Recently, a joint program of development partners titled ‘BRAINS’ was launched. ‘BRAINS’ project targets to integrate bean, fruit trees and beneficial insects farming and business enterprises in Africa. According to a press statement sent to The Ethiopian Herald, the ‘BRAINS’ initiative is an innovative, climate-resilient and smart farming initiative that aims to improve the productivity and value chain of beans and fruit trees.
According to the press statement, the BRAINS would benefit five million small holder farmers, 2.5 million consumers, value chain actors and entrepreneurs in Africa. “BRAINS’ is a new climate-smart, women and youth favorable initiative that will integrate bean, fruit trees and beneficial insects farming and business enterprises in Africa,” the statement added.
The initiative, according to the press release, is funded by the Government of Canada. The Government of Canada has announced a CAD $20 million grant to the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance); and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), to develop low carbon, climate resilient systems, that are favorable to women and the youth, using bean, fruit trees and beneficial insects farming and business enterprises in the African continent.
According to the press statement the support is part of a CAD $78 million development funding by the Government of Canada, announced by Canada’s Minister of International Development, during a visit to Ethiopia and Egypt in May 2023.
Accordingly, the new initiative titled, ‘Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean and Insect Sectors (BRAINS)’, will be implemented across 15 sub-Saharan African countries. The initiative is projected directly to benefit five million smallholder farmers, 2.5 million consumers and school-age children, and a range of value chain actors, according to the source. Indirectly, BRAINS will profit 50 million consumers, businesses and households, the statement added.
“The ‘BRAINS’ initiative is an example of the power of partnerships. It will harness the extensive experience, innovations, networks, efficiencies of scale and broad geographical reach, of The Alliance, through the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA); and icipe, into a system-based approach. This strategy will promote value chains and markets that are gender-transformative and resilient to climate change,” Abdou Tenkouano, icipe Director General said.
For his part, Director General of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Juan Lucas Restrepo said that integrated bean, fruit tree and edible insect economies present a great opportunity for transformative change in Africa. The crops are effective vehicles to accelerate inclusive climate adaptation outcomes at scale. It can improve diets, food and nutrition security, and livelihoods for millions of consumers, he added.
The bean, fruit trees and edible insects’ innovations
Developed and facilitated by The Alliance, PABRA focuses on increasing production and strengthened the value chain of common beans in 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The crop is central to food and nutrition security and income generation in these countries. Through interventions like the ‘Improved Bean Productivity and Marketing in Africa’, the new project focuses on research innovations. The research innovations includes, breeding climate resilient farmer and consumer preferred bean varieties, efficient seed systems for timely delivery of these varieties, post-harvest and agronomic approaches and soil enrichment and nitrogen fixation strategies.
The innovations also encompass pre-cooked beans and more nutritious bean products that contribute to energy savings in rural areas and to school feeding programmes, according to the source. Through the Bean Corridor approach, PABRA intensifies bean production, expands marketing and consumption by eliminating bottlenecks in the bean value chain. By pivoting profitable and inclusive markets, it aims for smallholder farmers and small and medium enterprises. The contribution ensures that improved beans and nutrient-rich bean products are accessed by even the most marginalized communities, the press release revealed.
For more than 50 years, icipe has developed integrated pest managements (IPM) options for many devastating pests and diseases of fruit, vegetable, legumes and cereals. The continent-wide initiatives that has developed and disseminated a highly effective, systems-approach, nature-based IPM package for fruit flies brings transformative changes. The icipe IPM package consists of pre- and post-harvest methods that meet the requirements of domestic and export markets. Thus, it contributes to income generation, employment creation, food and nutritional security, and reduction in the overuse and misuse of pesticides.
The program also focuses in using edible insects to transform the current food system into a more sustainable and vibrant, climate-smart, circular economy. Edible insects farming are environmentally friendly”…insects have a low ecological footprint, and they emit smaller amounts of greenhouse gases, compared to other animals,” the press releases stated. Moreover, insects such as black soldier flies are effective recyclers of organic wastes into nutritious, chitin-rich organic frass fertilizers that enhance soil health.
The icipe has designed improved, low-tech options for mass-rearing of edible insects and supported the development of harmonized standards and policies for safe, equitable use and trade in edible insect. Through massive awareness raising and training efforts, the Centre has contributed to the emergence of small and medium-scale, insect-based enterprises. The icipe-developed edible insects value chain cuts across the food system including farming, waste management and inputs, while also interacting with other key systems like energy, trade and the health of people, animals and the environment, according to the statement.
Through BRAINS, the Alliance and icipe aims to collaborate with national agricultural research institutes, through a South-South participatory development approach, to integrate bean, fruit trees systems and insects for food and feed farming. The systems will be complemented with components of climate-smart push-pull technology, which intercrops legumes and fodder grass to control cereal pests. Similarly, it will be complemented with the modern, climate-smart and sustainable beekeeping technologies, it added.
Sunday Ekesi (PhD), Head of icipe’s Capacity Building and Integrated Sciences said that “The BRAINS partnership will co-develop demand-led, climate-adapted bean varieties and fruit trees.” Primarily, according to him, “mango and avocado supported by environmentally-friendly pest and disease management options, organic soil fertility enhancement, through insect-based frass bio-fertilizers; and enhanced pollination services by the bees.” Moreover, he said, beans enhance nitrogen fixation and soil enrichment.
Similarly, Ekesi said, fruit trees and beekeeping-friendly trees are perennial and drought-tolerant, thus helping to protect landscapes, restore soil function and fertility, and helping in carbon sequestration.
Meanwhile, Jean Claude Rubyogo, Bean Programme Leader and Director of PABRA, Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, for his part stated that “The Alliance-PABRA and icipe will leverage each other’s capacities and partnerships to elevate value chains of target commodities.”
According to the statement, the transfer of the technologies will emphasize the participation of women and in the project design and decision-making. Similarly, digitally enabled agronomic advisory services that are farmer-relevant, accurate and gender-responsive systems will be developed and applied. The value chain innovations created by initiative will lead to new trade partnerships and new markets and boost cooperatives and an investment platform for beans, fruits, edible insects and pollination services; and collaborations with finance investors and funds for financially inclusive and gender-responsive investments.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2024
