Project Conducted for the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) in IFAD

Liberia is one of the Sub-Saharan African countries with a higher dependency on rainfed-agriculture. It is also characterized by diverse socio-economic and institutional vulnerabilities that expose the agricultural sector to a myriad of risks including weather, biological, infrastructural, market and policy-related.

 This report presents a systematic assessment of risks affecting Liberia’s agricultural sector. It identifies the top five priority risks as: 1) high precipitation (floods); 2) post-harvest losses; 3) crop pest and diseases; 4) livestock pest and diseases; 5) price risk; and 6) political risk. Drawing on robust quantifications, stakeholder consultations and analysis, the report also provides regional and sub-sectorial analysis of these risks. It goes on to map the existing policies for risk management and recommends tools for further improvement in risk management mechanisms.

Informational Assessment of Agricultural Risk Management Information Systems (IFAD)

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) IP: Alberto Garido

The uncontrolled growth of typha weed or cattail (Typha spp, Typha domingensis) in channels, rivers and agricultural land of the irrigation schemes of northern Nigeria has been of great concern during the last decades and its control has become a priority for the Federal Government. Several solutions have been implemented with different degrees of success. The problem is not solved yet and typha has become a real agricultural and environmental challenge with important social implications for the local communities depending on agriculture and livestock production for living. The authors of this project believe that with a multifocal approach a more feasible solution can be found while taking advantage of all the work previously done. This multifocal strategy proposed consists essentially in the use of a novel and exclusive technology to convert typha biomass into biogas with selected natural microorganisms developed at the University of Maryland, and at the same time apply novel processes to optimize the use of typha as a valuable ingredient for animal production in an economic and sustainable manner. Specific harvesting strategies adapted to each particular use and to the ecosystems of the irrigation schemes are considered having in mind what we have learned from experiences in 4 other parts of the world. ?The possibility of using this novel and unique technologies for the economic conversion of typha biomass into biogas and animal feed with improved efficiency confer to this project a totally new approach and will bring to the Nigerian people the opportunity of transforming the invasive typha weed into biogas to use locally in their communities and at the same time develop the use of typha directly as a raw material for animal feed, when harvested in early stages of plant growth of the plant or after ensiling to use during the dry season

IP: Eva Iglesias

Coord: Fernando Escribano

Ana Tarquis/Davis Rivas-GI Sistemas Complejos

Eduardo Aguilera- GI Contaminación de Agroecosistemas por Prácticas Agrícolas (COAPA)

Dolores Carro Y Trinidad De Evans- DEP Producciones Agrarias

The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability and quality of information for agricultural risk management purposes in a set of African countries. Both the existence of the information and the timely and useful access by stakeholders at micro-meso-macro1 level (and their interconnections) for risk management purposes will be assessed. The gaps on information and access tools for the main stakeholders (smallholders, commercial farmers, microfinance institutions, value chain, private investors, donors and governments) will be assessed and, whenever possible, compared across countries. A special emphasis will be made on two groups of users of ARM-IS: at micro level the usefulness and timely access of smallholders to information for Agricultural Risk Management purposes; at macro level the usefulness and access for the Government and policy makers. The identification of external (regional) and internal (national) factors that impact on the performance of the information system will be also evaluated in the study. The approach will be holistic, covering all sources of risks in agriculture, in particular risks from weather, production, prices, plant animal and human health and policy. The study will cover information at different levels of aggregation: from information at individual farm or household level to information at country level. The report will make an evaluation of the availability of and accessibility to agricultural risk management information in the seven countries. It will develop and use appropriate indicators or methodologies to compare the situation among them and with other countries. The main focus of the informational assessment will be on the existence and timely access to information about agricultural risks in each country. The information on risks takes the form of measurements of variability over time in the main variables affecting production and markets, or the frequency and damage caused by shocks. It can also take the form of early warning information of major events or changes in trend. Most of the underlying information required to develop these risk related indicators is also useful for many purposes beyond risk management. Information Systems will be useful for agricultural risk management purposes to the extent that they provide information about variability overtime, shocks or changes in trend, or, at least, they allow to estimate them.

• IP: Alberto Garrido