The group began deducting 50 cents per kg, which progressed to Ksh 1 per kg with time. At the end of the year, I received Ksh 20,000 from the savings, and those who produced more received more. Members were so happy with the lump sum payment; we are now saving Ksh 2 per kg.

Our group now has a nursery which supplies banana seedlings to the community. We have also bought land, upon which the county government will construct a banana distribution facility for us. Some members of our group rent out other people’s farms

to grow more TC bananas. We also have a micro-finance project where we contribute money and give loans to each other. Banana farming has really reduced poverty in my community.

Words cannot express my gratitude to Africa Harvest for the transformational work they did in this community. Their field offices walked with us through the entire journey, and assisted us at every stage. Today, we are empowered with knowledge, and are moving forward as a community. I hope that they continue this work throughout the country, and continue reaching other farmers to change lives.

Establishment of demonstration plots to showcase different varieties



Technology Development and Deployment Program

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The Technology Development and Deployment Program seeks to encourage technology identification, acquisition and deployment. Africa Harvest’s bouquet of technologies is implemented with great sensitivity to gender and socio-cultural issues. They are also HIV and AIDS responsive.

During the year under review, this program continued to implement the ABS project. The project demonstrates that as biotechnology gains traction in Africa, the Technology Development and Deployment Program will continue to provide leadership in the development of target countries’ bio-safety and regulatory framework, capacity building and technology transfer.

The Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS)Project

Established in 2005, the ABS project, a public-private consortium, is actively working to improve the health and survival of millions of people who rely on sorghum as their primary diet by enhancing its nutritional quality through biofortification, with an immediate target of increased and stabilized levels of pro-vitamin A. In the near future, the focus will expand to achieving enhanced bioavailability of zinc and iron, and improved protein digestibility.

It is nearly a decade since the project started, but the challenge of over 2 billion people facing vitamin and mineral deficiencies remains. there is now consensus that vitamin A and Zinc supplementation should be a part of investment in global development. Indeed micronutrient focus contributes to the first five united nations (un) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). the MDG goals for nutrition improvement are unlikely to be met by the deadline of 2015.

As part of its contribution to the nutrition challenge, the ABS team targeted Nigeria and Kenya as initial countries, with planned expansion in several other countries in East and West Africa. Based on conservative estimates, currently achievable biofortified sorghum has the potential to contribute 35% to 60% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A for children in Africa.

When the ABS project first started, its goal was to develop sorghum that contains increased levels of essential nutrients, especially vitamin A, iron and zinc. DuPont Pioneer (the project technology partner) has successfully led efforts resulting in transgenic sorghum that contains pro-vitamin A, improved sorghum protein quality, digestibility, and enhanced iron and zinc availability.

In recent years, the project has narrowed its focus to developing vitamin A enriched sorghum. The purpose of the product development teams in Kenya and Nigeria is to develop sorghum variety for Africa. This is done through conducting CFTs where the ABS


Left: FOSEMS Project – Enhancing soil fertility management, compost pit in the foreground, through use of composting in Makueni County.


traits are backcrossed to popular African sorghum varieties. The resultant hybrids are evaluated with the objective of analyzing the performance and the stability of the ABS traits in different genetic backgrounds.

In addition, the trials also aim at analyzing the effect of the nutritional genes on the fitness of hybrids of ABS with wild relatives of sorghum. It is expected that in the long term the results from this trial will help in the alleviation of micro-nutrient deficiency in Kenya, Nigeria, as well as in Africa at large.

Research objectives• Develop and deploy sorghum with stabilized,

enhanced levels of pro-vitamin A • Develop and deploy a final trait stack for enhanced

pro-vitamin A, increased bioavailability of iron and zinc, and improved protein digestibility

• Incorporate nutritional traits into locally adapted varieties for use by African farmers

• Develop seed production and product dissemination through both farmer and commercial systems

Scientists from Pioneer Dupont in USA and the institute for Agriculture Research (IAR) in Nigeria are taken through the CFT in Kenya.

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Research milestones • Increased pro-vitamin A content in

sorghum • Increased zinc and iron bioavailability

through phytate reduction • Reduced the time required for sorghum

transformation by 60%, to four months • Increased transformation success rate

in sorghum 100 times over previous capabilities

• Improved protein digestibility levels after cooking

• Adhered to transgenic biosafety principles and best practices specific to Africa

• Conducted three cycles of CFTs in Kenya and Nigeria with strict adherence to stewardship and compliance protocols

• Continued capacity building among African scientists and researchers

Confined field trials in Kenya and Nigeria consolidate success of the Africa biofortified sorghum project

Project funder: DuPont Pioneer

During the year under review, the project carried out four CFTs in Kenya for the period ending December 2013. A fifth trial was planned for the first quarter of 2014. In Nigeria there were three CFTs with the fourth trial scheduled for the first quarter of 2014.

The events in the Kenya CFT are ABS032 and ABS188. The first has enhanced protein quality, protein digestibility, and elevated

What is a confined field trial?

A confined field trial (CFT) is a research experiment or a contained field study of a genetically modified (GM) crop to study environmental biosafety under regulated conditions. GM crops are grown under field environmental conditions also for collecting data to assess the performance of crop under field or local conditions, yield, and germination. CFTs are also done to generate event-specific biosafety data for food safety and environmental safety assessments. They are also used for introgression of novel traits into locally adapted crop varieties, selection of superior genotypes for future release, as well as to increase seeds of the target promising GM crop before commercial approval.

The GM crops grown in the CFT are regulated; that is, they have not been approved for commercialization and therefore should not be consumed by humans or animals, or be released into the environment. The food, feed, and environment safety concerns of GM crops are mitigated during laboratory, greenhouse and CFT studies, and therefore do not enter the final food and feed chains. Measures and conditions that are used to ensure regulatory compliance with these confinement requirements are categorized into both material confinement, and genetic confinement, and follow both local and international regulations.

Material confinement refers to the application of several measures applied to ensure that all the sorghum plant parts are confined to the experimental area, and are later destroyed after the termination of the experimentation. Genetic confinement (sometimes called reproduction isolation) refers to mechanisms of hybridization barriers, behaviors, and physiological processes that prevent the members of two different species that cross or mate from producing offspring, or which ensures that any offspring that may be produced is not fertile.



bioavailable zinc and iron. The second, ABS188, has enhanced bioavailability of zinc and iron, as well as pro-vitamin A. Backcrosses have been developed between ABS032, and the recurring parent, KARI Mtama I as well as for ABS188, and the recurring parents, Gadam, KARI Mtama I, and Tegemeo. The ABS032 trial is in its final season, while backcrosses for ABS188 will be developed for two more seasons.

The events in the Nigeria CFT are ABS032 and ABS188. ABS032 has enhanced protein quality, protein digestibility, and bioavailable zinc and iron. ABS188 on the other hand, has enhanced bioavailability of zinc and iron, and pro-vitamin A. Backcrosses have been developed between ABS032 and the three recurring parents or local sorghum cultivars: SAMSORG14, SAMSORG17, and SAMSORG40.

One key objective of the year under review was to backcross and evaluate the agronomic performance

of ABS traits (iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A) from ABS188 to obtain BC1 seeds, and ABS032 in African sorghum varieties. Here, the performances of ABS032 BC3, BC4, and BC5 with KARI Mtama 1, and ABS032 as control were evaluated, and ABS188 F1 plants were backcrossed to KARI Mtama 1, Tegemeo and Gadam to produce ABS BC1 seeds.

The second CFT trial was harvested at the end of January 2013, the third CFT was planted at the end of February 2013, and the fourth, in August 2013.

Another project objective was to backcross ABS188 BC1 plants to KARI Mtama 1, Tegemeo and Gadam to produce ABS188 BC2 seeds, and to evaluate the performance of ABS032 BC3, BC4, and BC5 with KARI Mtama 1 and ABS032 as control. This was meant to evaluate ABS trait stability for at least four generations.

Phosphomannose isomerase (PMI) strips showing results from crosses of KARI Mtama 1 and ABS188 F1 generation.

21Technology Development and Deployment Program

ABS Team in Nigeria after a strategic meeting.

Dr Obukosia training the ABS team on CFT management.


The project also sought to assess the effect of nutritional genes on the fitness of hybrids between ABS188, and wild relatives of sorghum (S. halepense, S. arundinaceum and S. sudanense).

To confirm and ensure the continued presence of target genes in the sorghum crop under trial, a Phosphomannose isomerase (PMI) test was routinely carried out in the field. Crops that did not have the target gene were uprooted and destroyed. PMI testing is efficient and accurate, and relies on the fact that the PMI gene was used as the selectable marker for the ABS188 nutritional traits. The presence of the marker-gene is assayed using a lateral flow strip that has anti-bodies specific to the protein, coupled to a color reagent. When the lateral flow strip is placed in a small amount of tissue that contains PMI protein, binding occurs between the coupled anti-body and the protein. These capture zones display a reddish color

when the sandwich and/ or reacted colored reagents are captured in the specific zones in the membrane. The presence of only one line (the control line) on the membrane indicates a negative sample, and the presence of two lines indicates a positive sample. Laboratory analysis of ABS032 backcrosses was also conducted to confirm the presence of ABS genes.

With regard to capacity building, the CFT experiments have provided an excellent platform to train and build the capacity of communication practitioners, scientists, and researchers from the partnering institutions. Before and during planting and harvesting, project teams went through structured learning that covered, among others things, the following topics: Overview of biosafety and the role of regulatory institutions in different countries; the importance of adhering to biosafety laws and regulations of GMOs; ABS project CFT case studies;

Prof Daniel Aba, the ABS project Cordinator, with Prof Mohamed Falaki, IAR Director.

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handling of transgenic material; procedures for collecting data in the field; and CFT communication and issues management.

The project has made good progress and is focusing on a product that has only pro-vitamin A for early commercialization. ABS188 will undergo two more CFTs in Africa before being phased out, while ABS203 will go for CFTs during 2014.

The success achieved during the period under review can be attributed to strong collaboration among several institutions namely: The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the Institute of Agricultural Research of Nigeria (IAR), the University of Nairobi’s Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, the National Biosafety Authority of Kenya (NBA), the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS), the National Biotechnology Development Agency of Nigeria (NABDA), and Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International (AHBFI).

Harvesting of ABS sorghum in Kenya's CFT.

ABS staff in Kenya being trained on biosafety and communication.



Natural Resource Management Program

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Innovative bio-digesters help improve rural communities’ health and protect the environment

Project funder: Grand Challenge Canada (GCC)

Firewood and charcoal provide the basic energy needs of most of the rural communities in Africa. In Kenya, increased poverty has increased dependence on these two energy sources and 84% of the population uses solid fuels.

In the rural areas women travel long distances, often on foot, searching for dried figs and branches in the rural forests, while in the urban, and peri-urban poor and informal settlements, deforestation for firewood and charcoal production remains a major problem. While the focus has been on damage to the environment, little is discussed about indoor air pollution caused by the smoke from the burning bio-mass. Bio-mass produces high levels of household air pollution with a range of health-damaging pollutants, including a complex mixture of gases and small soot particles that penetrate deep into the lungs.

In poorly ventilated dwellings, indoor smoke can be 100 times higher than acceptable levels for small particles. Exposure is particularly high among women and young children, who spend the most time near the domestic hearth, leading to the occurrence of moderate to severe chronic respiratory tract infections. This was one of the many concerns for the GCC to fund Africa Harvest’s pilot project, which seeks to develop and promote local and sustainable fuel sources.

Promoting bio-gas digesters is one of the affordable and sustainable options. It helps reduce reliance on firewood. Sensitization was done to 1,529 community members in three sub-counties of Kiambu County in Kenya on the impacts of indoor air pollution, and 20 bio-digester plants were installed. These acted as demonstration units to illustrate the effectiveness of the bio-gas units in reducing smoke related disease incidences and demonstrating the benefits of the digested bio-slurry in improving crop productivity, nutrition and other economic benefits.

Bio-gas holds a great opportunity, especially for our small-scale farmers, says Africa Harvest Project Manager, Ms. Doreen Marangu. The total cost of installation of a household plant is Ksh 60,000 (CAD 725) while the relatively larger institutional plant is Ksh 143,000 (CAD 1,728). The Project’s household beneficiaries are saving up to US$ 10 that could otherwise have been spent on health care and medication and US$ 15.3 to US$ 29.4 every month which would otherwise have been spent on fuel. Other benefits include increased vegetable production for household consumption with surplus being sold locally to generate income. In addition community sensitization activities on the use of bio-gas as well as bio-slurry resulted in improvement in crop and livestock husbandry. Youths who received training on the installation, repair and maintenance of the plants turned that into a gainful employment opportunity.

After awareness creation, the community members registered demand of 232 household installations. Likewise, with the demand steadily growing, 23 institutions have expressed wiliness to adopt the bio-digesters technology; an indication that the affordable bio-digesters are addressing an important need in society. The project has demonstrated proof


Left: One of the recipient farmers checks on the biogas digester.


that promoting the use of bio-gas from affordable bio-digesters is a sustainable option for clean household energy that offers several benefits that include: Clean and healthy household environments and hence eliminating the potential of respiratory tract infections amongst household members; environmental conservation by the reduction of deforestation due to the reduction and potential elimination of the usage of solid fuels as a source of energy; and improved household food and nutritional security as well as economic benefits due to the use of the digested bio-slurry in improving crop production.

If the project is embraced across Kenya, we could see a sharp reduction in deforestation and CO2 emission.

Fewer people will be exposed to indoor air pollution, and the use of bio-slurry will improve crop yields and substitute chemical fertilizers with proper original substrate, digester type and anaerobic process.

Case study: Karai Secondary School

Karai Secondary, a boys and girls school is one of the five institutional beneficiaries of the affordable bio-digesters project. The school is home to 341 students who spend nine months a year there. Earlier, they used to buy firewood and charcoal, which are primarily used for cooking.

Being a public institution with great influence in the community, Africa Harvest decided to set up a demonstration bio-digester at the school to create

Karai Secondary school students work on their vegetable garden, which uses manure from the bio-digesters.

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wider access for the public to learn of the benefits of this technology. “The bio-gas plant has reduced our dependence on firewood greatly, we only have three cows and already, we are thinking of expanding. The high quality fertilizer from the bio-slurry is now our only source of manure”, says one of the teachers. Students studying agriculture as an elective subject also took part in putting up the pilot plant and were taught how to maintain the bio-digesters.

Case study: Mr Evans and Mrs Ann Wanjiki Njenga

As a couple, 2013 has been the most challenging year we have experienced. I am a self-employed farmer and also make a living offering commuter services using a motor bike, more commonly known as boda

boda in my local community. Our children are grown up and each has their own family. It’s only me and my wife at home.

My wife manages the home and looks after the three cows we own. One of her greatest challenges has always been cooking. The traditional kitchen is located in an outside room and consists of the traditional three-stoned stove, fuelled by firewood and sometimes charcoal. It takes a long time to get a fire started and when lit, it produces a lot of smoke, causing my wife to consistently sneeze and cough while cooking. She used to take various medications for chest-related complications, and I would often find her in tears with a running nose owing to smoke inhalation.


The Njengas discuss their vegetable garden.


My wife broke her leg early in the year, completely incapacitating her and leaving all the household duties and responsibilities to me. Before she got injured, she would do all the household chores on her own.

To prepare meals, she would have to source the fuel wood from the market. The other available option is charcoal, but this is more expensive. Charcoal is purchased at the cost of Ksh 200 per 20 liter tin (0.71 cubic feet) at the nearest market. Firewood is either scavenged from the forest or one can buy a bundle of wood that lasts two days at the cost of Ksh 200.

We used to spend about Ksh 600 a week on fuel for cooking. My wife used to spend about two or three hours to light the fire and cook. I took over her

responsibilities, which included cleaning the house, tending to the animals, buying water when it ran out, and buying all our food, especially vegetables from the market. I was a very frustrated husband when I took over all these duties. To help ease the burden, a friend helped me purchase a water tank to harvest water.

It was also a dream come true when Africa Harvest, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health through the Department of Public Health, held sensitization workshops in the area, focusing on the impact of indoor air pollution. They highlighted what causes air pollution, especially the production of smoke while cooking using traditional sources of energy such as charcoal and firewood. They also highlighted the health implications of cooking in smoky kitchens.

Mrs Njenga using smoke-free bio-gas powered stove.

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I had witnessed my wife’s respiratory challenges and also started getting affected when I took over her duties. I was therefore excited when Africa Harvest said they were looking for farmers in the area who owned and zero-grazed at least one cow, and were willing to install a bio-digester for improved health. I did not have a problem with the condition that I open my home, so that others in the community could learn from the demo.

My wife and I have learned about the difference be-tween using clean renewable energy, and “traditional” forms of energy. As a couple, we learned that the bio-gas produced from the bio-digester could be con-nected to a stove and used to cook at a much quicker pace than the traditional jiko. We also use the bio-slurry as fertilizer for our kitchen garden, which had never been cultivated owing to poor soil conditions.

The installation was quick. It was completed in one day. We were then shown how to use it and within five days, the bio-digester was producing gas. The bio-digester requires us to mix the raw dung from our three cows in a drum with some water. The mixture must be stirred well. This is then poured into the inlet. Through fermentation of the raw dung, bio-gas is produced. After some time, the bio-slurry begins pouring out of the outlet end of the bio-digester. Through pipes that have been connected from the bio-digester to the kitchen, bio-gas flows into the kitchen stove. Our life has changed greatly!

Since my wife’s leg healed, she has returned to her duties. She used to wake up at 4.00 a.m. to milk the cows and afterwards, light the fire and begin preparing breakfast. Now, she wakes up at 5.00 a.m., milks the cows, and breakfast is ready by 6.00 a.m. She no longer wheezes and sneezes through the cooking process. In fact, she just enters the kitchen,

sits comfortably on her plastic chair and lights the gas stove and cooks all meals comfortably. Cooking is now fast and easy.

Certain staple foods and traditional dishes such as maize and beans used to take three hours to cook on the traditional stove. Now, using the new bio-gas powered stove, the food is ready in one hour or less. Even a task like warming tea has now been made simple, and takes less than five minutes.

The benefits of bio-gas have also been extended to better environmental conservation in our homestead. We used to chop down trees for firewood but we no longer do so. In fact, we have planted trees and look forward to seeing them grow, which was never possible when we relied on them for firewood. We no longer have to go to the forest to scavenge for wood, or go to the market to buy wood or charcoal for cooking. So in addition to saving the environment, we have saved a lot of money.

We used to sell milk to get money to buy fuel for cooking, dried foods, and fresh vegetables from the market. However since the bio-digester was installed, we have also stopped buying most of our cooking vegetables. Africa Harvest showed us how to use the bio-slurry to improve the soil fertility. We have planted vegetables such as carrots, spinach, maize and onions for the first time in our kitchen garden ensuring our household food security. From the money we have saved, we have purchased more water tanks, and no longer worry about having enough water to cater for household needs, even in times of drought.

The biggest beneficiary however, has been our health. We used to spend a lot of time cooking in the kitchen, and walking to the market. If my wife bought firewood from the market, she would have



to carry it home on her back. In fact, the amount of wood she could buy was dictated by how much she could carry home in one trip. The same goes for water. When she had to buy water, she would carry it home, putting a great strain on her body. We feel we have been physically liberated from carrying goods a long distance.

Impact of sand dams on the women of Mulala and Wote in Makueni County

The project was funded by the Italian Government through the Italian Development Cooperation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development

(IFAD), in 2010 with the goal of poverty reduction, increasing incomes and improving nutrition through sustainable development and ecosystem.

A baseline survey was conducted and looked at the following components: water (conservation, harvesting and management), dryland cereals and legumes, soil fertility and natural resource management, short-cycle livestock and horticultural crops. Some of the challenges identified in the survey were poor natural resource management, soil erosion and infertility, food insecurity, and a high school drop-out rate.

Kamunyi sand dam in Wote.

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One of the components to the project was water management and construction of water structures in the target areas. Water is very scarce for both domestic use and for livestock. This need was identified during the project design phase and confirmed through baseline findings.

Sand dams were identified as the choice technology to address this need, by the community during consultative meetings organized by the project team to incorporate community views in the implementation. Sand dams contribute in recharging the water table in an area as compared to boring holes which leads to lowering of the water table- through extraction.

How the water dam changed the life of Alice Kakui, wife and mother of sixI have been living in Mulala, Makueni County since 1983, when I got married. The move to my marital home was quite the culture shock for me. Having originated from the Rift Valley where climatic conditions make farming easy, I was surprised that my new home area was very dry. Rainfall was inconsistent and hunger was common in many households. My husband is in the army and was posted to the Rift Valley, leaving me and the children alone in Mulala. At one point, my family urged me to leave the area and return to them, but I was determined to stay with my husband and make the most of my new home.

Water is life and no home can run without it. So I used to wake up at 5am in the morning to fetch some for my family. I would take six to eight 20 liter jerry cans with me and walk for an hour in the darkness to the nearest water source, which is a public well. I’m not sure how far the well was in kilometers, but it was a two hour walk to and from, not counting the time taken to fetch the water. Unlike a river which has fresh flowing water, a well’s water is stagnant, so the best thing to do is to scoop the top layer of water off and throw it away so that the fresh water can rise up. However, I didn’t have the time for that as I had children waiting for me at home. In addition, many of us in the community depended on that well and we could not afford to waste any water.

Owing to the competition for water and the high demand, I could not fill all my jerry cans at one go as someone would steal the full ones as I filled the empty ones. So I would have to fill one, and carry it a long distance to hide it in the bush, then go back and fill the second, until they were all full. I had to carry all that water on my back. This meant I could not carry all the jerry cans at once. I would have to carry one or two home from the hiding place and return for the rest, one by one. It was tiring work.

There were also many risks involved in fetching water from the well. Meeting with wild animals on the path was the most common risk, in addition to being chased by rabid dogs. If these dogs managed to chase you



down, all you could do is scream for help and hope that someone nearby will hear you. It being dark before the sun comes up, they would rely on your screams to trace your location.

In addition, some men with ill intentions used to sleep or chew khat (miraa) by the well. When you got there to fetch water, you could not be sure of their intentions and many of us women would hide, watch and listen to establish whether it was safe to approach. Unfortunately, some women were also bitten by snakes as they hid in the bush, and the consequences of a snake bite can be very severe in this harsh environment. Losing a limb or the ability to walk can be a death sentence in this harsh land. I would often hear stories of women who were raped as they went to fetch water. I know a few who conceived following these attacks and have had to raise the children as their own.

Elderly women in this area used to advise us to carry hand woven baskets (kiondo) on our heads or around our necks. These baskets were the only defence we had from hyena attacks. When the hyena attacked, it aimed to bite your neck and snap off your head, but it would latch its teeth in the basket instead and run off with it, sparing your life.

Fortunately, with time and an increase in human population in this area, the incidences of human-wildlife conflict have decreased as wild animals have been pushed back. Competition among us for the limited water resource didn’t make life any easier. One could get to the well only to find that one or two women woke up before you and were already there, fetching water. This would mean that you would have to wait for them to finish before getting your turn. Sometimes, the water in the well would run out before your turn in line came up. Other times, you would only get back home from the well at noon, meaning the children would miss school and no one at home would have eaten all morning. It also meant that my responsibilities as the woman of the house such as cleaning, washing clothes, and tilling the land would not have been attended to.

The water fetching cycle would repeat itself every two to three days and if you gave some to the livestock, it would run out even sooner. Often, after fetching water, one would have to take the animals to the nearest river to get a drink. By the time you returned home, it was time to prepare dinner as the children would have returned from school.

The only relief from having to fetch water from the well came with the rains. When it rained, we could put basins outside or dig trenches to trap the run-off. However, this water would often be dirty and had very limited use.

Then one day, Africa Harvest staff and a team from IFAD came and addressed the community. They told us that they would build a sand dam in the area following a request from some of our community members. We were exceptionally skeptical. We did not believe that they would be able to succeed as others had come before them and made similar promises, to no avail. It took some convincing but eventually, fellow community members they had been working with on other aspects of the project, convinced us of their sincerity and we gave them our support. With the community’s help, a sand dam was constructed and the impact of the completed dams was immediate.

It now takes 30 minutes for me to fetch water and return home. This means that I now have the time to run my home the way I feel it should be run. My children never miss school and I don’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn to get water. The Africa Harvest staff consulted us throughout the entire process of building

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the dam, so it was built in such a way that animals can also drink from it since the dam is fitted with an uptake well and a pump. Now it takes only 20 minutes to get livestock a drink of water.

The time saved in my tasks, including getting water to the animals, has allowed me to start a small business. I now go to Emali town, buy vegetables and sell them to my neighbors back home, and still have enough time to cater to my responsibilities. My fellow women also say they have been liberated by the dam. They can now finish their chores early and use their time farming or doing whatever other activity they feel will benefit their family.

A mother’s pride is her home and her children, and before the dam, it was hard to keep the children and home clean owing to the scarcity of water. Children used to go to school dirty and smelling, and the teachers could not even complain because they knew of the challenges we faced. However, the dam has empowered us to keep very clean homes and children. My husband also leaves the house looking smart and that gives me a lot of pride.

My only request to Africa Harvest is to continue with the good work they are doing and scale it up. We women carry such a burden in the name of fetching water, and being liberated from that time consuming endeavor brings me great joy. Our community is expanding and others in this county, which suffers from inconsistent rainfall, could really benefit from the project. I am looking forward to joining one of the groups formed in my area so I can benefit from the other aspects of the project that were implemented in this area such as keeping chicken and farming sorghum.


Alice Kakui giving her testimony during a community consultation meeting with the project donor.


Agricultural Markets and Policy Program

35Agricultural Markets and Policy Program

Left: Sorghum ready for market at Kibaigwa in Dodoma, Tanzania, UNDP AFIM Sorghum for Regional Trade Project.

Unlocking value for farmers by improving competitiveness of banana value-chain in Kisii and Nyamira Counties

Project funder: USAID-KHCP

Africa Harvest has worked with over 100,000 smallholder households that grow bananas in different parts of Kenya in a bid to improve productivity. This has been done through improving farmers’ access to clean planting materials, building their capacity in banana orchard establishment and management, besides building the necessary linkages to markets and input suppliers. These farmers have planted over 1 million TC bananas over the last eight years.

In April 2011, Africa Harvest partnered with USAID-KHCP in Kisii and Nyamira Counties, in a project that is improving the competitiveness of the banana value-chain. The role of Africa Harvest is to build the capacity of at least 9,000 smallholder farmers to increase banana productivity from the current 15 tons/ ha to about 25 tons/ ha. This will be done through training in orchard establishment and management, linking the farmers to sources of TC bananas, and helping them to aggregate their produce to attract serious traders.

Construction of collection centers to shield farmers from elements of weather helps achieve the goal of aggregation. As part of developing a sustainable community infrastructure, Africa Harvest also works with owners of hardening nurseries to meet the growing need of TC banana materials. This is supported by “soft skills” that include training farmers to negotiate with traders. Farmers and

traders have also been trained to trade by weight instead of by quantity; the latter is inaccurate and fails to unlock full value for farmers.

Africa Harvest engaged with stakeholders in the banana value-chain in the two counties. These stakeholders were identified through the help of the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension officers. Awareness meetings were held at the sub-county level. It is at this point that champion farmers, hardening nursery owners and farmer groups interested in farming bananas commercially were identified. The meetings were interactive, and as Africa Harvest presented the project goals and objectives, the stakeholders were able to articulate the challenges that face the banana value-chain.

The methodology of implementation was to call up the group leaders, entrepreneurs and lead farmers, and set up initial meetings with them. From these initial meetings, regular training meetings were set up. The groups meet at least once every month. Other training targets specific stakeholders such as nursery entrepreneurs. The training follows the crop cycle while the implementation is along the whole-value-chain.

The main challenges affecting the banana value-chain in this region include limited access to clean planting materials, poor agronomic practices, disorganized marketing, and high prevalence of pests and diseases in the orchards. Africa Harvest is responding to these challenges by training and mentoring nursery entrepreneurs and farmers; the support is in the form of technical training and infrastructure. The project identifies the area of most need among the entrepreneurs, and provides the necessary support.


Tissue culture banana nursery business helps country entrepreneurs turn their lives around When Hezbon Siocha started working as a casual laborer at the Agricultural Training Center in Kisii, he casually told his boss that he had experience in managing seedling nurseries. He was immediately tasked with taking care of the institution’s fruit and tree nursery among other duties.

Around that time, Hezbon belonged to a 15 member youth group known as the Irianye Youth Self Help Group. They had come together in 2006 with the intention of setting up a fruit nursery; but they were in the process of disintegrating because they did not have the resources to power their vision. Hezbon had decided to carry on the vision as an individual. He and his wife decided to put together the little money they had, and set up a nursery. They leased some land near the road and used an old mosquito net as their first shade net. When some thieves stole everything at the nursery, they decided to move the nursery to the family homestead.

An Africa Harvest team was told about Hezbon, and went to visit him in early 2013. Although he had an unkempt nursery, he used to harden and sell about 5,000 TC banana seedlings during the rainy season. In addition to bananas, he also sold grafted avocado seedlings. His source of water was a shallow well at the foot of the nursery. Hezbon indicated that although he was selling a total of 10,000 seedlings per year, he was not making sustainable profit. However, he felt the business had potential and could benefit from Africa Harvest’s work with key entrepreneurs in the banana value-chain in Kisii and Nyamira Counties.

Africa Harvest helped Hezbon expand his nursery and provided him with a new shade net. He is now able to produce 10,000 TC banana seedlings. He also benefited from a 1,000 liter storage tank, hose pipe, wheel burrow, a watering can, and 5,000 potting sleeves. Between the short rains of October 2013 and April 2014, Hezbon sold a total of 17,500 TC banana seedlings, valued at Ksh 1.75 million. His profit in those seven months was Ksh 210,000. Most of the seedlings have been bought by farmer groups, individual farmers, and large corporations like the County Governments of Kisii and Nyamira Counties.

Hezbon is happy with the progress of the business and is planning to increase his seedling production to about 40,000 every rainy season. On a personal front, he is able to educate his children and plans to build a permanent house for his family. The greatest challenge for his business is the inconsistent supply of seedlings by the propagators. “I can easily leave my employment to do this business full time if there would be assurance of consistent supply of seedlings by the propagators”, he says.

Mr Hezbon Siocha displays his TC banana plantlets.

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Banana collection and marketing center – Moitunya in Nyamira County

Limited or non-existent marketing linkages are often cited by farmers as the greatest challenge to farming commercially. It is no different in Kisii and Nyamira Counties. Disorganized marketing was the most cited challenge by the stakeholders when Africa Harvest conducted a reconnaissance study at the beginning of the project in January 2013.

Identifying gaps and strengthening market linkages in the banana value-chain is therefore one of the three key objectives of the project in Kisii and Nyamira Counties. Part of the intervention involves training farmers to aggregate the green banana produce in order to attract serious buyers. Farmers are trained to negotiate for better prices, especially when they are able to supply large quantities. Where possible, Africa Harvest is helping project beneficiaries construct aggregation centers; these are facilities with a small office and which can hold over 5 tons of bananas.

One such center is the Moitunya Banana Collection and Marketing Center. It draws farmers from the three neighboring villages, all within a radius of 6 kms. It is located strategically along a major highway. Initially, the farmers came together to support each other through a “merry-go-round” savings scheme. The 119 members used to sell their bananas along the roads or at farm-gates. The group, now known as KEMAMA, sought

different ways of bringing farmers together to help negotiate better prices with traders.

Since the establishment of the collection center, the group has been making a monthly turnover of between Ksh 150,000 and Ksh 200,000, earning them approximately Ksh 1 million from the sale of nearly 30 tons of green bananas. They primarily sell their bananas to traders in Kisumu and Nairobi.

Besides the collection center, the group has benefited from technical training. For sustainability purposes, leaders have been selected and trained, so that they can help in future capacity building as the project expands. As part of capacity building, selected members also traveled to Murang’a and Kirinyaga in November 2013 for an exchange workshop. The aim of the visit was to expand the Kisii farmers’ vision by seeing how farmers from these two regions – through support from Africa Harvest – have succeeded in making banana an important cash crop.

The banana collection center at Moitunya in Nyamira.



Increasing sorghum productivity to improve food security and income generation

Project funder: UNDP, AFIM catalytic fund

Implementation of the two-year marketing and Regional Trade targeting project in Sorghum commenced in September, 2012, and was designed to improve household food security and the income generation of 2,000 rural, smallholder farmers in Kenya and Tanzania.

In Kenya, the target beneficiaries were drawn from Tharaka and Makueni Counties, while in Tanzania, the Serengeti, Dodoma, and Manyara regions were the project focus-areas. Farmers were identified and selected from the larger pool of beneficiaries mobilized through the EU /IFAD funded Sorghum for Multiple Use (SMU) project, which was implemented by Africa Harvest in partnership with the ICRISAT, in the two countries.

Two approaches guiding project implementation were the whole-value-chain approach, and inclusive market development. The aggregator model was selected to enhance access to end-user markets. The main activities of the project included conducting a baseline study and analysis of findings to inform project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, characterizing demand for sorghum among potential commercial off-takers, awareness creation and sensitization, enhancing access to quality planting materials, training beneficiaries to improve production and productivity, linking smallholder farmers to markets for surplus grain through the aggregator model, facilitating regional trade, and monitoring project activities.

By definition, an aggregator model is an electronic-commerce business model where a firm that does not produce or warehouse any item, collects or aggregates information on goods and/ or services from several competing sources on its website. Since 2009, Africa Harvest has adapted various iterations of this model in the production and marketing of sorghum among smallholder farmer groups in the ASALs of both Kenya and Tanzania. The adaptation spans the expanse of direct intervention by Africa Harvest in service provision to the current iteration, where an entrepreneurial sorghum farmer/ trader is identified and supported to provide both downstream (input services to farmers), and upstream (linkage to market) services, on a commercial basis.

The project’s goal was to sustainably address household food and nutritional insecurity, incomes, natural resource management, and the overall development agenda by empowering smallholder farmers who are organized into development and commercially-focused smallholder production and marketing groups (SHPMs). Using a market-pull strategy, Africa Harvest worked with the SHPMs to align downstream value-chain activities to specific end-market demand parameters (variety, quality, quantity, timeliness, and consistency).

The process starts with the identification of a ready market where demand outstrips supply, with the household as a critical first stop. Experience has shown that risk-adverse smallholder farmers will first produce that which satisfies their needs at the household level before producing for the markets.

The ASAL areas mentioned above are all remote rural areas, lacking in good infrastructure (road and communication networks), having limited options for livelihood support, and generally neglected in

39

development initiatives. Nonetheless, these areas have huge tracts of idle and virgin land that are good for agriculture and get sufficient rains to sustain

drought tolerant crops like sorghum and cowpea. Communities living in these areas have limited options for commercial crop production. Given the over-reliance on rain fed agriculture, the opportunity exists to intensify production of cereals like sorghum with the right tools, technology, skills, and knowledge.

These rural areas are home to 70% of the entire population in Africa and will continue to play a critical role in feeding rising populations in the future. However, due to the high cost of transactions involved – transportation, time, and wear and tear – the dispersed pattern of habitation and dilapidated road network in these rural areas does not make a compelling business case for the traditional business person. The changing weather patterns, especially the incidence of drought have also rendered these areas more disenfranchised, given the dearth of risk mitigation tools, limited knowledge, and skills to enhance adaptation and coping mechanisms.

Following repeated adaptation by Africa Harvest in the course of implementing various development projects, the aggregator model was identified as a good option in addressing the gulf between end-user markets (excess demand)

and smallholder farmers (lacking in capacity and motivation to produce for commercial markets).


Sorghum stored in readiness for transportation to the market in Kibaigwa, Dodoma, Tanzania (above), and a project beneficiary in Tharaka, Kenya, with a motorbike purchased from the sale of grain through the project linkages.


End-user markets require commercial quantities of raw materials at reasonable input prices, while farmers need access to inputs (improved seeds), information, capacity building, and aggregation of low produce quantities into commercially feasible units as well as land preparation, harvesting, and threshing facilities.

The aggregator model therefore brings efficiency to the value-chain, especially in remote locations, by providing access to inputs required to increase production and productivity. It also facilitates access to markets through business development. The model provides a central point through which financial intermediation, targeting smallholder farmers as well as other value-chain role players, can be connected with minimal cost related to infrastructure development.

In addition, the aggregator model requires an ecosystem of sub-aggregators or traders scattered around the remote villages that provide sub-aggregation services (buying of marketable produce) for a fee. This helps make the entire system inclusive and sustainable. The sub-aggregators create local employment as they need labor to pack and load the produce onto trucks. They are also part of an efficient system through which farmers in remote villages can access seeds and other inputs. In view of all this, the

Mature sorghum crop (above); and mechanical threshing and cleaning of sorghum in readiness for the market.

aggregator model should be strengthened to ensure the provision of all services required by smallholder farmers.

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The brief summary of achievements of the AFIM-UNDP project

Key achievements include: enhanced awareness among smallholder farmers, of availability of regional markets for sorghum grain (15,000 farmers sensi-tized); identified and enhanced access to improved seeds for 2500 smallholder farmers in both Kenya and Tanzania; enhanced capacity of these farmers to increase production and productivity of sor-ghum from 450 kgs/acre to over 1000 kgs/acre (on average); increase in the quantity of sorghum grain reaching commercial markets by 129% (from 2,388 MT to 5469 MT) in Kenya and Tanzania; and enhanced capacity of aggregators to provide ser-vices to farmers through direct facilitation and linkage with financial service providers. The total volume of sorghum grain delivered to East African Malting limited by the 5 aggregators working with the project was 5469 Mt. This grain has a market

value of Ksh 180,477,000 or uS$ 2,123,258. The total amount made by smallholder farmers was US$ 1,544,188 (72.7% of the market value of the grain traded).

The increase by 3,081 MT of sorghum grain reaching markets during phase I of project implementation, which is valued at US$ 1,196,153, is a good indicator of the value adds ensuing from AFIM’s intervention in the sorghum value-chain. This represents a 697% return on the catalytic funds invested within a period of 12 months.

Challenges that were encountered during project implementation included limited access to quality certified sorghum seeds, especially in Kenya. In addition, unreliable rainfall patterns limited productivity, while limited financing to promote commercial sorghum enterprises and a small pool of commercial off-takers of quality sorghum continue to remain challenges.



Strengthening smallholder farmers’ participation in the sorghum value-chain in Tanzania and Kenya

Agricultural product value-chains exist to generate economic as well as social value for all stakeholders involved. However, the capacity of smallholder farmers to sustainably derive as much value as possible is hampered by the limited organizational capacity of farmer groups, limited business skills and inability to leverage their collective ability to engage and influence markets. Enhancing the capacity of smallholder farmers to fully exploit opportunities in product value-chains is critical.

This can be achieved through capacity strengthening, development of requisite skills and enhancing the ability to operate as development units. This has a direct impact on food and nutrition security, income generation and overall economic development.

Africa Harvest – in partnership with the International Institute of tropical Agriculture (IItA) – implemented a 16-month project (July 2013 to December 2014) funded by the IFAD. The two country project targeted over 100 farmers in Tanzania and Kenya, and the focus was on organizational strengthening and enterprise development.

Target beneficiaries were drawn from Rombo, Moshi and Mwanga areas in Tanzania as well as Embu, Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties in Kenya. All beneficiaries belonged to groups formed during the implementation of two projects previously funded by IFAD. These were the Agricultural Marketing Systems Development Program (AMSDP) implemented between 2003 and 2009 in Tanzania and the Mount Kenya East Pilot Project on Natural Resources

Management (MKEPP) implemented in Kenya between 2004 and 2013.

Apart from strengthening enterprise development capacity of smallholder farmers for long term sustainability, the goal of the 16-month project was to draw lessons and experiences that would be used to scale up IFAD investments nationally and regionally. The objective of the project was to scale up the application of tested and proven social science research outputs developed by IITA in the target smallholder farming systems to consolidate gains made during implementation of AMSDP and MKEPP projects.

Africa Harvest was tasked with the responsibility of carrying out the implementation through training and capacity building, linking beneficiaries to markets through partnerships with the private sector, improving their capacity to operate as sustainable marketing groups, as well as sustain the enterprise development. Among the outputs were capacity strengthening of farmer organizations, reduced transaction costs, and an effective and efficient Market Information System (MIS).

At the start of the project, a rapid appraisal confirmed that weak farmer groups fail to exploit their full potential, and limit the success and impact of well intended development programs. The appraisal also indicated that the choice of crops or value-chains is still heavily influenced by the need to satisfy household food requirements as the primary objective. It also pointed to the critical need to improve skills and knowledge among smallholder farmers, on sustainable approaches to engaging with commercial value-chains to improve production, productivity and return on investment.

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Participants at the validation workshop help in Moshi, Tanzania.

Participants at the validation workshop help in Meru, Kenya.



Communication for Development and Knowledge Management Program

45Communication for Development and Knowledge Management Program

The Communication Program decided to expand its program to include Knowledge Management after the realization that the organization was generating huge amounts of knowledge and data, and needed proper housing and management. The program was redesigned to better capture, distribute, and effectively utilize this knowledge, data, and information generated.

During the period under review, the program intensified the process of collecting information from different projects and sharing this internally and externally through meetings, workshops, conferences, websites, and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. The program activities are organized around the following themes: 1. Diverse stakeholder engagement strategy 2. Technology acceptance for deployment 3. Innovative use of ICT 4. Community engagement 5. Publications and use of multimedia tools to reach diverse audiences6. Documentation and knowledge management

During the period under review, various projects were implemented, among them were:• The Africa Biotech Outreach Project funded by CLI and implemented in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and

Kenya • Internal communications: Regular online newsletters, the Africa Harvest 10-year Strategic Plan and the

Africa Harvest Annual Report • External communication to support various Africa Harvest projects including, the ABS in Kenya and

Nigeria, and through training material and brochures for the SMU value-chain in Kenya and Tanzania

Africa Harvest, Environment and Agricultural Institute, Open Forum on Biotechnology, and Faso Coton explore improved biotech reporting with Burkina Faso radio journalists

Africa Harvest and the Environment and Agricultural Institute (IneRA) partnered with other biotech organizations – Faso Coton and the Open Forum on

Biotechnology (OFAB) – and senior radio journalists from 12 stations in Burkina Faso to explore strategies for better biotech reporting.

The meeting deliberated on practical ways of improving the quality and quantity of biotech reporting by Burkina radio stations. Discussions were based on taking action, using recommendations from a previous study that identified key challenges related to biotech coverage by radio.

Burkina Faso has over 85 licensed radio stations serving 14 million people. Although all stations had

Left: Dr Silas Obukosia makes a presentation during the 2th Kenyan Biosafety Conference hosted by NBA.


agricultural programs, content rarely focused on biotechnology. Biotechnology was only covered when print and TV media reported on anti-GM activism in the country or elsewhere in the world.

As part of CLI’s outreach program, Africa Harvest’s focus is to address the issue of low levels of knowledge about biotechnology among radio producers in Burkina Faso. Africa Harvest’s first line of intervention is to address the knowledge gap. Simultaneously, efforts are focused on ensuring suitable radio content in farmer-preferred local languages.

Strategic biosafety issues management towards the commercialization of genetically modified organisms in Kenya

During the year under review, Africa Harvest held several strategic meetings with Kenya’s NBA. The meetings centered on communication and issues management and there was consensus on the need for a coordinated structure for the Kenyan technology developers and regulatory agencies.

To meet those needs, an inter-institutional platform will be set up to enable regulators and biotech stakeholders to discuss strategic matters, as well as respond to emerging issues. The NBA will develop a multi-institution, multi-stakeholder strategy with procedures to follow, in the event that an issue related to biotech emerges.

There is consensus on the need to improve public awareness and harmonize information. To succeed, technologies depend on the willingness of a wide range of stakeholders: Funders/ donors, institutional authorities, civil society, intended beneficiaries/ customers, and affected interest groups. Kenyan regulators and technology developers need to position

biotechnology to all these groups. To build confidence and trust in the safety of biotechnology, stakeholders agreed on the need to track, communicate, assure and resolve the issues before they go out of control.

Africa Harvest and biotech partners engage government on impact of ban on genetically modified organisms on pathway to commercialization

During the year under review, the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) ordered Public Health Officials to remove all GM foods on the market, and to enforce a ban on GM imports, fears that were fuelled by a widely discredited anti-GM study.

While the ban only addressed food imports, its effects extended to every aspect of biotechnology. The KARI, a government institute that spearheads agricultural research and innovations indicated that donor funding and investment in agriculture were likely to decline. The ban also affected the planned commercialization of Bt cotton due to uncertainty about the future.

A study on public acceptance of GM foods by the University of Nairobi (UoN), and another by the NBA over the same period (2010-2013) indicated a widespread acceptance of GM foods in Kenya (71% UoN; 73% NBA), indicating a level of confidence in the government’s ability to regulate and to conduct risk assessments.

Africa Harvest social media strategy takes root

The Africa Harvest communication team intensified the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs to engage mass audiences in transforming the face of agriculture.

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Building media capacity in Ghana: Africa Harvest Director of Communication, Daniel Kamanga and the Biosafety and Regulatory Director, Dr Silas Obukosia made a courtesy call on the Ghana Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Sylvester Aneman. Top, L to R: Mr Kamanga, Mrs Linda Agyei of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), the Minister, Mrs Audrey Dekalu of GJA and Dr Obukosia. The two were part of a team involved in training Ghanaian journalists on biotech reporting. Mr Kamanga, a former journalist (below) thanked the GJA for partnering with Africa Harvest to empower journalists.



Although older farmers in the rural areas do not use the Internet, the youth (especially in Kenya) are embracing agriculture. A combination of SMS and social media is therefore ideal in building relationships and interacting with farmers, journalists and organizations involved in agriculture. For example, during the implementation of the Affordable Bio-digesters for Improved Health Project, Africa Harvest received numerous online and SMS requests for advice from farmers.

Africa Harvest has continued using social media reporting and our audience has been expanding in the last few years. Now more people are better informed and involved in policy and strategic discussions that are impacting their life. At the beginning of the year our goal was to increase followers on all social media. On both Twitter and Facebook our “followers” and “likes” almost doubled while our messages reached over 800,000 “new” users who do not follow us. Responses from youth under 30 on policies, access to planting material, and enquiries on good agronomic practices and tips has also increased tremendously.

Africa Harvest’s experience in knowledge management and experience sharing is now helping us to design stronger social media strategies, procedures, and plans to boost our global communication outreach and also to structure better communications activities at all levels with our regional, national and local audiences.

Our social media accounts can be found at: www.twitter.com/AHBFI www.facebook.com/AfricaHarvestIntl www.facebook.com/AHBFI. www.youtube.com/user/AfricaHarvest www.flickr.com/photos/africaharvest

Africa Harvest 2012 Annual Report online distribution, new website and @ahbfi Twitter account

Case study: Online distribution of Annual Report

A decision was made to reduce printed copies by at least 50%, and intensify online distribution of the 2012 Annual Report. This was based on the growing interest for the PDF version available on our website over the last few years. The strategy was to tap new audiences globally; the tool of choice was Twitter, using the @ahbfi handle.

The Twitter account already had about 300 users and all that was needed was a way to monitor and measure the interaction on the information we tweet about. We set up a Tweetdeck account to monitor the activity and interaction in the tweets that are sent out.

Aware that most users online are now on mobile devices and cannot access digital magazines or PDF files, we converted the Annual Report to a form that could be accessed on such devices. We converted the annual report to HTML format www.ar2012.africaharvest.org. This allowed us to refer to specific topics in the six different programs of the Annual Report to engage different audiences with very different interests. The website was published and on the same day we started sending out tweets about the Annual Report.

In the following weeks we saw an increase in new people and organizations showing interest in the work Africa Harvest is involved in. To date, nearly 1,000 people who had never visited the Africa Harvest website visited the Annual Report pages over 2,000 times. The Annual Report has received over 1,500 unique page visits, lasting an average of

49

between 30 seconds – 30 minutes which means that people are taking time to read the content. Social media has allowed us to reach audiences that we wouldn’t normally reach using our print versions.

Today the @ahbfi Twitter account has over 1,450 users and the community interested in Africa Harvest affairs continues to grow. The followers on Twitter are very interactive; we get retweets and comments on the content we are posting on a daily basis.

Of the six Africa Harvest programs, the Food, Nutritional Security, and Sustainable Livelihoods

Program received the most visits and drew the most attention on Twitter. Followers interested in food security increased exponentially; this group has “favorited”, reweeted and mentioned Africa Harvest in the discussions, which has increased followership on the Africa Harvest Twitter account.

During the year under review, we sent between three and five newsletters monthly, covering various topics. Over 43 newsletters have been sent to the various regional databases of individuals and stakeholders of Africa Harvest.



Africa Harvest facilitated the formation of the Kenya University Biotech Forum (KUBF); Dr Silas Obukosia (right) with representatives from public and private universities.

Consultative Meeting – CEO's of Regulatory Agencies for Enhanced Coordination on Biosafety Kenya 18 June 2013.

Communication activities 2013

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Africa Harvest hosted a commutative meeting of CEOs of regulatory agencies in Kenya. The goal is to enhance better coordination and alignment.

Africa Harvest communication Director Mr Daniel Kamanga (left) makes a presentation at the CropLife Plant Biotech Strategy Council (PBSC) meeting, and Africa Harvest Communication Officer Ms Rosalind Wambui at the World Food Price (WFD) in Des Moines, USA, with a friend. She was part of the African media practitioners at the event.



Finance, Administration and New Business DevelopmentProgram

53Finance, Administration and New Business Development

Maintaining the confidence of development partners and stakeholders in a difficult economic environment

Africa Harvest has committed itself to implementing development programs that positively impact rural communities by increasing food productivity, incomes and nutrition levels. This requires continuous improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of our programs. The Board has continued to provide leadership in program focus, structuring, identifying synergies and unlocking greater value for target beneficiaries. With regard to financial management, emphasis on five core areas has helped maintain and strengthen the confidence of our partners:

Performance-focused financial management system

The effective management and control of finances is at the heart of the success of our programs. The design and firm implementation of a good financial management system is therefore critical not only for continued donors’ support but also for long-term sustainability of our programs. An efficient and effective system of public resources management is also increasingly being seen as an element of international competitiveness and comparative attractiveness as an institution to investment in.

Strengthening reporting and accountability

Accountability starts with a transparent budgetary process. Africa Harvest ensures that all budgets – accompanying proposals to potential funders – have sufficient detail to allow for an effective monitoring and evaluation process. Project staff members are involved in the budget design as well as in the

implementation and monitoring of expenditure. The Board has a Finance Committee that provides detailed financial inputs to the management. Apart from internal project audits and regular (often quarterly) reports to donors, at the end of the year, an institution-wide audit is undertaken by Deloitte & Touche. An Annual Report and Accounts is published as part of the compliance requirements in Kenya, South Africa, and the USA. This report is also made available to stakeholders and the general public.

Establishment of an effective financial control environment

The Africa Harvest Management Team headed by the CEO and a team of Program Directors is responsible for establishing the systems that will ensure compliance with policies, plans, procedures, and applicable laws and regulations. The “control environment” depends significantly on the attention and direction provided by the CEO, Directors and Senior Managers. The Finance Director is responsible for the effective design and operation of internal accounting controls in the organization to ensure: (i) the safeguarding of money and property against loss; (ii) avoidance of or detecting accounting errors, and (iii) avoiding unfavorable audit reports. To achieve confidence, there is need for reasonable assurance that the management control system is operating effectively. This is enforced and monitored through regular random internal checks to ensure that all the required controls are carried out and remain effective.

Equipping program, finance, and accounting staff with skills to perform their roles

Under the leadership of the Finance Director, the staff members involved in finance and accounting are trained to be responsive to the needs of the different


donors. Africa Harvest ensures that all program, finance and accounting staff are aware of their responsibilities as specified in the project proposals, as well as the institution’s Finance Policy Manual. Strict adherence is enforced and regular internal capacity building is undertaken to meet Africa Harvest and donor requirements.

Monitoring and evaluation

Africa Harvest has adopted an integrated approach in which the budget is linked to delivery of specific outcomes that the Foundation is seeking to achieve in every project that it implements. Every Program Director commits to project monitoring and evaluation to enable the Foundation to gauge progress against objectives and targets agreed with funders. Performance indicators are set out and this is followed by systematic monitoring, which includes regular field data collection and regular management reports. All Directors furnish the CEO with regular reports on project progress against agreed performance indicators and measures. The scope and frequency of evaluations depends primarily on an assessment of risks and the effectiveness of ongoing monitoring procedures.

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Biographies of Board of Directors

Dr Moctar toure is a Senegalese national and serves as the Chair of the Board. He is a soil scientist who turned into an institutional development expert from experience. He obtained his Diplomed’IngenieurAgronome from the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Agronomie de Rennes (France) in 1970 and his Doctorate from the University of Rennes (France) in 1973. He spent the first 15

years working for the Senegalese NARS, where he rose to the position of Director General of the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA). He served for 4 years as the National Director for all Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Research in the Ministry of Sciences and Technology. He then moved to the World Bank and for about 18 years, served in various capacities including Executive Secretary for the Special Program for African Agricultural Research (SPAAR). Two years prior to retirement, he moved to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to lead the Land Degradation Team. Currently, he is a member of many advisory committees and is involved in consulting tasks.

Mr Joseph Gilbert Kibe is the Chairman of the Kenya Horticulture Develop-ment Authority. In the past, he has served as a civil servant in Kenya and as Permanent Sec-retary in various government ministries. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Makerere University College of the Uni-versity of London. He has rich

experience in policy formulation and implementation,

HR management and budgeting and accounting for financial and physical resources. He is currently involved in agricultural developments as an investor, with particular interest in international horticultural trade. His special interest in financial investment and corporate governance has led to his current involve-ment as Director in over 10 private sector companies and not-for-profit foundations and trusts.

Dr Florence Muringi Wambugu is the founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer of Africa Harvest Biotech since 2002. She is a plant pathologist with specialization in virology and genetic engineering. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Bath in England, and has had post-doctoral research

experience at Monsanto, USA. For over 30 years, she has dedicated her life to agricultural research, where she made significant contributions to the improvement of sorghum, maize, pyrethrum, banana and sweet potato. Previously, she worked as the Africa Regional Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) AfriCenter in Nairobi, and as a Research Scientist at KARI. She has published over 100 articles and co-authored various papers. She is also the author and publisher of Modifying Africa. In 2005, she led an international consortium that was awarded US$ 21 million under the global competitive grant by the BMGF. She is a recipient of several awards and honors, including the Norwegian YARA Prize in 2008. She is currently a Board Member in several international agencies.

Finance, Administration and New Business Development


professor Shabd S Acharya is the Chair of the Program Committee of the Board. He is Honorary Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur (India). He is Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing; Chairman of the Editorial Board of Agricultural Economics Research Review; Chairman of the Consortium Advisory Committee for India’s

National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP); Project on Risk Assessment and Insurance Products for Agriculture; and Chancellor’s Nominee on the Board of Selection of the Rajasthan Agricultural University. He serves as a consultant to numerous international organizations. Prof Acharya has numerous distinctions. He has written extensively on agricultural economics, agricultural marketing, prices, agricultural development and policy analysis. His publications include 17 books, 44 chapters in other books, 409 research papers/articles, and 73 research monographs/reports.

Ms prudence ndlovu is the Chair of the Nomina-tions and Governance Committee of the Board. As Managing Direc-tor of Eagle People Organizational Development (EPOD) Global (Pty) Ltd., Ms Ndlovu has spent the last six years at the helm of this entre-preneurial venture, offering human capital solutions. She has over 15

years’ experience as a Human Resources specialist in large corporations, advising on full function human resource strategy and management. She holds a postgraduate degree in Business Studies, specializing in HR management and a training management quali-fication. Her corporate experience spans blue chip

companies including J Sainsbury’s Plc, Pick ‘n Pay, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms Ndlovu is the Vice Chairperson of Gauteng of the Business Women’s Association of South Africa, providing enterprise development support and capacity building programs for women entrepreneurs.

professor Dr Matin Qaim is Professor of International Food Economics and Rural Development at the University of Goettingen, Germany. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Development Economics from the University of Bonn and has held academic positions at the Universities of Hohenheim (Stuttgart), Kiel,

and Berkeley (California). He has extensive research experience related to poverty, food security, and productivity growth in the small farm sector. He has implemented and coordinated research projects in various countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America, including on the socioeconomic impacts of agricultural biotechnology and GM crops. Dr Qaim has published widely in scientific journals and books, and has been awarded academic prizes.

Dr Blessed okole is the Chair of the Audit Committee of the Board. He is the Senior General Manager for Infrastructure and Planning in the Technology Innovation Agency, South Africa. He holds a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He was the CEO of LIFElab, the Biotechnology Innovation

Center in Durban, and has 18 years’ international experience in the Research and Development sector

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of the biotechnology industry. Prior to joining LIFElab, he held the position of Business Development Manager and Strategic Partnership Manager for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Biosciences unit. He was also the interim Director for the NEPAD Southern African Network for Biosciences (SANBio) and the Technology Manager, Plant Biotechnology at AECI, a specialty product and services Group of companies. He has several peer-reviewed publications and holds three patents.

Dr Arthur J Carty is the Executive Director of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, at the University of Waterloo. From 2004 to 2008, he served as Canada’s first National Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada. He was President of the National Research Council (NRC)

of Canada for 10 years (1994–2004). Dr Carty has a PhD in inorganic chemistry from the University of Nottingham. Before joining the NRC in 1994, he spent two years at the Memorial University and 27 years at the University of Waterloo as Professor of Chemistry, Chair of the Chemistry Department and Dean of Research. Dr Carty’s research interests are in organometallic chemistry and new materials. He has 311 publications in peer reviewed journals and five patents to his credit. He is a former President of the Canadian Society for Chemistry, a fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has 14 honorary degrees and has received Canada’s highest civilian award as an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) and been honoured by France as Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. He has served on many Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards.

Dr Grace Malindi, recently retired as the Director of Agricultural Extension Services at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Malawi after 38 years in public service. She held various positions, including that of Training Officer, Gender-based Participatory Development Specialist, Deputy Director for

Extension Services and Director of Extension Services. Dr Malindi holds a Ph.D. in Human Resources and Community Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and has extensive experience in agricultural extension, gender mainstreaming, farmer training and participatory rural community development. She played a pivotal role in revolutionizing Malawian agriculture from a food deficit nation to a vibrant food surplus nation. Dr Malindi is a member of the Association for International Agricultural Extension Education (AFAAS), Association of Women in International Development (AWID) and the American and Canadian Home Economics Association. Dr Grace has received numerous awards and served on various advisory boards in Malawi.

Finance, Administration and New Business Development


Africa Harvest senior management with members of the Board and below, Africa Harvest Staff in Nairobi head office.


Expenditure allocation in 2013The expenditure in 2013 has been grouped into three areas: 1) Program services 86%, 2) General and administrative expenses 9%, and 3) Sub-grant to partners 5%

Africa Harvest 2013 – List of DonorsAfrica Harvest received financial support from ten funders and several individuals. The resources were mainlyrestricted donations from the following funders:1. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)2. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)3. CropLife International (CLI)4. United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/ Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center FINTRAC – Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project (KHCP)5. Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF)6. DuPont Pioneer7. Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)8. United Nations Development Program (UNDP)9. Grand Challenge Canada (GCC)10. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)11. Individual donors

Summary of financial performance


Income and expense indicators2013 2012US$ US$

Donations 1814901 2064369Other income 3,274 83,491

1,818,175 2,147,860

ExpenditureSub-grant payment to partners 84,855 81,514 Program development expenses 733,864 905,595 Communication expenses 32,425 43,297 Program operations expenses 722,227 966,114 Consultancy 127,788 181,603 Board expenses 42,975 46,496 Fundraising expenses - 60,000 Depreciation 29,831 37,167 Amortization 1,539 1,755

1,775,504 2,323,541

Net foreign exchange gains / (losses) 25,942 4,921 Finance costs (1) (4)

Surplus/ (deficit) for the year 68,612 (170,764)

Other comprehensive income - -

Total comprehensive income (deficit) 68,612 (170,764)


Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International

Annual Financial Report for the year ended December 31, 2013

Balance sheet2013 2012

Assets US$ US$Non-current assetsVehicles and equipment 129,852 167,221Intangible assets 7,498 9,037

137,350 176,258Current assetsGrants receivables 417,803 -Receivable 48,048 163,379Cash and bank balances 65,542 247,152

531,393 410,531

Total assets 668,743 586,789

Funds and liabilitiesAccumulated funds and reservesAccumulated funds 269,418 200,806Foreign exchange translation reserve - -

269,418 200,806

Current liabilitiesUnexpended grants 243,000 242,596Payables 156,325 143,387

399,325 385,983

Total funds and liabilities 668,743 586,789


Acronyms and abbreviations

ABS Africa Biofortified Sorghum

AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

AFIM Africa Facility for Inclusive Markets

AH Africa Harvest

AHBFI Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International

AMSDP Agricultural Marketing Systems Development Program

ASAL Arid and Semi Arid Lands

AusAid Australian Agency for International Development

CFT Confined Field Trial

CLI CropLife International

CHF Cooperative Housing Foundation

DRC Democratic Republic of Congo

EAML East African Maltings Limited

EU European Union

FINTRAC Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center

GCC Grand Challenge Canada

GJA Ghana Journalist Association

GM Genetically Modified

IAR Institute of Agricultural Research of Nigeria

ICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics

IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

IITA International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

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INERA Environment and Agricultural Institute

KARI Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

KEPHIS Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service

KHCP Kenya Horticulture Competitiveness Project

MDG Millennium Development Goal

MIS Market Information System

MKEPP Mount Kenya East Pilot Project

MOPH Ministry of Public Health

NABDA National Biotechnology Development Agency of Nigeria

NBA National Biosafety Authority

NGO Non-Governmental Organization

OFAB Open Forum on Biotechnology

PMI Phosphomannose Isomerase

SADC Southern African Development Corporation

SHPM Smallholder Production and Marketing Groups

SMU Sorghum for Multiple Use

SP Strategic Plan

SSA Sub-Saharan Africa

TC Tissue Culture

UNDP United Nations Development Program

UoN University of Nairobi

USAID United States Agency for International Development

Acronyms and abbreviations

Sorghum threshing using a locally made thresher in Imenti North District. Sorghum for Multiple Use (SMU) is a partnership project, between Africa Harvest and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), and is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the funding source is the European Union (EU)..

Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI)

P.O. Box 642 Village Market 00621Nairobi, KenyaTel: 254-20-444-1113/5/6Fax: 254-20-444-1121

1025 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 1012Washington, DC 20036Tel: 1-202-828-1215Fax: 1-202-857-9799

Scotia Plaza40 King Street West, Suite 3100Toronto, ON, Canada M5H 3Y2Tel: +1 416-865-6600 Fax: +1 416-865-6636

PO Box 3655Pinegowrie 2123Gauteng, South AfricaTel: + 27 11 079 4189

www.africaharvest.org

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