Maize Lethal Necrosis, BXW, ASARECA, Pests and Diseases, Fusarium Wilt, CBSD, CMD, Africa, Ecological Nichie Modeling, Brian Isabirye

1. Management of Major Plant Pests
and Diseases in ECA: Past, Present
and Future Initiatives and Plans at
ASARECA.
14-17th April, 2014, Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi-Kenya
By
Brian E. Isabirye*, Ivan Rwomushana and Fina Opio
Presented at the FAO Workshop on Regional Platform for Plant Pests
and Diseases
*P O Box 765, Entebbe, Plot 5 Mpigi Road, Entebbe, Uganda
Tel: +256 414 321885 Mobile: +256 772 352739
www.asareca.org
Email: b.isabirye@asareca.org/ brianisabirye@yahoo.com

2. Global Food Security…
More than 800 million people do not have adequate food;
1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day.
The supply of food in the developing countries will have to
rise by around 7 per cent by 2020 to feed the 6.5 billion
people in the world.
Food demand will double by 2050, requiring a 40% increase
in cereal production or and an additional 100-200 million
hectares of land.
Abiotic stresses (Pests and Diseases) are ever increasing:
At least 10% of global food production is lost to plant
diseases!

3. Global Food Security…

4. Pests + Diseases: Now Enter Climate Change!!!
Dry lands
Kinyasungwi
river, Tanzania
Mt.
Kilimanjaro, disappearin
Protests on high food prices

5. COUNTRY SITUATION
Burundi 28% are food insecure, while 53
% of children under 5 stunted and
8 % have acute malnutrition
D.R. Congo 3.7 million severely food insecure
and 17.2 million moderately food
insecure people. Acute
malnutrition affects 11 % of
children under 5.
Eritrea 37 % of population are food
insecure, and import 50 % of
cereal.
Ethiopia 8.2 million people are chronically
food insecure. 40% of the
provinces food insecure. 38 % of
the children under 5 are
underweight.
Kenya 3.8 million people need
emergency food aid. 2.5 million in
urban areas are chronically food
insecure.
Food in ECA Region: A snap Short
Madagascar 33 % are undernourished, while 50 percent of children are
malnourished.
COUNTRY SITUATION
Rwanda 1.7 million people in needed food
assistance of whom 294,000 were severely
food insecure
Sudan In South Sudan over 60 percent of the
returnees were (2011) food insecure and in
some areas 20 percent of the residents
were food insecure. In Darfur 1.7 million
people were food insecure.
Tanzania Food insecurity is present everywhere in
rural areas. 30 percent are food insecure or
are vulnerable. 34 percent of children under
5 are underweight or stunted and 6 percent
are severely malnourished.
Uganda Food insecurity is everywhere affecting 50
percent of the country in most years. In
2006, nearly 7 million were highly and 4
million rural people were moderately
vulnerable.

6. What cuts across ECA Countries?
Countries in the region are facing similar
challenges to improve agriculture’s performance.
Food production in the region is consistently
lower than population growth while poverty is
increasing
Agro-ecological zones cut across political
boundaries, and therefore, similar technologies
needed.
Great untapped opportunities to promote
agricultural led growth through sharing of
Agricultural research in regional collective action,
collaboration and specialization

7. ASARECA
……
Vision
Regional leader in AR4D for improved
livelihoods in Eastern and Central Africa
Mission
Enhance regional collective action in
AR4D, training and education to promote
economic growth, fight poverty, eradicate
hunger and enhance sustainable resource use.
Goal
Enhanced sustainable productivity, value
added and competitiveness of the sub-
regional agricultural system

8. Facilitate the generation of TIMPs for the sub-region.
Dissemination and up-scaling of appropriate TIMPs
across borders.
Ensuring an enabling policy environment for
agricultural transformation.
Enhancing institutional and stakeholder capacities for
innovation generation
A regional hub and think tank for knowledge,
information and learning.
What we do

9. Overview of our Past (OPI) and Future (OPII)
Currently, ASARECA has a 10 years Strategic Plan-
2009-2018
OPI and OPII are implementation plans for the last
and the next 5-year segments of delivery of the
strategic plan
OPII will address issues and opportunities that allow
delivery in a new, more effective way
OPII incorporates change and IAR4D-based
research programmes
Natural Resource Management and Eco-
systems Services
Market, Market Linkages and Trade
Sustainable Agriculture and FN: Pests and
Diseases!

10. Plant Pests and Diseases at ASARECA
Past Initiatives

11. Bananas
Sustainable Management of Banana
Xanthomonas Wilt within Banana
Cropping Systems in Eastern and Central
Africa 2009-2011. US$ 398,458.18
Enhanced Management of Banana
Xanthomanas Wilt for Sustainable Banana
Productivity in East and Central Africa:
2009-2011. US$ 483,675.00

12. Bananas…
Out Scaling Banana Xanthomonas Wilt
(BXW) Control in East and Central
Africa, 2012-2013. US$ 500,000.
Results:
•Recommended BXW control technologies in affected
communities in ECA scaled out
•Adoption of policy options that support effective
implementation of BXW control enhanced
•Institutional and technical capacities to sustainably
manage BXW and increase access of banana to markets
built
•Availability of information and knowledge for management
of BXW enhanced

13. Cassava
Mega Project on Improved Cassava Productivity and
Utilisation in Eastern And Central Africa.. Address
the constraints (CMD and CBSD) along the value chain
in an integrated multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary
manner in ECA. Period: 2008- 2011: US$ 4,955,000.00
Integrated Management of Cassava Brown Streak
Disease and Cassava Mosaic Disease for
Enhanced Productivity and Utilisation of
Cassava in ECA:
2008-2013. US$ 642,303.00
The Eastern Africa Agricultural Productivity
Program (EAAPP) is strengthening and scaling up
regional cooperation in generation of cassava
technology, training, and dissemination under
cassava RCoE

14. SorghumIntegrated Striga Management for Improved Sorghum
Productivity in ECA. To increase sorghum productivity by reducing
crop losses caused by Striga and create market opportunities. 2009-
2011. US$ 370,231.70.
Integrated Striga Management
for Improved Sorghum
Productivity in ECA. 2009-2011.
US$ 143,868.84
Sorghum-LegumeIntercrop

15. Sorghum…Enhancing Sorghum Adaptability to
Climate Change – Striga Resistance and
Drought Tolerance Traits Pyramiding
through Biotechnological Approaches.
2011-2013. US$ 536,480
Evaluation of Striga Resistant Farmer Preferred
Sorghum varieties in the ECA. 2011. US$ 210,059
Fighting Striga: Resistance
Genes Deployed to Boost
Sorghum Productivity. 2009-
2011. US$ 436,091

16. Livestock Forages
Napier Grass Smut and Stunt Resistance.
To mitigate the effects of Napier diseases on smallholder dairy in ECA. 2007-2010. US $ 600,300

17. Seed Systems Interventions
Establishment of a
Genetic
Transformation
Platform for
Cassava in the ECA
Applying tissue Culture to
Improve Access to Cassava and
Sweet potato Clean Planting
Materials for Farmers in
Eastern and Central Africa
Rationalization and Harmonization of
Policies, Laws, Regulations and Procedures for Key
Agricultural Sectors in ECA

18. Current Initiatives and Future Plans

19. Upscaling the various pest and disease TIMPs developed in OPI or available in the
region. Build upon past successes and lessons.
Facilitate the arrest and containment of the spread of endemic and emerging pests
and diseases in ECA
Support NARS to sustainably manage transboundary pests and diseases in ECA.
Carry out research to generate new information and TIMPs for sustainable
management of pests and diseases (MLN, Fruit fly, Fusarium)
Establishment ECA coordination mechanisms for coordination of agreed research and
development agenda and to monitor pest and disease movements
Improve knowledge and information flow and utilization in the region on pests and
diseases management.
Need to align and refocus our roles in the region:

20. Pest and Disease forecast models for
mapping and identifying hotspots in ECA

21. Bactrocera invadens (Diptera: Tephritidae

22. African rice gall midge (AfRGM), Orseolia oryzivora

23. Currently
Losses & Gains
2050
2020
Maize Lethal Necrosis!!!
ASARECA, 2013; Rwomushana et al., 2014 (In press)

24. Panama disease of banana (Fusarium oxysporum)!!!

25. Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD)!!!

26. Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD)!!!

27. Cassava Plantation.
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Mathematical Models

28. Proposed ECA Pest and Disease Decision Support System
Agricultural
Extension
.
ASARECA 3 Themes
Pest and Disease
Modeling, DSS Tools Forecast
& Seasonal Outlooks
Decision-
Making
Satellite Remote Sensing
Crop and Environmental
Data Products Forewarning Decision
Support System
User Community
Extension & Training
Policy Making
Farm DecisionsASARECA
KI-Hub
Pest and Disease
Outbreak
Integrated
Pest & Disease
Portal
ECA Regional
Policy Actors
Pest and Disease
Outbreak
Motha, 2013

29. Thank You
Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)
Email: asareca@asareca.org; Website: www.asareca.org

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Snapshots of our work

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Snapshots of our work

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Snapshots of our work

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