CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems country leaders (Zambia, Bangladesh and Solomon Islands) recap the rollout stage of the program and outline the next steps. Watch and listen to the presentation here http://bit.ly/SaS7D4

1. Food for Thought!
Voices from the Hubs
June
2012
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2. About AAS!
• We work to improve the lives of people the Green Revolution failed to reach.
• We do this by reducing poverty and hunger in rural families who farm, fish and rear
livestock in the world’s large rivers, deltas and coastal systems.
• We think with people, not for people
With communities, changing lives
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4. AAS – a Dragon!
• Pioneering
• Intelligence
• Wise
• Passionate
• Flexible
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5. Update!
• 2012 roll out in Zambia, B’Desh and SI
• 2013 roll out in Cambodia and Philippines
• Living our values – team effort
• Intensive learning while doing
• Great progress
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6. Activity Sequence!
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7. Zambia!
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8. AAS Roll Out in Zambia!
q Key Activities
o Programming and Planning
o Hub Scoping
o Inception of Diagnosis and
Design Process
o Dialogue and
Communication
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9. Barites Hub Roll Out !
PROGRAMMING AND PLANNING!
§ Hub office space!
§ Hub staffing!
§ Hub Research Manager!
§ Community Development
Facilitator!
§ Office support staff!
§ Hire of M & E officer; and
Communication/Information/
Knowledge management officer –
in progress!
§ Procurement of equipment!
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10. AAS Roll Out in Zambia!
Hub Scoping -Working in Partnership
q Analysis of AAS
programme in national
PPS
BRE
PACO
setting
ZFA
CO - WP
q Hub Development
Challenge
q Stakeholder
Consultation Workshop
UNZA
Media
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11. AAS Roll Out in Zambia!
Hub Scoping - Observations
q Poverty rates of over 83%
– female-headed households [70% of 205
households]
q Main Livelihood strategy
– mixed livelihood strategy
q Very poor infrastructure [roads] –
limited access to services & markets
q Absence of a formal land use planning
in place
q Scattered and temporary nature of
settlements and production points
[Transhumance system]
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12. AAS Roll Out in Zambia!
Hub Scoping - Observations
Low Economic Productivity
q Floodplain is a dynamic system characterised by high
variability and vulnerability
• short and variable seasons
• Flooding and drought [prompting
transhumance & crop looses]
q Poor and sandy soils in both the floodplain and uplands
q Very weak supply chains for agricultural inputs
and improved technologies
– lack of good, consistent and well-adapted seed [e.g. rice]
q Declining cattle population and quality
– Animals disease and shortage of pasture
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13. AAS Roll Out in Zambia!
Stakeholder Consultation Workshop!
Par$cipa$on
45
Par$cipants
Farmers
&
Fishers
Private
Sector
Government
Civil
society
[NGOs]
Research
TradiHonal
Authority
Par$cipa$on
by
Gender
27%
female
73%
male
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14. Solomon Islands !
!
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15. The Hub!
Eastern
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16. Two overarching challenges!
Within AAS in Malaita a number of
challenges have been identified and a
number of opportunities. Two challenges
that operate over long time periods and will
require long term investment to resolve are
1. High population pressure
2. Declining marine resources and collapse of
cash earning commodities (e.g. bêche-de-
mer)
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17. Malaita Province AAS Development Challenge!
• The people of Malaita face major challenges from rising population and diminishing
marine resources.
• The development challenge is to improve their lives through more productive, diversified
livelihoods that empower communities to be better able to adapt to change and make
more effective use of their resources.
• The research challenge we will address with the people of Malaita is to develop and test
alternative approaches to livelihood diversification and resource stewardship that will
accelerate development and restore the productivity of their resources”.
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18. Partnerships!
Core partnerships well on the
road to establishment
ADVRC [The World Vegetable
Center]
KGA [local agricultural NGO]
World Vision Core partnerships being built
MFMR, MAL, Bioversity, IWMI
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19. Learning for the next hub!
STAFFING
• Clarity on necessary roles
PROVINICAL GOVERNMENT
• Strong role to play
• Opportunity
ARTICULATING THE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE
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20. Bangladesh
partnership Ÿ excellence Ÿ growth"

21. (Pairing of AAS with existing CGIAR priorities)
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22. How to integrate other WFC projects?
AAS
AAS
(Getting everyone to think about the future rather than today is not easy!)
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23. The Challenges are Many
Social and Economic
• Women’s constraints for increased equitable engagement
• Income verses nutrition versus biodiversity
• Future farmers: who are they and what do they need?
• Agriculture systems that are not responsive to impact group
• Control by and for elites
Physical
• Weather (flooding and droughts)
• Drainage
• Sea levels
• Salinity
(The number of challenges really
complicates our way forward.)
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24. Excitement!!
The challenges are many but so are the opportunities
Salinity
Markets
Landscape engineering options
Water-logging
Women and children
Private sector input / market systems
Large number of actors
Off-farm labor opportunities
A focus on farmer research capacity
(More convinced than ever of AAS being a game-changer.)
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25. Questions
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