Presented by Kindu Mekonnen, Peter Thorne, Melkamu Bezabih and Aberra Adie at the ESAP (Ethiopian Society Animal Production) Annual Conference, EIAR, Addis Ababa, 29-31 August 2019

1. Africa RISING In The Ethiopian
Highlands: An Overview
Kindu Mekonnen, Peter Thorne, Melkamu Bezabih and Aberra
Adie
27 Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production (ESAP)
EIAR, Addis Ababa, 29–31 August 2019

2. Discussion points
1. What is Africa RISING?
2. Where we operate?
3. What we do?
4. How we do it?
5. Where are we now?
6. What are the Key lessons/messages?

3.  One Program - four Projects.
o Mixed Cereal-Legume-Livestock systems in West
Africa
o Mixed Cereal-Legume-Livestock systems in
East/Southern Africa
o Crop-Livestock systems in the Ethiopian
Highlands
o M&E and data management
 >100 partner institutions; >250 professionals.
 Funded by USAID BFS through the FtF initiatives.
 Duration: 2012- Sept 2016 (Phase I) and Oct 2016-2021
(Phase II).
Africa RISING- Africa Research In Sustainable
Intensification for the Next Generation
What is Africa RISING?

4. Where We Operate?

5. Operation in Ethiopian Highlands-
Phase I

6. Operation in Ethiopian Highlands-
Phase II

7. What We Do?
 Conduct multi-disciplinary action research for
development.
 Focus on Sustainable Intensification (SI) of
mixed farming systems to contribute to:
o climate smart development- food security
o gender equitable development
o improved nutrition
o income diversification
o research and capacity building
 Looking at integrated intensification of the
mixed crop-livestock systems.

8. How We Do It?
 Multiple tools and methods (> 10)
applied to understand systems and
key issues.
 Integrated and systems oriented
thematic areas (7) formed based
on priority issues.
 Crop-livestock-NRM interventions
(17) developed to address priority
issues.
 Elective engagement of
participating farmers to validate
interventions.
 Development partnership created
to facilitate scaling of validated
technologies.
 Multi-stakeholder
platforms used at
different levels to
enhance cross
learning and
improve planning
and evaluation.
 Human and
institutional
capacity building.

9. Where are we now?
 Doing action research to look for solutions for emerging
SI related issues and increase the number of
technological options.
 Facilitate scaling to fulfil the project targets (0.7 million
direct beneficiaries).
 Validating Sustainable Intensification Assessment
Framework (SIAF), which is expected to holistically
assess the performance of a technology within and
across domains and scales.
o SIAF provides a set of metrics and indicators organized
into five domains (productivity, economic, environment,
human condition and social) considered as critical for
sustainability.
o The SIAF applies visualization techniques such as radar
charts to compare performance of technologies or
interventions.

10. Examples of SI Indicators by Domain and Scale
Field/Animal Herd Scale
Farm/Household Scale
Landscape+
SCALE
3) ENVIRONMENTAL
• Plant biodiversity
• Nutrient balance
• Soil physical properties
2) ECONOMIC
• Profitability
• Market
participation
• Variability of
profitability
1) PRODUCTIVITY
• Crop productivity
• Fodder production
• Yield variability
• Yield gap
4) HUMAN
• Nutrition
• Food Security
• Food Safety
5) SOCIAL
• Equity (gender &
marginalized groups)
• Level of collective
action
• Conflicts over
resources

11. What are the Key Lessons/Messages
1. AR project has had the opportunity to move along
the whole continuum from problem identification-
action oriented adaptive research- scaling
partnerships. This opportunity allowed some time to
see outcomes and impacts on the ground.
2. Intensification is stepwise - Farmers prefer to test
one or two SI technologies at a time to assess
workability and the benefits that they derive from
them. They may then seek to integrate further
technologies for higher levels of SI.
3. Integration and assessment of SI technologies at
scale require skill, time and commitment of different
actors.
4. Partnership is key to achieve SI initiatives, build
local capacities and benefit smallholder farmers.

12. Irrigated/rain-fed oat-vetch mixture in Sinana Africa RISING
site, Oromia, Ethiopia.
Africa RISING Livestock Feed, Feeding and Feed
Conservation Interventions: Examples

13. Faba bean/ forage intercropping- Lemo-SNNPR, Ethiopia.

14. Feed and food crop (Sweet lupin)- Lemo, SNNPR,

15. Alfalfa as part of Africa RISING feed and forage R4D
intervention in Simret Kebele, Endamehoni, Tigray, Ethiopia.

16. Fodder beet as part of Africa RISING feed and forage
R4D intervention in Sinana, Oromia, Ethiopia.

17. Performance of Brachiaria grass at Lemo Africa RISING site,

18. Desho grass marketing in Africa RISING operational
areas in Wolita, SNNPR.

19. Fodder and fertilizer trees/shrubs- Tree Lucerne in Lemo
Africa RISING site, SNNPR, Ethiopia.

20. Farmers’ feeding systems
in Africa RISING sites in
Tanzania
Feed trough in Cambodia,
Asia
Post-harvest feed
management and
utilization- Improved feed
trough in Africa RISING
sites- Basona, Amhara,

21. CGIAR Partners:

22. Wachemo University Mekelle University Madda Walabu University Debre Birhan University Hawassa University
Amhara Region Agricultural Research
Institute (ARARI)
South Agricultural Research
Institute (SARI)
Tigray Agricultural Research
Institute (TARI)
Oromia Agricultural Research
Institute (OARI)
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural
Research (EIAR)
Fuji integrated Farm
Hundie
REST-GRAD Sunarma SOS Sahel Ethiopia
Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation
Agency (ATA)
Offices of Agriculture: Endamekoni (Tigray) Basona Worena (Amhara) Lemo (SNNRP) Sinana (Oromia)
Innovation laboratories: SIIL ILSSI PHIL LSIL
Africa RISINGLocalPartners(Phase1)-Examples

23. Africa RISING Scaling Development Partners in the Different
Sites/Regions (Phase II)- Examples

24. Africa RISING communication tools
 Website: http://africa-rising.net/
 Documents and out puts :
http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/16498
 Presentation : http://www.slideshare.net/africa-
rising
 Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/africa-
rising/sets
 Wiki space: http://africa-
rising.wikispaces.com/events

25. Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation
africa-rising.net
This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.