kongwa_kiteto_internal_review_April2017

=Kongwa-Kiteto team internal review and activities= =24 - 29 April, 2017= =Various locations=


 * Participants**
 * 1) Patrick Okori, ICRISAT-Malawi - Chairperson and Principal investigator, Design and oversight of the AR project activities
 * 2) Yasinta Muzanila, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) - Nutrition research and scaling out activities
 * 3) Elirehema Swai, ARI-Hombolo - Researcher associate for soil and water management. Also, a link to NARS, District Councils & farmers.
 * 4) James Njeru, CIMMYT-Nairobi - Maize Agronomy / Breeding Research
 * 5) Anitha Seetha, ICRISAT-Malawi - Nutrition research and scaling out activities
 * 6) Gloriana Ndibalema, IITA Arusha - AR Research Communication
 * 7) Wills Munthali, ICRISAT Malawi - Research associate-breeding managing: Trial set up (on farm and on station experimentation), Community seed banks and FRNs.
 * 8) Amos Ngwira, ICRISAT Malawi - Systems Agronomist-Natural Resource Management
 * 9) Anthony Kimaro, World Agroforestry (ICRAF) - Soil Fertility Management research & scaling activities
 * 10) Chrispinus Rubanza, University of Dodoma (UDOM) - Crops / Livestock Research & Scaling out activities
 * 11) Said Silim, Former ICRISAT-Nairobi principal scientist (pigeon pea Breeding) - Invited guest
 * 12) Ganga Rao, ICRISAT-Nairobi - Principal scientist pigeon pea & chick pea breeding
 * 13) Mateete Bekunda, IITA Arusha - Chief Scientist Africa RISING East & Southern Africa (ESA) Project
 * 14) Peter Ngowi, ICRISAT-Dodoma - Research associate, coordinating Africa RISING ICRISAT led activities in Kongwa, Kiteto, and Iringa Research & scaling up activities

__24 April__ 18:00-19:00 Meeting with KK Scientists - Patrick & All KK scientists at Dodoma Hotel
 * Agenda**

__25 April__ 06:30-9:30 Travelling, DODOMA - KITETO 9:30-10:00 Courtesy Call / Hold discussions with DAICO / DED for KITETO 10:00-11:00 Tour of KK research & scaling up activities in NJORO 11:00-11:20 Travel from NJORO to KIPERESA 11:20-11:50 Meet & briefly hold discussion with KIPERESA village leaders & lead farmers 11:50-13:00 Tour of KK research & scaling up activities in KIPERESA 13:00-13:20 Travel from KIPERESA to MWANYA village 13:20-14:00 Meet with group of farmers earmarked to participate in community Poultry breeding 14:00 Travel, from MWANYA back to DODOMA.

__26 April__ 06:00-09:30 Drive from DODOMA to IRINGA RURAL. It is a public holiday in TZ but DAICO for Iringa Rural will be available to meet with us! 09:30-10:00 Courtesy Call / Hold discussions with DAICO / DED IRINGA RURAL 10:00-11:00 Travel from IRINGA RURAL to IGULA village 11:00-12:00 Tour of KK research MOTHER PLOT at IGULA village 12:00-15:00 Travel from IGULA to DODOMA

__27 April__ 07:00-08:00 Travelling DODOMA to KONGWA 08:00-08:30 Courtesy Call / Hold discussions with DAICO / DED for KONGWA. DAICO will join us for the FFD after the courtesy call 08:30 - 09:30 Traveling from KONGWA to MLALI 09:30 -13:00 Farmers Field Day (FFD) at MLALI village. Farmers, KK Scientists, DAICO for Kongwa, DRD - Central Zone,

__28 April__ 09:00-17:00 KK Project Internal Review meeting All KK Scientists at Dodoma Hotel

__29 April__ 08:00 Travelling back to respective work stations - All


 * Notes**

__25 April 2017__ The team paid a courtesy call to Kiteto District Council where it had discussions with DAICO (Mr Robert Urassa), later the team met with leaders of Njoro village and few farmers’ representatives. The team also had chance to meet and briefly greet attendees to ward meeting that was in session at Njoro
 * DAICO mentioned, unavailability of improved pigeonpea seed, drought, soil fertility degradation, nutrition / food safety, cereal / legume grain post-harvest losses as beingmajor challenges facing farmers in Kiteto.
 * He went on further to appreciate the research work that AR is doing on the ground as AR has introduced technologies that are already addressing the challenges mentioned – CSB (QDS) would help to solve pigeonpea seed unavailability as pigeonpea would spread and cover the whole of Kiteto and hence it would attract many buyers; tied ridges integrated with organic and inorganic fertilizers have been introduced to address the issues of drought and soil fertility; drought tolerant with early maturity character quality protein (QPM) maize has been tested and found to be superior than the farmers’ varieties; AR has trained mothers on how best to feed their kids using specialized recipe that keeps them from the effects of Aflatoxin and kids in the cohorts under study are progressing well as time progresses.
 * DAICO requested that the above good work needs to be expanded to more villages other than Njoro
 * DAICO is to link Africa RISING with(i) District Veterinary Officer to collaborate with Drs Kimaro / Rubanza) for community poultry breeding; (ii) District Nutrition Officer to collaborate with Drs Anitha and Muzanila for all nutrition / food safety and grain cereal/ legume related work. Dr Abbas from IITA has done a significant work in training farmers on post-harvest losses mitigation and it has given very good results that could be emulated in Njoro and elsewhere
 * It was realized that there was a survey done on grain cereal/ legume post-harvest losses covering Njoro and some parts of the southern highlands. DAICO is to look for the report and have it shared with AR as we wouldn’t want to re-invent the wheel but leverage efforts
 * Women in Njoro village seem to be better organized in groups than men, more informed and seem to have an idea on what they want to do. Here is where we should take the issues of gender seriously as an entry point to find out why do men behave the way they do!

//Kiperesa Village// This is a new site established during 2016/2017 cropping season. After a courtesy call, the team visited a mother plot grown to pigeon pea for PVS; maize grown on tied ridges integrated with fertilizer application. Pigeon pea field was very impressive as it was grown on tied ridges as well. Farmers field had Striga and compared with our maize in mother plot it was far much better District had prioritized Kiperesa as a research area to combat Striga. At Kiperesa we need to help them to address the problem of Striga and Dr Amos has agreed to work with Kimaro and Swai to address the issues of Striga. We are going to leverage with what the district is doing. The project by the district is not yet started but we requested DAICO to link AR with the district crop protection lead.

//Mwanya//
 * It is an interesting place where we want to scale out poultry breeding, we learned that there have been efforts made by the Kiteto district council in Mwanya but it however failed. Poultry group in that place is weak, and therefore AR justification to intervene and build on where the district ended.
 * Mwanya – district leadership has been given two assignments (i) link AR with district livestock officer (DLO)to link him up with Dr Rubanza. DLO has been coming to our innovation platform (IP) meetings so he/she is aware of Africa RISING efforts towards improvement of local chickens. Finally, Africa RISING has agreed to link up with nutrition program of Kiteto to roll out not necessarily this year
 * Dr Abbas was introduced in absentia and will be connected to the Kiteto district to assist them with post-harvest losses handling and aflatoxin mitigation related work
 * A few farmers would be taken to Babati to learn what is happening there for them to see and believe.
 * Going to the districts – KK scientists have been warned that the DAICO must know and introduce you to the villages, Swai / Peter to be contacted to help you with the logistics before any engagements in the villages.

__26 April 2017__
 * The team went to Iringa rural district where it met with Lucy Nyalu (DAICO for Iringa rural district) on a public holiday (26th April 2017 is commemoration for the union between Tanganyika & Zanzibar leading to the birth of Tanzania) before visiting Isimani, a ward which was identified the by district leadership to benefit from technologies promoted by the AR project
 * Lucy Nyalu told the team that Isimani is a ward that more often suffers from food shortages due to low and poorly distributed rainfall usually less than 500 mm per annum.
 * She also said due to lack of food, Iringa also leads on levels of malnutrition
 * Isimani would also be an appropriate target for the nutrition and poultry programs the project is working on.
 * The team then went to Ismani and visited Igula village which has 4 sub-villages. Fortunately, all the sub-village leaderswere present during our meeting with farmer to a field located near a church. Present too was the village executive officer (VEO). Igula is a village where AR is trying to promote pigeon pea and sorghum.
 * The team saw a field where a farmerhad done what she knew to avoid risks and we learned of what lead farmers into doing mixed cropping - the farmers had planted maize twice but did not germinate well, she then planted sunflower, pumpkins, sorghum, vegetables and pigeon pea. The farmer did all this crop mixing to kind of getting an assurance of at least harvest something as rains have been scarce and its distribution is unpredictable. Pigeon pea in the mixture is good and seem well adapted.
 * This is the first-time farmers grew pigeonpea in this village but already like crop as it is doing well their drought prone environment.

//Take home message//
 * As a way of scaling out, model farmers were selected in Igula in which seed for pigeonpea and sorghum enough for 50 farmers were distributed with each given 3 kilos of pigeon pea seed of ICEAP 00040 (Mali) enough to plant one acre and 2kgs of sorghum. These will be learning sites supported by the mother plot set by researchers. Due to intermittent rains, only 13 farmers took pigeonpea seeds and managed to plant and there is still seed remaining for 20 farmers while all the sorghum seed was planted. Farmers were told that pigeon pea is good for fertilizing the soil, it is a good source of proteins and that it has a readily available market so it is a cash crop hence a source of income to farmers.
 * There is an urgent need to carry out promotions for home consumption for pigeon pea in Igula and across all KK villages (this will increase domestic demand).
 * The sub-village leaders and VEO have agreed to be our host pigeon pea & sorghum demonstrations at Igula village which will be the shamba darasa for the rest of the farmers to learn.
 * Igula village looks like an area which needs extension support (training), there is already an extension officer with transport (a motor bike) who could be trained to spearhead conduct of AR research and scaling out activities.
 * Mother plot: Maize has been devastated by fally army worms – Swai had sprayed thrice but all in vain (Swai is to provide name of chemical used that failed). It was emphasized that if we are going to continue working in Iringa KK scientists need to address / take crop protection seriously. Fortunately, Sorghum survived (in Malawi sorghum was all wiped out).

__27 April 2017__


 * Visited Kongwa District Council where team met with DAICO who was very receptive on what AR is doing. He however emphasized on major treats this season in district as being drought that has affected all crops including sorghums seed field in Manyata.
 * From there we all (including the DAICO) headed to Mlali for a field day (FFD) – we could see lots of field wiped out by drought with total failure for maize while a few patches of sorghum and pearl millet were seen surviving.
 * At Mlali the team was welcomed by ward executive officer and after briefing on the objectives of out visitation and hosting the FFD at Mlali, the team proceeded to the first stop for the FFD which was Nutrition and food safety showcasing, followed by a second stop which was Community poultry breeding, and finally the mother plot located along the road to Pandambili junction from Mlali. It was observed that about 60% were women, majority were people less than 35 years, few elderly people, few mothers with babies who need some nutrition support

//Showcased// Nutrition – Muzanila demonstrated use of dryland cereals and legumes in combination with locally produced vegetables (use home gardening) and fruits which are essential for the health of persons of all age groups. She too emphasized on the need of using locally produced foods in safeguarding health of people at village level.

Tasting acceptability of foods - The foods recipes made were spectacular but quite few which led to few people (kids, women, youths) tasting! In the future, we need to think of preparing more food samples which could be tasted with a substantial number of persons. However, the demo was very well received as beneficiaries were very attentive to the extent of others mostly women ending up recording what was being said.

Community Poultry breeding Rubanza and veterinary officer handled the demo very well with several questions (related to feeds and / or diseases prevention and treatment) asked by farmers – responses from the extension officer & Dr Rubanza to farmers quenched thirst but the main issueobserved here is how do more farmer’s farmers could access the improved chicken breeds that we have there (in Mlali). Rubanza did explain well on the strategized controlled community poultry breeding in Mlali (for Kongwa district) and Mwanya (for Kiteto district).


 * Mother Plot (by the roadside to Pandambili)**
 * Drought tolerant maize materials (42 entries), about 7-10 were already mature, the others are on their way. Farmers made a participatory variety selection (PVS) on these materials. Swai / Ngowi to check on names of these extra early materials (7-10) in Mlali to see if these are also behaving the same in Chitego which is very important in pushing for release of the DT materials for immediate use by farmers.
 * Dr Patrick emphasized that since we are in a scaling out phase (about 80%) - the DT maize materials are hybrids and there is no reason why these materials should not be released. (The ZDRD Leon Mrosso and DAICO Mr Shija had the same opinion) and that we need to be using such or improved crop varieties in our integration activities.
 * Rest of technologies visited were soil-water management and soil fertility / intercropping which were mentored by both Swai and Anthony Kimaro. Rain forced farmers and visitors to end the FFD whereby KK research team left for Dodoma at around 15:00 hrs and had a wrap up meetingat Dodoma Hotel to recap for the day which ended up at 10:00 pm


 * Lessons learned from the FFD at Mlali**
 * Logistics mobilization needs to be strengthened / improved in the future - when we have so manyfarmers in a FFD we need to clearly set up plan on how to walk them through walk ways, farmers must be arranged in groups of equal numbers for effective learning.
 * Some of the demonstrations at the mother plot were at the back the soil fertility / intercropping experiments - such set up is difficult for farmers to observe and learn. However, it was learned that it is because we did send seeds / materials late so we (AR)were allocated with a left-over land which does not suit our purpose and objective. All demos should be by the road side or in a place where a mass of people (church, shifting market place etc) where farmers and other persons could easily access and can learn
 * In Kiperesa the location of the mother plot was by the road side – this is OK
 * In Njoro the location of the mother plot was a bit off but the location of the baby plot (ripping close to the village office) was okay as many farmers and people passing by have chance to learn and ask questions.
 * Igula - demo plot was near a church where church goers and other farmers passing by see how introduced pigeon pea crop is well performing in their village.

//Take home message// Dr Okori reminded the team that 80% of our activities now is about scaling out of proven technologies and that 20% is refining technologies that we didn’t finish. The question now is how do we plan delivery. He pointed out that in this phase the key is integration and / or investigating for scaling. He raised four possible areas or strategies the team could use for scaling:
 * 1) Use of farmer to farmer, this accounts for about 60-70%. Our Index farmers must be evidence for training
 * 2) Traditional approach i.e. using government extension system in training farmers to scale up proven technologies
 * 3) Use of researchers directly working with government and government working with their system and
 * 4) Use of private sector though observation is that we don’t have any control over such approach. However, there are rules available for working with private sector and that Patrick would share the with all KK researchers.

Patrick further said that in scaling out therefore we need to be very strategic and we must work towards refining thus;
 * Nutrition and food safety scaling out strategy
 * Crop / livestock production (community poultry breeding) scaling out

Dr Patrick - If we are to meet with the policy makers and / or the district authorities we (KK scientists) must be focused, should have our messages very short and clear, we must adhere to coherence and we must pay attention to those messages – they must be simple and clear.

Dr Patrick further said that in this phase we must adhere to what is written in our protocols and approved workplan for effective scaling out and refining of technologies which should be coupled with thus;
 * We must tighten follow up – like working in Mwanya is far from Dodoma, one needs to plan a budget carefully on the frequency and number of visits. We should avoid initiating a work and leave it unfinished
 * Capture of data is very critical in this phase (is it will be part of our annual report to USAID). Beneficiary tracking to be done in July 2017
 * Tracking of beneficiaries: This is urgent information and must be collected within a month (The whole of May 2017). Information should include: Name of the village, sub village, name of the farmer, gender, GPS location, age, telephone and signatures. Peter Ngowi to follow up to ensure that all KK scientists have their data well documented).
 * Dr Patrick insisted that from now onwards – reporting would be by household level and not individuals. A house hold (HH) is 5 members in one house (standard USAID indicator), for example 1250 farmers / individuals = 250HH.
 * He insisted that all our protocols should be cleaned up to reflect and address the challenges in the field (during the three days’ field visit). The protocols need to be integrated to address issues.
 * He also emphasized that the quality of materials that we are deploying to farmers must be good – we should always take material of the FOUNDATION grade and not otherwise to safeguard our reputation as researchers. Do not go and buy seeds from any market.
 * Pigeon pea seed: get them from ICRISAT-Malawi and as for improved maize we do not have to use open pollinated varieties (OPVs) while we have superior hybrids


 * Observations by the Chief Scientist (Prof Mateete)**
 * Iringa - AR Nafaka are already working in Iringa – we do not want two AR projects working in the same area without knowing who is doing what, we should be very careful and avoid duplicating efforts.
 * Protocols – It is not clear whether these are for research, scaling out? If one is talking about protocols for development partners – one should have a technology ready for scaling (there should be a protocol for the technology you want scaled out for the development and has to be put on AR website for partner to access and can have the technology scaled out -guided by a protocol at hand). We have finished 5 years by now, there should be development type of protocols that should be going to development partners. Such protocols should also go to a handbook of SI technologies / innovations for eastern and southern Africa developed by Africa RISING.
 * Fall army worms – what happened at Igula in Ismani division (Iringa) leading to the devastation of the drought tolerant maize should never happen again! We as scientists should have made extensive consultations to be able to wipe them out! If we scientists fail what will the farmers do and what message are we (scientists) taking to farmers. Okori – these are not the normal armyworms we are used to, however there is a combination of chemicals that could be used to kill / eradicate the insects. We need to collaboratively and extensively consult to one another in combating emerging problems to provide answers to farmers and the general public at large.


 * Observations by the invited guest Dr Said Silim**
 * 1) Dr Silim was very impressed with the turn up of farmers during the field day especially that there were a lot of women and of varying ages. It’s a good platform for technology dissemination he said.
 * 2) He also observed that driving through the villages, there was a lot of maize failure but a lot more sorghum and pearl millet survived. What message does this give us (kk researchers)?!
 * 3) He said use of community seed banks for scaling out is a very good start but it is very important for farmers to observe isolation distances especially for pigeonpea; further training must be provided.
 * 4) He also said training on pigeonpea utilization must also be offered to increase domestic demand before thinking of markets.
 * 5) He was impressed that most of the new technologies have done well compared to the local ones. But he said the question is how do we (scientists) translate this success into meaningful outcomes - focusing on adoption of our technologies is an issue that we (KK research partners) should pay the most attention to!


 * Presentation by Gloriana on Success Stories**
 * Gloriana told KK team that Africa RISING project will see its achievements through success stories. She went on further to tell the team what a success story is all about?!
 * A success something or someone who achieves success in an activity he/she is engaged with, despite unfavourable conditions.
 * Success story in our KK project; we share achievements that our beneficiaries have achieved from activities that they are engaged within the project, i.e. after interventions
 * Gloriana gave the reason(s) behind writing success stories – (i)we need to show the value of the program to those who give us money and other resources, (ii) We must be accountable to donors, (iii) We need to communicate how we have made a difference to all kinds of stakeholders to ensure their continuing support and participation, (iv) By telling our success stories, others carrying out similar programming can learn from our experience.
 * Gloriana shared a guide / steps / tips towards writing a good success story – (i) Find the humanity in every story you want to tell, (ii) Know what you want to say - simple equation of to follow:person + issue or problem + intervention = effect on person, (iii) Keep it simple, (iv) Focus on the person, not the process, and (v) Emotion inspires action.
 * She shared communication channels for success stories as – (i) Project webpage i.e. Africa RISING web, yammer+, (ii) Project reports, (iii) Other stakeholders’ communication channels, and (iv) Local media i.e. newspapers, TV.
 * Lastly she shared a “Success Story Information Gathering Sheet / tool” which could also be obtained from Ngowi.
 * Dr Okori: Nutrition (Muzanila & Anitha) and crop related research group (Swai/ Kimaro/ Rubanza) are good to go as far as success story writing is concerned. So, we should get at least one or two success stories from these groups a soon as possible (ASAP).
 * Consent forms must be administered and signed by persons we are writing success story on. Ngowi will be a custodian of the forms and KK scientists should get the form from Ngowi for use. Any success story submitted must be accompanied by a consent form where a single person’s photo has been used.
 * Dr Okori: When writing success stories, we should avoid using superlative statements – such as “the farmers were very impressed”. We shouldn’t be speaking on behalf of the farmers. Let’s rather quote what the farmer said / says!


 * Mateete’s feedback to KK partners on interim Q 1 report (November 2016 to February 2017)**

Mateete did emphasize that all KK scientists must make sure that they do report what is the approved work plans and protocols. Indicated milestones must be achievable and where there are anomalies there should be concrete explanations. People should report on realistic figures that are traceable by whoever is evaluating the AR project and kk partners should avoid using vague statements. Feedback was mainly based on thus;
 * We need to report on exact number of farmers that we are working with and with confidence. Let’s avoid using statements like about 1,200 farmers were trained”; “42 to 50 entries were evaluated”; “demonstration established at xxx village by a group of farmers -mention exact number of farmers you are working with and those should be disaggregated by gender. Examples of vague statements from KK reporting
 * Strategy for engaging key stakeholders along the value chain has been established. Where could such a strategy be found – one should explain the strategy in question.
 * This work is currently under progress – it is not clear what is being done in this progress?
 * We have engaged a firm! – the firm’s name should be mentioned so that others should know what it is!
 * Ongoing, some initial negotiations with Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) has been initiated. One should be specific to report on what has been done. What are the negotiations about?

All in all KK partners were warned to be precise in what they are reporting on, and if it is a certain number of farmers one is working with in a certain village (say 20) those should exist and should be found intact should anyone want to meet them all.

Led by Dr Patrick Okori, KK scientists sat as an integrated group and reviewed their research protocols to a format shared by Prof Mateete while at the same time assisted Dr Patrick Okori to review the Q1 Interim report (October 2016 - February 2017) to address issues as raised by Mateete.
 * Reviewing of Research protocols by KK scientists**

He thanked all KK partners for the hard work however he reminded them to adhere to key salient points for AR phase two which are key to a successful conduct for research and scaling out thus;
 * Winding up speech by the Chairperson (Patrick Okori)**
 * 1) He reminded the KK team that 80% of our activities now is about scaling out of proven technologies and that 20% is refining technologies that we didn’t finish. The question now is how do we plan delivery. He pointed out that in this phase the key is integration and or investigating for scaling. He reiterated on four possible areas or strategies the team could use for scaling: (a) use of farmer to farmer, this accounts for about 60-70%. Our Index farmers must be evidence for training (b) traditional approach i.e. using government extension system (c) researchers directly working with government and government working with their system and (d) use of private sector though observation is that we don’t have any control over such approach. However, there are rules available for working with private sector and that Patrick would share with all kk partners.
 * 2) Report on capacity building: That the meaning of training (capacity building) is having 14 contact hours and all reports must take note. There should be evidence for trainings as well i.e. manuals. All data base should be available with the District Council too.
 * 3) Tracking of beneficiaries: This is urgent information and must be collected with a month. Information should include: Name of the village, sub village, name of the farmer, gender, GPS location, age, telephone and signature
 * 4) Needed engagements: We need to contact the Health, Environment and Livestock persons. These should be brought on board if we are to succeed with our efforts on Nutrition and Livestock. Muzanila and Rubanza to follow up.
 * 5) There will be need to produce a brief highlighting project objectives and island of successes to be share with DAICO Iringa- Patrick to produce this write up.
 * 6) Protocols: That members of the team needed to work on their protocols ASAP and these should include progress to date, new work and its status then have corrected protocols shared ASAP
 * 7) Capturing stories: He observed that telling what we have has been our major weakness and we need to improve on this. A target of 10 stories for this quarter was put and teams were asked to use Gloriana’s guidance to come up with good success stories (also attached alongside these minutes). Nutrition and Crop / livestock discipline had good to go stories, henceforth Dr Anitha, Mr Wills, Mr Swai were urged to come up with good success stories for the Africa RISING – Happenings stories.
 * 8) Consent forms: – If one is to make a story with a picture of a farmer or a child, he / she should make sure that he/she has a signed consent form allowing him / her to use a photo for the farmer and / or the child. All consent forms should be obtained from Peter Ngowi

 ** Day One ** (Tuesday 25th April 2017) The team ( Patrick Okori, Ganga Rao, Anthony Kimaro, Muzanila, Anitha Seetha, Wills Munthali, Amos Ngwira, Peter Ngowi, Elirehema Swai, Gloriana Ndibalema, James Njeru, Ogossy Gasaya ) visited **Kiteto DC** where it paid a courtesy call and had discussions with DAICO (//Mr Robert Urassa//), later the team met with leaders of Njoro village and few farmers’ representatives. The team also had chance to meet and briefly greet attendees to ward meeting that was in session at Njoro. · DAICO mentioned, unavailability of improved pigeonpea seed, drought, soil fertility degradation, nutrition / food safety, cereal / legume grain post-harvest losses as beingmajor challenges facing farmers in Kiteto. · He went on further to appreciate the research work that AR is doing on the ground as AR has introduced technologies that are already addressing the challenges mentioned – CSB (QDS) would help solve pigeonpea seed unavailability as pigeonpea would spread and cover the whole of Kiteto and hence it would attract many buyers; tied ridges integrated with organic and inorganic fertilizers have been introduced to address the issues of drought and soil fertility; drought tolerant with early maturity character quality protein (QPM) maize has been tested and found to be superior than the farmers’ varieties; AR has trained mothers on how best to feed their kids using specialized recipe that keeps them from the effects of Aflatoxin and kids in the cohorts under study are progressing well as time progresses. · DAICO requested that the above good work needs to be expanded to more villages other than Njoro · DAICO is to link Africa RISING with(i) District Veterinary Officer to collaborate with Drs Kimaro / Rubanza) for community poultry breeding; (ii) District Nutrition Officer to collaborate with Drs Anitha and Muzanila for all nutrition / food safety and grain cereal/ legume related work. Dr Abbas from IITA has done a significant work in training farmers on post-harvest losses mitigation and it has given very good results that could be emulated in Njoro and elsewhere · It was realized that there was a survey done on grain cereal/ legume post-harvest losses covering Njoro and some parts of the southern highlands. DAICO is to look for the report and have it shared with AR as we wouldn’t want to re-invent the wheel but leverage efforts  · Women in Njoro village seem to be better organized in groups than men, more informed and seem to have an idea on what they want to do. Here is where we should take the issues of gender seriously as an entry point to find out why do men behave the way they do! ** Kiperesa Village **

 This is a new site established during 2016/2017 cropping season. After a courtesy call, the team visited a mother plot grown to pigeon pea for PVS; maize grown on tied ridges integrated with fertilizer application. Pigeon pea field was very impressive as it was grown on tied ridges as well. Farmers field had Striga and compared with our maize in mother plot it was far much better District had prioritized Kiperesa as a research area tocombatStriga. At Kiperesa we need to help them to address the problem of Striga and Drs Amos has agreed to work with Kimaro and Swai to address the issues of Striga. We are going to leverage with what the district is doing. The project by the district is not yet started but we requested DAICO to link AR with the district crop protection lead.
 * Mwanya **

o It is an interesting place where we want to scale out poultry breeding, we learned that there have been efforts made by the Kiteto district council in Mwanya but it however failed. Poultry group in that place is weak, and therefore AR justification to intervene and build on where the district ended. o Mwanya – district leadership has been given two assignments (i) link AR with district livestock officer (DLO)to link him up with Dr Rubanza. DLO has been coming to our innovation platform (IP) meetings so he/she is aware of Africa RISING efforts towards improvement of local chickens. Finally, Africa RISING has agreed to link up with nutrition program of Kiteto to roll out not necessarily this year o Dr Abbas was introduced in absentia and will be connected to the Kiteto district to assist them with post-harvest losses handling and aflatoxin mitigation related work o A few farmers would be taken to Babati to learn what is happening there for them to see and believe. o Going to the districts – KK scientists have been warned that the DAICO must know and introduce you to the villages, Swai / Peter to be contacted to help you with the logistics before any engagements in the villages. Day Two (Wednesday26th April 2017) o The team went to Iringa rural district where it met with **Lucy Nyalu** (DAICO for Iringa rural district) on a public holiday (26th April 2017 is commemoration for the union between Tanganyika & Zanzibar leading to the birth of Tanzania) before visiting Isimani, a ward which was identified the by district leadership to benefit from technologies promoted by the AR project o Lucy Nyalu told the team that Isimani is a ward that more often suffers from food shortages due to low and poorly distributed rainfall usually less than 500 mm per annum. o She also said due to lack of food, Iringa also leads on levels of malnutrition o Isimani would also be an appropriate target for the nutrition and poultry programs the project is working on. o The team then went to Ismani and visited Igula village which has 4 sub-villages. Fortunately, all the sub-village leaderswere present during our meeting with farmer to a field located near a church. Present too was the village executive officer (VEO). Igula is a village where AR is trying to promote pigeon pea and sorghum. o The team saw a field where a farmerhad done what she knew to avoid risks and we learned of what lead farmers into doing mixed cropping - the farmers had planted maize twice but did not germinate well, she then planted sunflower, pumpkins, sorghum, vegetables and pigeon pea. The farmer did all this crop mixing to kind of getting an assurance of at least harvest something as rains have been scarce and its distribution is unpredictable. Pigeon pea in the mixture is good and seem well adapted. o This is the first-time farmers grew pigeonpea in this village but already like crop as it is doing well their drought prone environment.

** Take home message **

o As a way of scaling out, model farmers were selected in Igula in which seed for pigeonpea and sorghum enough for 50 farmers were distributed with each given 3 kilos of pigeon pea seed of ICEAP 00040 (Mali) enough to plant one acre and 2kgs of sorghum. These will be learning sites supported by the mother plot set by researchers. Due to intermittent rains, only 13 farmers took pigeonpea seeds and managed to plant and there is still seed remaining for 20 farmers while all the sorghum seed was planted. Farmers were told that pigeon pea is good for fertilizing the soil, it is a good source of proteins and that it has a readily available market so it is a cash crop hence a source of income to farmers. o There is an urgent need to carry out promotions for home consumption for pigeon pea in Igula and across all KK villages (this will increase domestic demand). o The sub-village leaders and VEO have agreed to be our host pigeon pea & sorghum demonstrations at Igula village which will be the //shamba darasa// for the rest of the farmers to learn. o Igula village looks like an area which needs extension support (training), there is already an extension officer with transport (a motor bike) who could be trained to spearhead conduct of AR research and scaling out activities. o Mother plot : Maize has been devastated by fally army worms – Swai had sprayed thrice but all in vain (Swai is to provide name of chemical used that failed). It was emphasized that if we are going to continue working in Iringa KK scientists need to address / take crop protection seriously. Fortunately, Sorghum survived (in Malawi sorghum was all wiped out). Day Three (Thursday 27th April 2017) o Visited Kongwa District Council where team met with DAICO who was very receptive on what AR is doing. He however emphasized on major treats this season in district as being drought that has affected all crops including sorghums seed field in Manyata. o From there we all (including the DAICO) headed to Mlali for a field day (FFD) – we could see lots of field wiped out by drought with total failure for maize while a few patches of sorghum and pearl millet were seen surviving. o At Mlali the team was welcomed by ward executive officer and after briefing on the objectives of out visitation and hosting the FFD at Mlali, the team proceeded to the first stop for the FFD which was Nutrition and food safety showcasing, followed by a second stop which was Community poultry breeding, and finally the mother plot located along the road to Pandambili junction from Mlali. It was observed that about 60% were women, majority were people less than 35 years, few elderly people, few mothers with babies who need some nutrition support Showcased: Tasting acceptability of foods - The foods recipes made were spectacular but quite few which led to few people (kids, women, youths) tasting! In the future, we need to think of preparing more food samples which could be tasted with a substantial number of persons. However, the demo was very well received as beneficiaries were very attentive to the extent of others mostly women ending up recording what was being said. Rubanza and veterinary officer handled the demo very well with several questions (//related to feeds and / or diseases prevention and treatment//) asked by farmers – responses from the extension officer & Dr Rubanza to farmers quenched thirst but the main issueobserved here is how do more farmer’s farmers could access the improved chicken breeds that we have there (in Mlali). Rubanza did explain well on the strategized controlled community poultry breeding in Mlali (for Kongwa district) and Mwanya (for Kiteto district). o Drought tolerant maize materials (42 entries), about 7-10 were already mature, the others are on their way. Farmers made a participatory variety selection (PVS) on these materials. Swai / Ngowi to check on names of these extra early materials (7-10) in Mlali to see if these are also behaving the same in Chitego which is very important in pushing for release of the DT materials for immediate use by farmers. o Dr Patrick emphasized that since we are in a scaling out phase (about 80%) - the DT maize materials are hybrids and there is no reason why these materials should not be released. (The ZDRD Leon Mrosso and DAICO Mr Shija had the same opinion) and that we need to be using such or improved crop varieties in our integration activities. o Rest of technologies visited were soil-water management and soil fertility / intercropping which were mentored by both Swai and Anthony Kimaro. Rain forced farmers and visitors to end the FFD whereby KK research team left for Dodoma at around 15:00 hrs and had a wrap up meetingat Dodoma Hotel to recap for the day which ended up at 10:00 pm
 * Nutrition ** – Muzanila demonstrated use of dryland cereals and legumes in combination with locally produced vegetables (use home gardening) and fruits which are essential for the health of persons of all age groups. She too emphasized on the need of using locally produced foods in safeguarding health of people at village level.
 * Community Poultry breeding **
 * Mother Plot (by the roadside to Pandambili) **

** Lessons learned from the FFD at Mlali **

· Logistics mobilization needs to be strengthened / improved in the future - when we have so manyfarmers in a FFD we need to clearly set up plan on how to walk them through walk ways, farmers must be arranged in groups of equal numbers for effective learning. · Some of the demonstrations at the mother plot were at the back the soil fertility / intercropping experiments - such set up is difficult for farmers to observe and learn. However, it was learned that it is because we did send seeds / materials late so we (AR)were allocated with a left-over land which does not suit our purpose and objective. All demos should be by the road side or in a place where a mass of people (church, shifting market place etc) where farmers and other persons could easily access and can learn · In Kiperesa the location of the mother plot was by the road side – this is OK · In Njoro the location of the mother plot was a bit off but the location of the baby plot (ripping close to the village office) was okay as many farmers and people passing by have chance to learn and ask questions. · Igula - demo plot was near a church where church goers and other farmers passing by see how introduced pigeon pea crop is well performing in their village.

** Take home message **

Dr Okori reminded the team that 80% of our activities now is about scaling out of proven technologies and that 20% is refining technologies that we didn’t finish. The question now is how do we plan delivery. He pointed out that in this phase the key is //integration// and / or //investigating// for scaling. He raised four possible areas or strategies the team could use for scaling: (i) Use of farmer to farmer, this accounts for about 60-70%. Our Index farmers must be evidence for training (ii)Traditional approach i.e. using government extension system in training farmers to scale up proven technologies (iii) Use of researchers directly working with government and government working with their system and (iv) use of private sector though observation is that we don’t have any control over such approach. However, there are rules available for working with private sector and that Patrick would share the with all KK researchers. Patrick further said that in scaling out therefore we need to be very strategic and we must work towards refining thus; · Nutrition and food safety scaling out strategy · Crop / livestock production (community poultry breeding) scaling out Dr Patrick - If we are to meet with the policy makers and / or the district authorities we (KK scientists) must be focused, should have our messages very short and clear, we must adhere to coherence and we must pay attention to those messages – they must be simple and clear. Dr Patrick further said that in this phase we must adhere to what is written in our protocols and approved workplan for effective scaling out and refining of technologies which should be coupled with thus; · We must tighten follow up – like working in Mwanya is far from Dodoma, one needs to plan a budget carefully on the frequency and number of visits. We should avoid initiating a work and leave it unfinished · Capture of data is very critical in this phase (is it will be part of our annual report to USAID). Beneficiary tracking to be done in July 2017 · **// Tracking of beneficiaries //** : This is urgent information and must be collected within a month (The whole of May 2017). Information should include: //Name of the village, sub village, name of the farmer, gender, GPS location, age, telephone and signatures.// Peter Ngowi to follow up to ensure that all KK scientists have their data well documented). · Dr Patrick insisted that from now onwards – reporting would be by household level and not individuals. A house hold (HH) is 5 members in one house (standard USAID indicator), //for example 1250 farmers / individuals = 250HH//.  · He insisted that all our protocols should be cleaned up to reflect and address the challenges in the field (during the three days’ field visit). The protocols need to be integrated to address issues.  · He also emphasized that the quality of materials that we are deploying to farmers must be good – we should always take material of the FOUNDATION grade and not otherwise to safeguard our reputation as researchers. Do not go and buy seeds from //any market//. · Pigeon pea seed: get them from ICRISAT-Malawi and as for improved maize we do not have to use open pollinated varieties (OPVs) while we have superior hybrids

o Iringa - AR Nafaka are already working in Iringa – we do not want two AR projects working in the same area without knowing who is doing what, we should be very careful and avoid duplicating efforts. o Protocols – It is not clear whether these are for research, scaling out? If one is talking about protocols for development partners – one should have a technology ready for scaling (there should be a protocol for the technology you want scaled out for the development and has to be put on AR website for partner to access and can have the technology scaled out -guided by a protocol at hand). We have finished 5 years by now, there should be development type of protocols that should be going to development partners. Such protocols should also go to a handbook of SI technologies / innovations for eastern and southern Africa developed by Africa RISING. o Fall armyworms – what happened at Igula in Ismani division (Iringa) leading to the devastation of the drought tolerant maize should never happen again! We as scientists should have made extensive consultations to be able to wipe them out! If we scientists fail what will the farmers do and what message are we (scientists) taking to farmers. Okori – these are not the normal armyworms we are used to, however there is a combination of chemicals that could be used to kill / eradicate the insects. We need to collaboratively and extensively consult to one another in combating emerging problems to provide answers to farmers and the general public at large. ** Observations by the invited guest Dr Said Slim ** 1. Dr Silim was very impressed with the turn up of farmers during the field day especially that there were a lot of women and of varying ages. It’s a good platform for technology dissemination he said. 2. He also observed that driving through the villages, there was a lot of maize failure but a lot more sorghum and pearl millet survived. What message does this give us (kk researchers)?! 3. He said use of community seed banks for scaling out is a very good start but it is very important for farmers to observe isolation distance s especially for pigeonpea; further training must be provided. 4. He also said training on pigeonpea utilization must also be offered to increase domestic demand before thinking of markets. 5. He was impressed that most of the new technologies have done well compared to the local ones. But he said the question is how do we (scientists) translate this success into meaningful outcomes - focussing on adoption of our technologies is an issue that we (KK research partners) should pay the most attention to! Presentation by Gloriana on Success Stories o Gloriana told KK team that Africa RISING project will see its achievements through success stories. She went on further to tell the team what a success story is all about?! o A success something or someone who achieves success in an activity he/she is engaged with, despite unfavourable conditions. o Success story in our KK project; we share achievements that our beneficiaries have achieved from activities that they are engaged within the project, i.e. after interventions o Gloriana gave the reason(s) behind writing success stories – (i)we need to show the value of the program to those who give us money and other resources, (ii) We must be accountable to donors, (iii) We need to communicate how we have made a difference to all kinds of stakeholders to ensure their continuing support and participation, (iv) By telling our success stories, others carrying out similar programming can learn from our experience. o Gloriana shared a guide / steps / tipstowards writing a good success story – (i) Find the humanity in every story you want to tell, (ii) Know what you want to say - simple equation of to follow:person + issue or problem + intervention = effect on person, (iii) Keep it simple, (iv) Focus on the person, not the process, and (v) Emotion inspires action. o She shared communication channels for success stories as – (i) Project webpage i.e. Africa RISING web, yammer+, (ii) Project reports, (iii) Other stakeholders’ communication channels, and (iv) Local media i.e. newspapers, TV. o Lastly she shared a “//Success Story Information Gathering Sheet / tool//” which could also be obtained from Ngowi. o Dr Okori: Nutrition (Muzanila & Anitha) and crop related research group (Swai/ Kimaro/ Rubanza) are good to go as far as success story writing is concerned. So, we should get at least one or two success stories from these groups a soon as possible (ASAP). o Consent forms must be administered and signed by persons we are writing success story on. Ngowi will be a custodian of the forms and KK scientists should get the form from Ngowi for use. Any success story submitted must be accompanied by a consent form where a single person’s photo has been used. o Dr Okori: When writing success stories, we should avoid using superlative statements – such as “the farmers were very impressed”. We shouldn’t be speaking on behalf of the farmers. Let’s rather quote what the farmer said / says! Mateete’s feedback to KK partners on interim Q 1 report (November 2016 to February 2017) Mateete did emphasize that all KK scientists must make sure that they do report what is the approved work plans and protocols. Indicated milestones must be achievable and where there are anomalies there should be concrete explanations. People should report on realistic figures that are traceable by whoever is evaluating the AR project and kk partners should avoid using vague statements. Feedback was mainly based on thus; o We need to report on exact number of farmers that we are working with and with confidence. Let’s avoid using statements like about 1,200 farmers were trained”; “42 to 50 entries were evaluated”; “demonstration established at **xxx** village by a group of farmers -mention exact number of farmers you are working with and those should be disaggregated by gender. Examples of vague statements from KK reporting o Strategy for engaging key stakeholders along the value chain has been established. Where could such a strategy be found – one should explain the strategy in question. o This work is currently under progress – it is not clear what is being done in this progress? o We have engaged a firm! – the firm’s name should be mentioned so that others should know what it is! o Ongoing, some initial negotiations with Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) has been initiated. One should be specific to report on what has been done. What are the negotiations about? All in all KK partners were warned to be precise in what they are reporting on, and if it is a certain number of farmers one is working with in a certain village (say 20) those should exist and should be found intact should anyone want to meet them all. Led by Dr Patrick Okori, KK scientists sat as an integrated group and reviewed their research protocols to a format shared by Prof Mateete while at the same time assisted Dr Patrick Okori to review the Q1 Interim report (October 2016 - February 2017) to address issues as raised by Mateete. ** Winding up speech by the Chairperson (Patrick Okori) ** He thanked all KK partners for the hard work however he reminded them to adhere to key salient points for AR phase two which are key to a successful conduct for research and scaling out thus;
 * Observations by Prof Mateete ** :
 * Reviewing of Research protocols by KK scientist **
 * 1) He reminded the KK team that 80% of our activities now is about scaling out of proven technologies and that 20% is refining technologies that we didn’t finish. The question now is how do we plan delivery. He pointed out that in this phase the key is //__integration__// and or //__investigating__// for scaling. He reiterated on four possible areas or strategies the team could use for scaling: (a) use of farmer to farmer, this accounts for about 60-70%. Our Index farmers must be evidence for training (b) traditional approach i.e. using government extension system (c) researchers directly working with government and government working with their system and (d) use of private sector though observation is that we don’t have any control over such approach. However, there are rules available for working with private sector and that Patrick would share with all kk partners.
 * 2) **// Report on capacity building //**** : ** That the meaning of training (capacity building) is having 14 contact hours and all reports must take note. There should be evidence for trainings as well i.e. manuals. All data base should be available with the District Council too.
 * 3) **// Tracking of beneficiaries //**** : ** This is urgent information and must be collected with a month. Information should include: Name of the village, sub village, name of the farmer, gender, GPS location, age, telephone and signature
 * 4) **// Needed engagements //**** : ** We need to contact the Health, Environment and Livestock persons. These should be brought on board if we are to succeed with our efforts on Nutrition and Livestock. Muzanila and Rubanza to follow up.
 * 5) There will be need to produce a brief highlighting project objectives and island of successes to be share with DAICO Iringa- Patrick to produce this write up.
 * 6) // Protocols // : That members of the team needed to work on their protocols ASAP and these should include progress to date, new work and its status then have corrected protocols shared ASAP
 * 7) **// Capturing stories //**** : ** He observed that telling what we have has been our major weakness and we need to improve on this. A target of 10 stories for this quarter was put and teams were asked to use Gloriana’s guidance to come up with good success stories (//also attached alongside these minutes//). Nutrition and Crop / livestock discipline had good to go stories, henceforth Dr Anitha, Mr Wills, Mr Swai were urged to come up with good success stories for the Africa RISING – Happenings stories.
 * // Consent forms: //** – If one is to make a story with a picture of a farmer or a child, he / she should make sure that he/she has a signed consent form allowing him / her to use a photo for the farmer and / or the child. All consent forms should be obtained from Peter Ngowi