24 February 2012
No. 1507
Participants at the inception workshop of the sorghum for multiple uses (SMU) project held in Nairobi.
Fighting poverty and hunger in the drylands
ICRISAT and Africa Harvest team up in “Sorghum for Multiple Uses” project Sorghum plays an important role in ending hunger and malnutrition in the marginal and drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa. It is the fifth most important cereal crop and is the dietary staple of more than 500 million people in the drylands. A multi-purpose crop, it is used mostly for food purposes, as a source of dry season fodder for livestock, for industries and as fuel for cooking, among others.
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CRISAT, Africa Harvest and partners in Kenya and Tanzania have joined hands to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor, smallholder farming households in rural areas in both countries by developing sorghum varieties and its value chain for multiple uses. This will be carried out through a project titled “Development of a robust commercially sustainable sorghum for multiple uses (SMU) value chain in Kenya and Tanzania” to be funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
As part of this initiative, a two-day inception workshop was held in Nairobi on 15-16 February. The activity brought together key collaborators and partners to map out workplans and identify opportunities for collaboration across the two countries. According to ICRISAT’s Mary Mgonja, Project Leader, the project will support the development and demonstration of new multipurpose sorghum varieties that are high yielding and adapted to both biotic and abiotic stresses in Eastern Kenya and to page 2 ...4