Overview of the ifad funded clca project

1. Overview of the IFAD-Funded CLCA Project
Integrated Crop-Livestock Conservation Agriculture for
Sustainable Intensification of Cereal-based Systems in
North Africa and Central Asia
Hichem BEN SALEM
Director DSIPSP
ICARDA Focal Point CRP DS
Annual Consultation Meeting
IFAD - ICARDA
Amman
October 21-22, 2014

2. Outline
2
1. Briefs on Integrated farming systems and CA
2. Presentation of the CLCA project
3. Achievements
4. Strengthening partnership
5. Concluding remarks

3. 3
Integrated Crop-Livestock?
Production
• Farms operating on marginal profit
• Economic vulnerability with specialized production
• High cost of fuel and nutrients
• Pests become greater with monocultures
• Yield decline could be overcome with rotation
Environment
• Nutrient recycling could be improved in both systems
(Conventional Agric. and CA)
• Conservation of soil and water possible with sod-based
management systems

4. Why Conservation Agriculture?
Soil
• better soil structure (OM)
• better soil-water dynamics (porosity)
• better nutrient recycling (NPK)
• improved trafficability
Economic
advantages
Minimal soil
disturbance
Environmental
advantages
Stubble retention
Crop
• early sowing
• higher yield potential
• savings - time,
machinery, fuel
Environment
• less pollution
• less erosion
• C sequestration
(1%C = 33t/ha)
High production, profit,
sustainability benefits
CA cropping
4

5. 5
Global challenges
• Can the different components of the farming
system (crop, livestock) be efficiently integrated?
• Livestock and no-till cropping farms may co-exist?
Stubbles
• for livestock feeding
• to increase OM level in the soil
Take ???? Leave ????
• Are the farmers willing to grow forage legumes or change their
crop rotation pattern?

6. IFAD-CLCA Project
– Countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Tajikistan
– Period: Jan. 2013- Jan. 2016 (3 years)
– Budget: US$ 1,500,000
– Source of Funding: IFAD
6
CLCA project
Objective - Through integrated and participatory
research with farmers, NARES will develop and test
innovative approaches (i.e. reduced tillage) and
management (i.e. improved cropping options) options
and practices (i.e. residue management through
restricted grazing) for the adoption of integrated CLCA
by small holder farmers

7. 7
Originalities & Challenges
Among the originalities
• CA introduced for the first time in Tajikistan
• Crop-Livestock integration
• Crop-Livestock integration under CA
• CA in small/medium farms
• CA in semiarid areas
Challenges
• No research data on CA in semiarid areas
• No research data on integrated crop-livestock under CA
• Target areas experience short and long term drought
• Changing rainfall patterns

8. Participatory Approach in This Project
8
Communities
farmers
M’Sila – Setif
Chouarnia – Laroussa
Rasht Valley
Fergana Valley
Gissar Valley
Research
ICARDA
INRAT, INAT, ESAM
ITGC
TRIF, TRISS, TRV, TRIE
Donor
IFAD
Administ.
CRDA-Siliana
INGC
Population
Informal local
institution
Policy
makers
- Governorate/district
- Ministry of Agric.
- Etc.
1
5
4
2
3

9. Project agenda
Part 1 - Understanding and responding to the trade-offs,
constraints and opportunities for the adoption of the crop-livestock
CA systems in project areas of CWANA
Outputs
1. Ex-ante evaluation for CA based technologies in CWANA,
proposed activities and milestones
2. Enhanced crop-livestock integration in CA through
optimized stubble grazing strategies and increased
fodder availability from forages or fodder shrubs
3. Site-specific conservation agriculture technology
packages fine-tuned and disseminated for enhanced
farm productivity, resource use efficiency and
profitability 9

10. 10
Project agenda
Part 2 - Knowledge management and dissemination
Output
Enhanced capacity development, co-learning, knowledge and
information dissemination in the target areas and across CWANA
4. Enhanced capacity development, co-learning, knowledge and
information dissemination in the target areas and across
CWANA

11. 11
Achievements – Output 1 Ex-Ante evaluation
Output
1
Summary Tasks
Progress Progress
Status -2014 Outputs
Ex-Ante
Development of baseline data on farming and tillage practices, crop choices, and
farmer perceptions, in the target regions. New farm surveys will be conducted using a
representative random sample of the farming community including data on crop
residue management, feeding strategies, resource flow maps for ex-ante analysis. The
survey will cover about 400 farms by country per target area giving a total survey of
1200 farms.
Collect relevant secondary data Completed
Completed by the
countries
Design and piloting of household level (farmer) questionnaires Completed
Original copy of the
questionnaire
English (Tajik, Russian, French) translation of questionnaires Completed
Questionnaires in
English, French,
Russian and Tajik are
available
Recruitment & training of enumerators Completed
Several trainings in
each platform
Pre-test questionnaires Completed -
Actual data collection, entry and cleaning (1164 surveys)
• Tunisia: 364
• Tajikistan: 400
• Algeria: 400
completed
Three databases
available on CD
Workshop methodological training
• Tajikistan team (2 trainees – 1 female)
• Algerian team (10 trainees – 7 females)
Completed
Minutes available
12 trainees (8
females)
Preparation of descriptive statistics and reporting Completed
Three reports
available (one per
country)
Capacity Building
Completed Two reports
completed

12. 12
Achievements – Output 2: Enhanced Crop-Livestock
On-station and on-farm stubble grazing experiments
Country 2013-2014 Achievement %
Algeria 1 farm 20 %
Tunisia 8 farms 60%
Tajikistan N/A N/A
• Biomass uptake by the animal
• Variation of the nutritive value of stubbles
• Body weight change
• Amounts of feces/urine excreted by the animal

13. 13
Achievements – Output 2: Enhanced Crop-Livestock
y = -1,594x + 91,842
R² = 0,6883
y = -1,6799x + 90,904
R² = 0,7898
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Yield (%)
Sampling day
Biomass Conv Agri
Biomass CA
About 25 days
50%
Take half and Leave half – Grazing period 25 days

14. 14
Achievements – Output 2: Enhanced Crop-Livestock
Grazing strategies will be evaluated with regard to meeting
the ewe’s nutritional requirements
Country 2013-2014 Achievement %
Algeria 2 on station trial 100%
Tunisia 4 on station trials 60%
Tajikistan N/A N/A
Integration and development of
integrated crop-livestock under CA
• Agronomic package
• Soil fertility

15. 15
Achievements – Output 2: Enhanced Crop-Livestock
The effect of nutrient recycling (fecal excretion) on
soil fertility will be assessed
Country 2013-2014 Achievement %
Algeria 2 on station trials 30%
Tunisia 1 on station trial 30%
Tajikistan N/A N/A

16. 16
Achievements – Output 2: Enhanced Crop-Livestock
Fast growing high biomass and quality fodder species will be
tested on-station and on-farm for compatibility with annual
crops
Country 2013-2014 Achievement %
Algeria 7 on farm and 1 on
station
70%
Tunisia 7 on farm -1 on station
trials
70%
Tajikistan 5 on station 4 on farm
trial
70%
Vetch, double purpose barley, shrub species (Cactus, Atriplex num., etc.)

17. Achievements – Output 3: Fine-tuned CA package
Conduct adaptive trials integrating CA technologies (ZT, crop
rotations, and stubble management) with weed and nutrient
management, and the integration of fodder/grain species in at
least 45 on-farm trials (multi-year, 15 initiated in year one and
an additional 15 initiated each in years two and three), spread
across the three target countries (Tajikistan, Tunisia & Algeria).
Country 2013-2014 Achievement %
Tunisia 4 on-farm trials
2 on-station trials
60%
Algeria 12 on-farm trials
1 on-station trial
80%
Tajikistan 10 on-farm trials 30%
17

18. Achievements – Output 3: Fine-tuned CA package
18
Country CA Package Status Uptake
Algeria Weed control x
rotation x
Livestock
Planting date 100 %
Rotation 30 %
Fertilizer management 80%
Herbicide 50%
Livestock management 40%
13 farmers are testing
Not ready
Tunisia Tillage x
rotation x
Livestock
Planting date 100%
Tillage 75%
Rotation 20%
Fertilizer 80%
Herbicide 100%
Livestock management 60%
50 farmers are testing
Not ready
Tajikistan Tillage x
rotation
Planting date 100%
Tillage 10%
Rotation10%
Fertilizer15%
Herbicide 10%
Livestock 0%
12 farmers are testing
Not ready

19. Achievements – Output 4: Enhanced Capacity development
19
• Training courses: 15 courses and 280 trainees
• Field days: 8 events targeting 357 farmers
• Students: 4 PhDs and 4 undergraduate students
• Media: 2 Movies
• Movie on no-till drill broadcasted on National TV
(Tajikistan)
• Publications: 6 conference papers and 1 manuscript
(in progress)
• 3 Flyers and 2 posters

20. Achievements – Output 4: Enhanced Capacity development
Training courses
Topic Place No Participants Female Outputs
Machinery and ZT technologies Algeria 20 0 1
Socio-Economic survey Algeria 23 5 1
Data management and data analysis using
Algeria 10 7 1
SPSS
Socio-Economic survey Tajikistan 25 10 1
Socio-Economic Jordan 2 1 1
Socio-Economic Algeria 10 7 1
New techniques for sustainable sheep and
Jordan 16 3 2
goat production
Agro-ecological monitoring Jordan 20 5 2
Alley Cropping Jordan 20 5 2
Feed Assessment Tool - FEAST (Conducted
Tunisia 21 14 2
by Jane)
FEAST (Conducted by national team) Tunisia 40 0 2
Desgning experimental protocols Tunisia 10 0 2
Weed management, No-till equipment
and forage production
Tajikistan 26 2 and 3
Crop production under Conservation
Agriculture
Tajikistan 17 3 3
Crop rotation Tunisia 20 0 3
Total 280 60

21. 21
Tradeoffs
Item Gains Losses
Keeping
stubble on
soil
Soil cover Source of animal feeding
Water UE
Enhance soil bio-physico and chemio
caracteristics
Eliminate
plowing
Time
energy More use of herbicides
Enhance soil bio-physical and chemical
characteristics
Rotations Enhance soil bio-physical and chemical
characteristics
Guaranteed market for
cereals
Less weeds Less income
Less diseases
Diversity of food/feed staple
Livestock
integration
Product diversification More labor
Crop diversification (forge crops) More time
Sub products valorization (bales of straw) Management Risks
Manure resource

22. 22
Strengthening partnership
National and International institutions/Projects
• CANA PROJECT (ACIAR, ICARDA, INAT, INGC, INRAT, …)
• CRP 1.1 Program
• INGC (a network of fields under CA, even in the targeted zone of
CLCA)
• GIZ and FAO
Linkage with IFAD Development Projects
• Tunisia – IFAD funded development project in Siliana (CLCA
involvement to start in the current cropping season)

23. 23
Concluding remarks
• This project will be a reference for the integration of crop
and livestock under CA context
• In the absence of literature data, on-station trials are
needed to determine the optimum conditions (e.g. grazing
duration and stocking rates)
• Two cropping seasons are not enough to move from
discovery phase of the technologies/practices (on-station
trials) to pilot phase (on-farm trials, 30 or more farms)
• Linkage with IFAD or other donors funded projects for the
up-scaling phase
• Revise the WP2015 as per the comments of SC members
and IFAD representative

24. Thank you!