India has experienced rapid growth in potato production during recent past and the country has almost doubled its potato production during 2003–2013. The potato productivity improved 31.4% over this period of time. However, potato production scenario in southern states of India is quite grim and with the result potato consumers of these states always have to purchase potatoes at very high prices compared to the national average prices.

Bernard Bett, Senior Scientist, ILRI, at the side event, “Measuring and Evaluating Resilience in Drylands of East Africa.” IFPRI 2020 conference on Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security, May 15-17, 2014, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. More information at http://www.2020resilience.ifpri.info

Challenge Program Water and Food: Basin Focal Project NIGER

Faced with increasing food and water insecurity as a result of climatic and

anthropogenic (demography, land use) changes, the CGIAR Challenge Program

for Water and Food commissioned research in 10 river basins to study the links

between water, food and poverty. Looking at the Niger river basin, we carry out

a diagnosis of the hydrologic and agronomic potential, before attempting to

identify how good agricultural water management may reduce vulnerability in the

The Basin Focal Project Volta (BFP Volta) was developed along three main steps:

Assessment of present conditions of the distribution of rural poverty, of farming

systems with their productivity and water productivity;

Analysis of opportunities and risks, especially under the double pressure of demography

and possible climate change, and modeling of water resources to identify sensitivity of

water allocation to development and climate scenarios; and

Identification of research gaps and implementation plan.

The study was conducted in central zone, Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, aimed with assessment of breeding practices and evaluation of estrus synchronization of dairy cattle. The study of the survey covered 180 households found in per-urban and rural areas of Ahferom, Adwa and Laelay michew district which included 113 in rural areas and 67 in per-urban areas of the districts. The Information was collected from secondary data, group discussion, AI technician, household level survey questionnaire, farm visit and personal observations.

In Ethiopia, genetic improvement of the indigenous cattle for dairy production, focusing on crossbreeding, has been practised for the last five decades, albeit with little success.

Selection as an improvement tool has been given less emphasis and as such there have

been no systematic and organized selection schemes for cattle genetic improvement in

Ethiopia. In addition, little or no genetic improvement work targeted at improving beef