The PRUNSAR-Supplement project
Executive summary of the project
The PRUNSAR-Supplement project aimed to complement and increased impact of the tools developed and information collected under the initial PRUNSAR project lead by AfricaRice: Sustainable and diversified rice-based farming systems; specifically, the decision support tools and good agricultural practices (GAPs) and the diversification options that have been promoted. This supplementary component helped farmers that benefited from the original EU grant in Senegal to better access markets and increase their income, it focussed on better definition of farmer needs and market demands by implementing a web-based knowledge platform and related ICTs that facilitated exchange of information across the different actors of the rice value chain, and it helped to improve access to, and the growing of, seed of, more profitable, new rice cultivars by small holder farmers. Key initiatives included better assessment of seed demand; availability of improved germplasm; farmer needs identification and better alignment of breeding objectives. More importantly a clear demand led breeding strategy was developed to facilitate the delivery of better-quality seed to Small Holder Farmers (SHF). In the longer term, successful outcomes from this project will help influence seed policy at the country level and possibly at a regional level.
The project has engaged directly with at 150 reference farmers in Senegal to finalise onfarm trials, who each included two partner/neighbouring farmers to monitor the trials to reach about 450 reference farmers in total. These farmers have benefitted from the outputs of the original grant and have showed leadership, through participatory activities, in better articulating farmer needs for new rice cultivars. These needs are evolving due to changing demand and a changing/variable production environment. Thus evaluation (and electronic documentation) of new cultivars – under a range of agro-ecological conditions – is a necessary pre-requisite for profitability and sustainability.
Goal and objectives
The overall objective of the project was to sustainably intensify rice-based farming systems while minimizing their environmental footprint and adapting them to climate change. The additional funds provided built on the successful initiatives from the initial funding for enhanced outcomes and impact. It improved the tools developed and information collected under the Sustainable and Diversified Rice-based Farming Systems project; specifically, the decision support tools and E-Chain Platform; the community engagement model for the development and dissemination of new crop varieties; and it helped to document key information from the multi-crop farmer participatory evaluations.
The project was articulated around 3 components:
- Component 1: Operationalization of decision support tools through the development, population, and dissemination of E-Chain. The platform used smart phone Apps and web platforms to collect, manage and exchange information and knowledge along the rice value chain, from plant breeders to farmers to consumers.
- Component 2: Undertake participatory activities to evaluate the demand and disseminate the knowledge for new cultivars while digitizing key segments of the seed value chain in E-Chain including seed availability and traceability to ensure quality control, thereby creating a favorable environment for job creation.
- Component 3: Best-practice project coordination, monitoring and evaluation, and communication established.