The project seeks to accelerate the adoption and dissemination of technically sound and effective technologies to improve the lives of the smallholders and contribute to sustainable livelihoods. This will ensure expansion of the ‘push-pull’ technology in eastern Africa from current 12,000 to more than 40,000 farm families by the end of 2009 as well as supporting continued expansion of the technology in the highly populated lake-zone and strategic introduction in the coastal areas

 

To ensure this expansion, project is using a multifaceted approach in the dissemination of Push-pull through:

Institutional Partners

1. Public Extension - Ministry of Agriculture’s programmes

The Push-pull project has already been working with public extension system but is exploring new opportunities for expanding partnerships with the public sector, especially with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.

The main objectives of collaboration with both ministries are to:

• Demonstrate both conceptual and practical application of Push-pull technology.
• Discuss the respective roles of National Agriculture and Livestock Extension Programme (NALEP), Kenya Agricultural Productivity Project (KAPP) and Ministry of Agriculture District Extension and Research Liaison and Training (DERL&T) DERL&T officers in extending the Push-pull technology among smallholder farmers.
• Discuss possible institutional partnerships among the stakeholders at district level, including Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Community-based organizations (CBOs).
• Assess the current establishment, capacities, coverage and operational status of NALEP, KAPP and District ERL&T Offices with a view of developing push-pull implementation strategies at the District level.

2. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Private-civil society partnerships are any collaborative effort between the private and civil society sectors in which each sector contributes to the planning, resources, and activities needed to accomplish a shared objective. The NGOs have emerged as a sector providing comparative advantages over traditional extension providers, including facilitating sustainable programs, grassroots contacts, and participatory methods.

The partnerships with NGOs provide constructive means of enhancing the production of goods and services including technologies that may not be produced by either sector acting alone. Several NGOs are involved in the scaling up of research outputs through supporting on-farm demonstrations, providing credit to purchase seed and inputs, and offering training. For example, NGOs in Kenya, promoting uptake of these technologies are COSOFAP (Scaling up Options for Increased Farm Productivity - consortium of NGOs in western Kenya), Heifer International, Sustainable Community Oriented Development Programme (SCODP), Millennium Village, CARE, Hagonglo Cereal Bank, Resource Projects Kenya (RPK), VI-Agroforestry Project-Kitale, FORMAT, AATF, and We RATE.

The most preferred way of disseminating the technology is through integration with NGOs activities. Such activities include:
• Livestock fodder production
• Soil and water conservation
• Group development and capacity building - training, seed sourcing and livestock provision, etc.
• Community mobilization and sensitization
• Access to farm inputs and provision of information
• Utilizing special meetings – for example, food security sessions, etc
• Supporting marketing and encouraging a business ethic
• Income generation activities
• Adaptive research for on-farm verification and validation

3. The Private Sector

Private extension service provider is an individual or organisation other than government who is providing single service or integrated services to the farmers. The Push-pull technology revolves largely around desmodium seed. Commercial seed companies are increasingly becoming important players in technology transfer through production and distribution of high quality seed. During the years, 2003-2004 Western Seed Company provided 250 grams of seed to each of the contracted and trained 600 farmers in two pilot districts in Kenya (Bungoma and Trans Nzoia) for planting. The Company guaranteed to purchase the seed produced by the contracted farmers, clean the seed, carry out germination and viability tests, and package the seed for wider sale and distribution. Over three tones of high quality desmodium seed were produced and packaged for sale. Over the period 2006-2009, the Company will produce and sell seed to farmers at a sliding scale of discounted price, moving to full commercial sales by 2010. In 2006, the seed will sell at Ksh 800 per Kg, in 2007 at Ksh 900 per kg and in 2008 at full commercial price of Ksh 1000 per kg. Commercialization of the desmodium is enhancing the spread of the technology to eastern Africa partners.

4. Eastern Africa Regional Partners

National and international organizations that work with farming communities may have different capabilities to promote the Push-pull technology due to differences in terms of funding arrangements, organizational arrangements, etc.

The two main thrusts of the regional partnership arrangements catalyzed are:

(a) Improved partnerships and capacity building among institutions working with farmers to promote new technologies.
(b) Access to information on the operation and application of the Push-pull technology.

The project pursues direct collaborations and partnerships with regional partners in two ways. First, for institutions with the capability to build scientific teams that can promote the Push-pull uptake independently, the project is designing collaborations to build teams with those institutions. Second, for institutions that do not have in-house scientific teams to support the implementation of the Push-pull technology, the project is developing collaborations to train their staff to implement the technology.

In Uganda, the project is working closely with the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), the National Agricultural Advisory Development Services (NAADS), and the NGO INSPIRE (Integrated Soil Productivity Initiative through Research and Education), a consortium of NGOs to facilitate uptake of technologies to farmers in striga prone districts. The following are districts, which have adopted Push-pull technology: Bugiri, Kapchorwa, Pallisa, Busia, Tororo, and Tororo.

5. National and International Universities and Research Institutions

The  Project is also emphasizing research in processes involved in delivery of research technologies to farmers and the impacts the technologies are generating to the end-users. To do so more effectively,  forging partnerships with local as well as international universities and institutions, to examine various aspects of the project. The researches examine such areas as:

• The efficacy of different extension pathways on uptake of the Push-pull technology and agricultural productivity in order to develop optimal push-pull expansion strategies in Eastern Africa.
• Modeling biophysical and socioeconomic factors influencing mode and rates of adoption of Push-pull technology by smallholders.
• Development of performance parameters and decision criteria for the assessment of social, economic and ecological impacts of Push-pull technology.
• Development, assessment and adoption of bioassay protocols for evaluation of the long-term effects of Push-pull on striga and stemborers.
• Napier stunt disease caused by Phytoplasma: Identification of the vector(s), populations’ dynamics and screening for resistant Napier grass varieties.
• Development of Push-pull strategies for the control of Striga and stemborers in sorghum and millets in semi-arid areas of east Africa.
• Exploring the potential impact of incorporating Push-pull into technologies developed by other agencies: Bt-maize and IR-maize.