Regional Project: East Africa

KENYA | TANZANIA | UGANDA

A project developing IPM technologies to improve the productivity of horticultural crops and farmer income

Country Profiles

The IPM Innovation Lab has a presence in three countries in East Africa. These fact sheets provide an overview of the work we DSCN6256are doing in each country, including our research challenges and accomplishments.

Kenya
Tanzania
Uganda

Description

The Regional Project for East Africa is advancing IPM by developing IPM technologies and systems that improve the productivity of marketed horticultural crops and incomes for small-scale growers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. A coordinating unit headquartered at Makerere University’s School of Agricultural Sciences, advised by a regional technical committee that includes representatives from each participating country, coordinates research, training, extension, and technology dissemination activities across the region. A consortium of American and East African institutions — The Ohio State University (OSU), Virginia Tech, the Ugandan National Agricultural Research Organization, the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Makerere University, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, and Sokoine University of Agriculture — are implementing the project.

This project, dedicated to ecologically-based IPM research on selected horticultural crops, has three main complementary technical objectives: 1) building a regional model of collaborative IPM research, training, and knowledge dissemination; 2) implementing a participatory and ecologically-based IPM research project focused on developing IPM packages that address priority pest constraints of selected, marketed horticultural crops in the region; and 3) transferring IPM knowledge and packages to stakeholders using innovative approaches and short-term training to facilitate adoption. Key activities include building institutional capacity through advanced degree training and specialized short-term degree training; enhancing linkages with agricultural stakeholders including women; and developing and disseminating IPM packages to growers that address key pests of tomato, onion, coffee, passionfruit, and scotch bonnet peppers.

Collaborations with all four IPM Innovation Lab Global Theme projects are emphasized, as is working with other development partners in the region, including the Ugandan National Agricultural Advisory Service, the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries, and Fisheries, the Tanzanian Coffee Research Institute, KARI’s National Agricultural Research Laboratories, Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultural Technology, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Egerton University, and over 25 different grower associations.DSCN6242

Project achievements and highlights

  • Commitment to capacity-building is evidenced by the 18 students in the region working on their M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees, supported by the project.
  • In Uganda, research on tomato cultivation using IPM packages shows that these techniques are effective in controlling key pests of tomato, reducing pesticide usage, lowering the cost of production, and increasing the yield of tomatoes.
  • Several farmers who graduated from the Kimbowa United Coffee Farmers’ farmer field school in the Sironko district in Uganda started other farm schools.
  • Research in Tanzania showed that using chlorine treatments extended the shelf life of tomatoes.
  • Research in Kenya revealed barriers to women’s participation in IPM. Suggested changes include: scheduling activities when women can attend, and paying attention to duration of training; ensuring that training occurs at a location that women can get to; sensitizing men that training is of value for the women; and paying attention to motivating factors for women in receiving the training. (E.g., if they are not allowed to control cash earnings, they have little incentive to participate.)

Phase IV official project title

Regional IPM Projects in East Africa

Personnel

Principal Investigator

Mark Erbaugh, The Ohio State University

Co-PIs/Collaborators

Uganda: Samuel Kyamanywa, Regional Site Coordinator for East Africa, Makerere University College of Agriculture | Jeninah Karungi, Uganda Site Coordinator, Makerere University

Kenya: Monicah Waiganjo, Kenya Site Coordinator, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI/Thika)

Tanzania: Amon Maerere, Tanzania Site Coordinator, Sokoine University of Agriculture | Fred Magina, Tanzania Coffee Research Institute