African Agricultural Technology Foundation

Abstract While wildlife management efforts have primarily focused on protected areas, unprotected areas – including community‐owned lands – are becoming increasingly important as habitat linkages and dispersal areas between multiple protected areas for species and processes that sustain them. However, these unprotected areas and community lands often lack structured protection measures and face numerous threats to both species and habitats. Involvement of local communities in the management of these areas through community‐led strategies can enhance safety for both people and wildlife, thereby promoting coexistence. To examine the effectiveness of community‐led strategies for managing wildlife outside protected areas, we fit multi‐season occupancy models on African elephant (Loxodonta africana) sightings data collected by volunteer Village Game Scouts (VGS) while on irregular and demand‐driven patrols within Mwanga district in Northern Tanzania. Patrol data were processed using the Spatial Monitoring And Reporting Tool (SMART). We estimated elephant probability of occupancy, detection, colonization and extinction, identifying key elephant dispersal areas in the community‐modified areas within the district. Our results indicate that proximity to Tsavo West National Park and the availability of seasonal water sources positively influenced the probability of elephant colonization. In contrast, the proportion of built‐up and farmed areas, and distance to permanent water sources, negatively influenced the probability of colonization. The number of scout patrols did not significantly influence the probability of elephant colonization or extinction, and elephant occupancy remained relatively stable during the study period. Our study highlights the complementary role of non‐protected areas in maintaining populations of endangered species such as elephants. We demonstrate that structured, volunteer community‐led strategies coupled with effective communication with authorities, can be used to monitor wildlife spatial distribution and identify factors influencing their distribution in non‐protected areas. We recommend community‐led protection measures for corridors and dispersal areas, as well as transboundary collaboration to maintain landscape connectivity for endangered species such as elephants.

Rice consumption is on an upward trajectory worldwide based on changes in eating habits, population growth, and ease of cooking and yet rice production is not keeping up. There are many constraints including abiotic stresses that significantly reduce rice yields and hence lower rice production. Iron (Fe) toxicity is one of the abiotic stresses that affect lowland rice ecology, mostly under poorly drained field conditions. Excessive iron uptake can lead to complete crop failure if the planted variety is highly sensitive. Fortunately, sources of Fe toxicity tolerance have been reported in both cultivated and wild rice and breeding efforts have resulted in improved rice varieties that are tolerant to this stress. Genetic mapping has led to the identification of several quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with iron toxicity tolerance. However, understanding the molecular mechanism for tolerance to Fe toxicity is limited. This chapter will cover key achievements in breeding for Fe toxicity tolerance in rice with a key focus on molecular breeding.

Hunting may be the greatest threat to wildlife populations across the Congo basin. Large-bodied species are the most vulnerable; alterations in assemblages of such keystone species can affect many important ecological functions. There may be a reduction or loss of ecological services, such as seed dispersal. Monitoring functional diversity within a wildlife community alongside descriptions of wildlife community structure (abundances and species richness) increases understanding of how well a system can withstand disturbance, or recover following it (i.e., its ecological resilience). Between 2002 and 2016, changes in wildlife abundance and diversity of functional traits related to resource use and energy flow were monitored in a tropical forest wildlife community in southeast Cameroon, where hunting activities have escalated in the last decade. Wildlife abundances significantly decreased by 2009, and species richness and functional diversity declined by 2016. This reduction in functional diversity suggests that the wildlife community has been considerably altered, compromising ecological functions, and indicating the start of ecological decay. The study found a significant reduction in keystone species, such as great apes and elephants, suggesting that their decline as a result of hunting is leading to ecological imbalance. The results suggest that, beyond a certain threshold of wildlife decline, wildlife community collapse and ecological decay are likely. Identifying such thresholds can inform sustainable wildlife management and help monitor the health or integrity of the ecosystem, and its ability to provide globally significant ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and storage.

Protected areas (PAs) play an important role in conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, yet their effectiveness is undermined by funding shortfalls. Using lions (Panthera leo) as a proxy for PA health, we assessed available funding relative to budget requirements for PAs in Africa's savannahs. We compiled a dataset of 2015 funding for 282 state-owned PAs with lions. We applied three methods to estimate the minimum funding required for effective conservation of lions, and calculated deficits. We estimated minimum required funding as $978/km2 per year based on the cost of effectively managing lions in nine reserves by the African Parks Network; $1,271/km2 based on modeled costs of managing lions at ≥50% carrying capacity across diverse conditions in 115 PAs; and $2,030/km2 based on Packer et al.'s [Packer et al. (2013) Ecol Lett 16:635-641] cost of managing lions in 22 unfenced PAs. PAs with lions require a total of $1.2 to $2.4 billion annually, or ∼$1,000 to 2,000/km2, yet received only $381 million annually, or a median of $200/km2 Ninety-six percent of range countries had funding deficits in at least one PA, with 88 to 94% of PAs with lions funded insufficiently. In funding-deficit PAs, available funding satisfied just 10 to 20% of PA requirements on average, and deficits total $0.9 to $2.1 billion. African governments and the international community need to increase the funding available for management by three to six times if PAs are to effectively conserve lions and other species and provide vital ecological and economic benefits to neighboring communities.

Use and adoption of mechanization in cassava farming has the potential to increase yield if combined well with good agronomic practices. Promotion of machines in Nigeria has been occurring since th...

Drought and poor soil fertility are among the major abiotic stresses affecting maize productivity in sub‐Saharan Africa. Maize breeding efforts at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have focused on incorporating drought stress tolerance and nitrogen‐use efficiency (NUE) into tropical maize germplasm. The objectives of this study were to estimate the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) of selected maize inbred lines under drought stress (DS), low‐nitrogen (LN) and optimum moisture and nitrogen (optimum) conditions, and to assess the yield potential and stability of experimental hybrids under these management conditions. Forty‐nine experimental three‐way cross hybrids, generated from a 7 × 7 line by tester crosses, and six commercial checks were evaluated across 11 optimum, DS and LN sites in Kenya in 2014 using an alpha lattice design with two replicates per entry at each site. DS reduced both grain yield (GY) and plant height (PH), while anthesis–silking interval (ASI) increased under both DS and LN. Hybrids ‘L4/T2’ and ‘L4/T1’ were found to be superior and stable, while inbreds ‘L4’ and ‘L6’ were good combiners for GY and other secondary traits across sites. Additive variance played a greater role for most traits under the three management conditions, suggesting that further progress in the improvement of these traits should be possible. GY under optimum conditions was positively correlated with GY under both DS and LN conditions, but GY under DS and LN was not correlated. Our results suggest the feasibility for simultaneous improvement in grain yield performance of genotypes under optimum, DS and LN conditions.

The debate around genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa continues to grow especially among policy-makers, food manufacturers, farmer organisation and consumer advocacy groups and the general public. While other regions have taken a firm position on biotech crops, Africa remains largely ambivalent, with wide variation in GM policy across countries. The central objective of this paper is to analyse the factors that influence the adoption of GM crops in Africa. First we evaluate the current status of GM crop adoption in Africa. Second we identify the key enablers and hindrances to adoption of GM crops. The main factors include ministerial control of biosafety, peer country influence, stage of seed sector development, advocacy by key political figures, the media, activism, food security and technical capacity. We posit that, for most African countries, GM policy is guided by political rather than technological considerations with media and special interest groups playing a key role. Despite the numerous impediments, slow progress is being made in preparing the requisite enabling environment for biotechnology adoption in Africa.