NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK

TELEFOOD SPECIAL FUND PROJECT FORMAT

"Rapid Propagation of Improved Root Crop Planting Material"

Target group
Poor small farmers groups at village or district level in rural areas who, due to remoteness, have had limited access to healthy disease-free planting material.

Background and justification
Numerous studies have revealed that in many tropical countries the field production of several root and tuber crops (cassava, sweet potato and potato) is severely reduced by a complex of virus diseases and nematode infection much of it sourced with the planting material at the time of crop establishment. This phenomenon of "degeneration" leads to long growing cycles with reduced yield of diminishing quality. Unfortunately due to the isolation of many producers fields in the rural areas, the rehabilitation and renewal of the planting material does not occur frequently. Therefore production continues to be much lower than what is achievable leading to a poor efficiency of utilisation of labour inputs and fertilizers.

Production of healthy vegetative propagules of suitably adapted cultivars within a healthy mother block environment could be developed as a small scale specialised activity by a group of interested farmers, thereby ensuring disease free planting material for their own plantations and for sale to other local growers. Due to the inevitable re-infection of these mother blocks they would need to be re-established periodically with fresh certified material.

Pre-requisites
A number of pre-requisites need to be satisfied before project assistance should be considered, specifically:

• a local willingness to participate in and contribute to the programme both at governmental ad community level;
• an institution (government or NGO) capable of initiating and supervising the programme in the project area, as well as providing other essential inputs not covered by TeleFood;
• Advisors/extension staff trained in horticulture, preferably with experience in vegetable production and marketing, and with a good understanding of the local cultural environment and farming system practices.

Objectives
This project will be instrumental in assisting a group of farmers to develop small-scale mother and multiplication blocks of selected certified disease-free root and tuber crops. The use of simple technology to rapidly multiply this healthy planting material to allow swift establishment of healthy plantings will benefit directly those farmers participating in the programme. It will involve the establishment of local mother blocks of certified healthy planting material of selected root and tuber crops, and rapid multiplication by local farmers in nursery beds of this material.

Duration of the project: Typically one year.

Outputs
Through the use of improved and healthy planting material it is expected that a breakthrough will be achieved in the use of appropriate cultivars suitably adapted to the region and season and with the required pest and disease resistance. Furthermore the use of healthy disease-free root and tuber planting material will lead to higher returns to the grower and shorter production cycles for these crops. This results in a more efficient utilisation of the available land, reduces marginal costs of production and more efficient utilisation of labour. This combined with increases in yield leads to a significant improvement in the return to the farmer.

Activities
The project is intended to accelerate the use and dissemination of "high quality" and healthy planting material. This will be achieved by:

• establishing in selected districts/municipalities/villages a collection of selected true to type and quality certified planting material of cultivars suitably adapted to the region and meeting the requirements of the market (i.e. consumers' preferences in terms of flavour, colour, quality etc.). Routine pest control will need to be undertaken to control the activity of virus vectors.
• From this, the village level farmers groups should initiate rapid propagation in nursery beds for their own use and also distribution to other farmers. Each of these plots will also need fencing, but also provision of water reservoir facilities and rudimentary irrigation delivery systems. High growth rates will be required in the nursery, so soil should be sterilised to eliminate nematode infection, and use of fertilisers to promote rapid development will be essential. Routine pest control of the virus vectors will need to be undertaken at the nursery level.
• It is recognized that re-infection will occur anyway, but it has been proven that the farmer can gain a substantial return lasting several seasons from using improved high quality planting material, due to its inherent vigour from a lack of debilitating disease, and the dilution effect on the inoculum of establishing new blocks entirely composed of healthy planting material.
• Re-establishment of the mother blocks can be undertaken every three to four years as required, with costs confined to soil sterilization and re-supply of elite planting material.

Linkages with other (FAO) projects
To be defined in each country.

Inputs/Budget
Assuming an initial target population of 50 farm families:

Monitoring and Reporting
The national implementing agency will be responsible for providing FAO with quarterly and final reports in an agreed format. The FAO Representation will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the project and ensuring, through independent audit, that the funds are used correctly.