Large tracts of land in the delta region of Bangladesh are left fallow or are cultivated with low input crops during the dry winter months. Surface water based irrigation opens up new opportunities for sustainable intensification by enabling the production of a high yielding crop. To ensure an optimal use of irrigation pumps, CIMMYT is currently developing an advisory system for irrigation scheduling, which calculates a daily soil water balance and estimates crop water use based on ground cover derived from satellite data. We propose to replace satellite data by RGB photos taken with smartphones as these do not depend on weather conditions and are accessible to famers. We will not only focus on a thorough validation and calibration of the new system, but ensure proper training of potential users, including women and illiterate farmers. This project contributes to a better water management while increasing food production and farmer?s livelihoods.

This project addresses the challenge of scaling climate smart nutrient management among African smallholder farmers by addressing the institutional factors and conditions relating to CSA knowledge service delivery (the CCAFS overall research question). It aims to understand and improve the ‘scaling readiness’ of climate smart, nutrient management decision support tools (DST) in different institutional environments: Ethiopia and Tanzania. ‘Scaling readiness’ is seen as the product of: (a) the fit between the DSTs (and its constituent climate smart nutrient management advices) and their envisaged users who operate at different scales, and; (b) the necessary (institutional) conditions which enable scaling by these different actors (i.e. extension, NGOs, agro-dealers). By working directly with different users operating at different scales, we examine the user logics that can inform the design of better decision support tools and the enabling (institutional) environments, which together shape the effective scaling of climate smart nutrient management advice.

The uptake of quality assured maize seed by smallholder farmers is persistently low, this despite the fact that the seed has a much higher yield potential and is often more drought tolerant than the varieties traditionally grown by farmers. Just over 15% of Ugandan farmers buy quality assured maize seed from the formal seed market, the rest rely mostly on home-saved seed and low quality products from the local market. This research project investigates the adoption for drought tolerant maize varieties that have been specifically developed for specific agro-ecological zones in Uganda by CIMMYT and partners and looks into barriers for uptake of advanced seed technology, specifically focussing on downside risk. We assess the inhibiting role of downside risk with regard to productive investments by conducting randomized controlled trials to test the effects of bundling index insurance with drought tolerant maize varieties on willingness-to-pay and uptake of this maize seed.