Uganda

CGIAR Presence in Uganda

Uganda became a Member of the CGIAR in 1998. Responsibility for the CGIAR is vested with the Director General of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO).

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), International Potato Center (CIP), World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) maintain regional offices in Uganda.

Selected CGIAR Projects in Uganda

Saving lives through Vitamin A- enriched sweet potatoes

Vitamin A deficiency is a leading cause of early childhood death and a major risk factor for pregnant women and lactating women in Uganda. The condition weakens the immune system, leaving victims susceptible to deadly diseases such as measles, malaria, and diarrhea. In Sub-Saharan Africa, around 3 million children under the age of five suffer from a vitamin A-related form of blindness known as xerophthalmia, or dry eye, among other serious diseases. In Uganda alone, during a bad year about 60,000 children die of diseases related to Vitamin-A deficieny.

In 2001, CIP partnered NARO, the non-profit AFRICARE, and Makarere University, among others, to coordinate the Vitamin A for Africa (VITAA) Partnership, now present in ten African countries, including Uganda. The initiative provides new, orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties that are rich in beta-carotene, a micronutrient the body uses to produce Vitamin A. In 2002, nearly 40,000 Ugandan farmers received samples of improved orange-fleshed sweet potatoes for planting through the Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation. By 2004, an estimated two million Ugandans were eating the new varieties of sweet potato. The VITAA Project won the prestigious CGIAR Partnership Award during the 2003 CGIAR Annual General Meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Combating cassava mosaic disease (CMD)

Cassava mosaic disease frequently reduces cassava production in Africa by 15-25 %. In the late 1980s, the disease reached epidemic proportions resulting in cassava production losses of 35-40% within 10 years. At the height of the crisis, annual cassava losses in Uganda were estimated at US$ 60 million. To address this regional pandemic, IITA partnered with Uganda's NARO and NARS in East Africa to address disease outbreaks and monitor the spread of CMD across the region. Control efforts were based on deploying host plant resistance.

IITA's cassava breeding program successfully developed and released new CMD-resistant clones or varieties. In 2001, cassava production in Uganda hit a record high of almost 5 million tons, up from the low of just over 2 million tons at the worst of the epidemic in 1994. The disease management strategy successfully averted a food crisis.

In addition, NARS scientists learned how to monitor, map, and diagnose the viruses. Plant health aspects of the campaign were also successful, with pest and disease constraints evaluated at approximately 265 locations, and monitoring and forecasting linked across the region.

New Rice for Africa (NERICA)

Rapidly rising demand for rice across many parts of Africa, including Uganda is forcing countries to revaluate their agriculture systems. In 2004, the Government of Uganda spent over $90 million on rice imports to feed its poor people.

In the mid-1990's, The Africa Rice Center (WARDA) and its partners developed the New Rices for Africa (NERICA's) that combine the ruggedness of local African rice species ("Oryza glabberrima") with the high productivity traits of Asian rice ("Oryza sativa"). By 2004, NERICAS were planted on about 100, 000 ha across Africa, including 10,000 ha in Uganda.

Research has revealed that the NERICA III rice variety produced locally in Uganda is not only highly nutritious and scented, but is also capable of growing in lowland and upland areas.

Stopping human sleeping sickness

Around 300,000 cases of human sleeping sickness are reported each year in Uganda. The disease is spread by the bite of a tsetse fly infected with trypanosome parasites. For every 10 people infected, approximately half go undiagnosed and untreated, invariably lapsing into a coma and dying within 6 months of infection. In 1999, in an effort to stop an epidemic of the disease that erupted in late 1998 in southeastern Uganda, scientists at ILRI and the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) joined forces to demonstrate how treating human sleeping sickness in cattle could control the spread of the human disease. After important cases of success, ILRI and CTVM researchers have continued to work with the affected farming communities to help implement simple and affordable cattle disease control methods to curb the spread of the disease.

Modern plant breeding

Severely degraded and infertile soils, drought, and pest attacks are the bane of African farmers. In Uganda, CIAT has partnered NARO and IPGRI's International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) Program, to set up a molecular biology laboratory where modern plant breeding is leading to the development of new and improved varieties of bean, cassava, and tropical forages. The laboratory enables African researchers to integrate biotechnology techniques into problem-solving research, and serves as a regional training facility for scientists.

Promoting clean potato seeds

Potato farmers in Uganda have traditionally obtained their seed through methods that help to promote the spread of bacterial wilt, a devastating disease that is found in contaminated seed and soil. In the Kabale district, which accounts for 40% of Uganda's potato production, high population density and small average landholding causes farmers to practice less productive crop rotation and fallow techniques. As a result, soil fertility is diminished and diseases such as bacterial wilt and late blight spread more easily.

In 1997, Uganda's NARO and CIP partnered to form the Uganda National Seed Potato Producers' Association, which promotes the improvement of seed through farmer-based production, rather than through traditional centralized state action. The Association, which by 2000 was earning about 19.6 million Ugandan shillings (about US$1,800) per season, is providing its growing membership with additional income to buy reliable fungicides, insecticides and fertilizers. The model is being replicated in other potato growing areas throughout the country.

Combating bacterial wilt

Bacterial wilt is the second most damaging potato disease (after late blight) in tropical and sub-tropical areas. In 2000 in Uganda alone, around 1.5 million ha were affected. CIP is helping to increase the efficiency of seed production systems with a sensitive, easy-to-use and low-cost technique for detecting bacterial wilt infection in tubers.

Integrated management of bacterial wilt is being promoted through on-farm education and research. Kits developed at CIP are used in basic-seed productions systems worldwide and are distributed to growers. In the Kabale district, the kit is also making it easier for scientists to gather data on the rate of infestation at different stages of the seed chain. By 2000, the results of the program on small farms in Uganda showed yield increases ranging from 60-165 percent.

Introducing new fruits into the highlands

Growing demand for temperate fruits in Uganda during the late 1990's prompted ICRAF and Uganda's Forestry Resources Research Institute (FORRI) to explore the introduction of new fruit varieties in the Ugandan highlands. After four years of experimenting, ICRAF and FORRI concluded that temperate fruit trees could be integrated into existing agroforestry systems and promoted as new cash tree-crops. By 2003, peach trees in the Ugandan highlands were producing an average of 12 kg per season valued at US$ 78, with farmers expecting to receive about one third of this amount. Thanks to the FORRI-ICRAF collaboration, more than 500 farmers have acquired an average of four fruit trees each in Uganda's Kigzei highlands.

Maintaining banana crop diversity

Bananas are the main staple food for about 50% of the population in Uganda. IPGRI and NARO have worked together to preserve local species and develop plants resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses, with a particular focus on bananas. In 1997, IPGRI's International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP) was asked by the Steering Committee of the Banana Research Network for Eastern and Southern Africa (BARNESA) to provide the secretariat and coordination of the network.

Examples of INIBAP's recent achievements in Uganda include:

• NARO scientists have received training on the Banana Germplasm Information System, used for organizing and exchanging banana germplasm data.

• In 1997, INIBAP together with UK's Department for International Development (DFID) enabled Uganda to participate its International Banana or Musa Testing Program (IMTP). As a result, numerous improved cultivars and banana varieties from outside the region have been tested for their performance in Uganda.

• New equipment and facilities have been supplied and developed to set up a new molecular biology laboratory, used to apply biotechnology in banana production.

Capacity building in banana research

Training with an impact on the field

IITA has worked with the Ugandan National Banana Research Program (UNBRP) to train staff to process participatory rural appraisals, diagnostic surveys, and improve farmer banana research. In 1999, IITA, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, helped five UNBRP researchers to complete their PhDs in plant pathology and plant breeding. After participating in numerous IITA trainings, local UNBRP staff are now able to visit benchmark research sites where technologies are tested, evaluated, and taught to farming communities.

In one parish in southwestern Uganda where UNBRP and IITA work together with the local agricultural extension department, more than 20% of the farmers have adopted the recommended weeding and mulching techniques to strengthen banana plant growth and improve soil fertility. From 1996 to 1999, yields went up by over 50%.

Improving scientific training

In recent years, fungal leaf spots, major pests, fusarium wilt, and other viruses have shortened banana fallow periods and caused a general decline in soil fertility. IITA's Banana Improvement Program in the Mid-altitude Zone of East and Southern Africa has held training programs to introduce NARO technicians and scientists to banana pest and disease assessment protocols, integrated pest management (IPM) technologies, improved crop husbandry techniques, and farmer-participatory research methodologies for stable and sustainable production.

The African Highlands Ecoregional Program

Uganda is one of main participating countries in the African Highlands Ecoregional Initiative (AHI), started by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in 1995 and hosted by ICRAF. The initiative is a collaborative research effort focusing on key natural resource management and agricultural productivity issues in the highlands of East and Central Africa. AHI grew out of concern about the declining productivity of land and growing populations in the highlands of eastern and central Africa. The Initiative involves more than 20 partner organizations working in benchmark sites including Uganda. The focus of the Program is restoring soil fertility in the highlands, particularly in high-potential areas that have been seriously degraded over time.

Conference on Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa

In April, 2004, the Government of the Republic of Uganda hosted the all-Africa Conference on "Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020", organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) 2020 Vision Initiative, and co-sponsored by more than a dozen organizations. The topic was the discussion of a longer-term policy consultation process on African food and nutrition security. President Museveni of Uganda, President Wade of Senegal, and President Obsanjo of Nigeria delivered keynote addresses at the Conference.

Recognizing the success of the Conference, Posta Uganda issued a stamp to commemorate the meeting. IFPRI and its partners are undertaking follow-up activities to ensure that issues of food security and nutrition are mainstreamed in public policies, at the local, national, and regional levels.

Useful Links

International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP)

IFPRI 2020 Vision Conference

African Highlands Initiative