ICRISAT strat. Drylands & the economics of the little

MANILA - In Zimbabwe, I learn that the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT is telling a family that 9 kg/ha of nitrogen applied to corn is most profitable (icrisat.org). In the Philippines, I learn that the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OPAPA, is recommending for corn as much as 425 kg/ha (about 9 bags) (openacademy.ph). Both are impossible! Isn’t 9 kg a little too little, and 9 kg times 47 a little too much?

Juxtaposed like that, with those numbers we are forced to make a paradigm shift along with country-hopping, not to mention climate change. ICRISAT is talking to poor farmers and OPAPA is talking to rich farmers, or those who can afford to raise at least PhP 10,000 (about $220) for fertilizer alone for 1 corn cropping. ICRISAT must be talking of micro-dosing, using a bottle cap to measure out the fertilizer; OPAPA must be talking of macro-dosing, using unending fistfuls of fertilizer. The ICRISAT technology is tried and tested and new; the OPAPA technology is tried and tested and old.

What’s a poor guy to do?

Me, if I were to raise corn I’ll follow the farmers in Babati in Tanzania than Mindanao, the Land of Corn Promise, in the Philippines.

With the cheaper Babati corn, I get much learning in what I shall refer to here as the economics of the little. The explanation for the miniscule nitrogen requirement for Babati corn is pigeon pea; corn is either intercropped with the legume or rotated with it; naturally, the legume enriches the soil with nitrogen, so the farmer needs to add just a little bit more nitrogen to the soil. The pigeon pea is an improved variety from ICRISAT. With the bottle cap and legume as symbols, ICRISAT tells me, in effect, that the African Green Revolution is underway.

Really. In the ICRISAT Governing Board’s historic “Arusha Declaration” crafted last week in a meeting in that city in Tanzania, the G Board declares:

In seven short years, the lives of many smallholder farmers in the Babati District of Tanzania have prospered beyond imagination.

Photo shows Rose Fratern Muriang of Babati. 10 years ago, her pigeon pea was ravaged by wilt and all she got was firewood. With wilt-resistant pigeon pea from ICRISAT, she is now one of the leading farmers in Babati, and is constructing a new house. Her pigeon pea had been selling for $1 per 1 kg of grain.

This phenomenal economics has been initiated by ICRISAT-improved pigeon pea varieties. I’m sure that is why the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR, has been moved to say, “If we were to name only one legume that assures food security in the semi-arid tropics, it would be pigeonpea” (cgiar.org). Actually, there is more to pigeon pea than just food security, as ICRISAT has demonstrated in Tanzania.

African farmers love the ICRISAT-improved pigeon pea for many reasons:

it is tolerant to drought;

it is resistant to wilt;

it is a short-duration crop;

it cooks fast and has the taste and aroma favored locally;

it feeds the family with nutritious food, as it is rich in protein;

it is a cash cow;

it feeds the cattle as well.

And the Chinese love the ICRISAT pigeon peas because they help stabilize farm soils in hilly areas, including roadsides; they don’t need much inputs; the tender pods make good substitutes for vegetables as cash crops; the tender branches provide fodder for livestock; and the woody stems when mature provide firewood (icrisat.org). This could be the start of something big in huge China.

The 1st part of the African Green Revolution initiated by ICRISAT is the supply of science-generated varieties of pigeon pea that are resistant to the stresses of drought, warm weather, pests and diseases. Director General of ICRISAT William Dar says that 60% of the farmers in Babati are now planting ICRISAT-improved varieties of pigeon pea, and that this crop alone contributes more than 50% of the cash income. Dar also says:

Realizing the huge demand for improved seeds, local agro-dealers contract-trained farmers to grow high-quality seeds with support of the extension system. The produce is marketed through producer marketing groups (PMGs) that allow smallholders to benefit from collective action.

When ICRISAT and the Selian Agricultural Research Institute began collaborating in the mid-1990s, the Babati and Karatu districts in Tanzania were “pretty impoverished” - dirt poor. Their high-yielding Babati White pigeon pea had been devastated by the unforgiving Fusarium fungus that causes plants to wilt and die. With ICRISAT-improved pigeon pea varieties, farmers’ incomes have since risen 80% and, what’s more the districts have benefited - that is shown by the fact that they are now electrified, and the roads are paved. “And everywhere,” Dar says, “there are signs of prosperity driven by agricultural commerce.” I believe it.

Did the Tanzanians eat pigeon pea before? Dar says, “Twelve years ago, the idea of consuming the crop was somewhat preposterous.” But with the introduction of good-tasting pigeon pea varieties such as the Mali (meaning wealth in Swahili), this legume has become an important part of the diet of the people. Mali has large seeds; the pea is cream-colored; it cooks fast and has “an appetizing aroma,” Dar says. Improved pigeon pea varieties now cover about 25,000 ha, half of the pigeon pea hectarage in the districts of Arumeru, Babati, Karatu and Kondoa.

That is not all. “There are many examples of how ICRISAT with its partners in the public and private sector,” the G Board says, “have vastly improved people’s lives, and how its new strategy will enable them to have much more.”

Dar says, “Tanzania has been one of the countries with which we have had excellent collaboration” on pigeon pea and chickpea. He also mentions and gives thanks for the funding sources for various projects: African Development Bank, DANIDA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Dar tells me the new ICRISAT strat is based on the concept of inclusive market-oriented development, IMOD. The G Board of ICRISAT refers to it thus: “this exciting strategy.” It is exciting; it is also revolutionary. With innovations, IMOD engages the farmers and institutions. The changes sought are not merely with the individual farmer, such as higher productivity for his farm; they are institutional, including hand-holding so that the farmer will soon stand on his own feet and, more importantly, improve his life and that of his family.

I have written about IMOD (for details, see my “An African Revolution. IMOD Power to the Women!” 21 September 2010, American Chronicle). Here, I will just quote a little of me:

In the IMOD context of investments, Dar says 3 sectors are necessary to make it all work for all: (1) the poorest of the poor are included as raisers of crops, (2) donors are sources of access to assets, inputs and technologies, and (3) the government provides support in matters of policy. Connect the farm to the market, and you will motivate the poor to grow more crops - the market becomes the motivation to raise food and cash.

If I may say so, IMOD is grey-to-green revolution via science with human faces.

The concept of farm-to-market road is not enough; that is the Economics of the Big, the Trader. In the ideal IMOD, there is no trader for the farmer; nothing is lost in the transaction between farmer and buyer because there is no middleman or, which is the same, the farmer himself is the middleman. He gets all the value added from his produce. This is the poor farmer commercializing his own crop. And so I like to call IMOD the economics of the little.

IMOD must explain this claim by the G Board of ICRISAT in their Arusha Declaration:

In seven short years, the lives of many smallholder farmers in the Babati District of Tanzania have prospered beyond imagination. ICRISAT’s improved pigeonpea varieties have allowed them to establish a thriving export business to India and invest the profits to replace their houses, buy household appliances and build a new school.

Knowing this Tanzanian breakthrough, will the poor countries of the world have to depend on external aid forever? No, the G Board says, “We will never accept this view!” The poor we shall not always have with us.

Assumptions: “The people must determine their own destiny,” the G Board says; partners in the public and private sectors must actively participate; and IMOD must be their strategy.

IMOD was not part of the Green Revolution that passed us by.

On my part, I can summarize IMOD in 4 Rs:

Reduce the costs - Like: Produce planting materials through seed systems to assure quality, availability, and affordability. Intercrop pigeon pea with corn, and you can reduce your fertilizer cost by 47 times.

Reduce the risks - With disease-resistant varieties, you not only decrease the risk of a crop failure, you also decrease the risk of investment failure - and increase the harvest per hectare.

Run the market - Help the poor farmers form a producers’ marketing group so they can market their farm produce by themselves so that they get the middleman’s share of the value added - because they are the middleman. Additionally, multiply the produce by processing the peas into products.

Raise the incomes - Doing the 3 Rs above results in pigeon pea net returns increasing more than a hundredfold to a hectare, like it’s $366 for improved practice vs $76 for farmer’s practice, so that gives us an actual increase of 482% (icrisat.org).

In development, faith must go hand-in-hand with science; where you do not know, you have to believe, especially when it is absurd. I have faith in the farmers with IMOD in place, and so along with the ICRISAT G Board and by attribution to the pre-Augustine Christian apologist Tertullian, I say about the economics of the little, about the philosophy of the poor hanging on to both faith and reason bringing about the African Green Revolution:

“Credo quia impossibile est.” I believe because it is impossible.