Six new projects awarded in third call round 1 Applied Research Fund (ARF)
Six new projects under the first round of the third call of the Food & Business Applied Research Fund (ARF) have received funding from NWO-WOTRO. The new ARF projects will start in the next few months and will take up to three years. All research teams are led by a practitioner organization from one of the fifteen partner countries of Dutch development cooperation. Other team members are Dutch or LMIC research or higher education organizations and, in some cases, also other local enterprises.
Six awarded projects first round of the third ARF Call
The focus of the third call relates to the new Dutch food security policy. The projects are related to one of the following pillars:
- Eradicating existing hunger and malnutrition. (‘people’)
- Promoting inclusive and sustainable growth in the agricultural sector. (‘profit’)
- Creating ecologically sustainable food systems. (‘planet’)
Research proposals also need to invest in the enabling business and policy environment at least at the local level. Bottlenecks at the more systemic level often hamper scaling, application and/or innovation potential.
Please find below a short description of the six awarded projects: on the ARF Research Pages you can find more detailed information on each project.
Valorisation of Moringa leaves to alleviate malnutrition in vulnerable groups in Benin (FortiMoringa)
Moringa oleifera leaves are rich in (micro) nutrients and can be an alternative and affordable solution to overcome the critical situation of maternal and child malnutrition in Benin. This project will develop and share technologies to increase availability and enable the efficient use of Moringa leaf powder to improve nutrition in vulnerable groups in Benin. The project will also improve knowledge on the nutritional, safety and health properties of Moringa leaf powder.
Efficient fish feeds to enable emergence of catfish breeding in Benin (ProfishBenin)
The introduction of low-cost and efficient fish feed in the Benin fish farming system is expected to reduce the cost of fish production and consequently allow access of resource- poor people to affordable sources of good nutrients, in particular protein. This project will develop and promote affordable, nutritive, floating, and easy to use fish feeds based on locally available feed ingredients in Benin.
Enabling Access to Sustainable Irrigation with EASI-Pay for Barsha pumps in Indonesia
Sumba is one of the driest islands in Indonesia Enhancing food-security by enabling year-round farming requires irrigation facility; however, common available solutions such as diesel pumps are too costly. Barsha pumps are hydro-powered pumps, not using any fuel or electricity, so no operating costs are involved. However the upfront costs of the pump are high to be covered from cash-savings, especially for women. EASI-Pay addresses this barrier by piloting Pay-per-harvest model.
Improved Resilience Through Sustainable Production Of Grafted Tomatoes In Uganda (IRESO)
Tomatoes is an important crop in the rural households of Uganda. Bacterial wilt has in recent past shattered their hope as a result of lost revenue and source of nutrition. The Project will promote grafted wilt tolerant tomatoes through participatory and inclusive approach, involve entrepreneurial youth in tomato young plant raising (YPR) as a business and impacting on 4,000 farmers through best production practices, leading to improved wealth, resilience and nutrition.
Scaling-Up “Biochar-Urine Nutrient Cycling for Health” in Bangladesh (BUNCH2Scale)
In Bangladesh, many children are undernourished with diets deficient in vitamins and minerals. Gardening can enrich diets, but soil fertility is often low. Biochar, made with crop waste in soil-pit kilns, is a porous material that transforms urine, an efficient but underutilized fertilizer, into an odourless solid fertilizer. BUNCH2Scale will scale-up biochar-based organic fertilizer through a user-centric system and evaluate the fertilizer’s ability to improve soil and increase plants’ ability to absorb nutrients.
Enhancing Rice-Greengram productivity in Northern Uganda (ERIGNU)
In Northern Uganda, small holder rice farmlands are cultivated every season with little soil nutrient replenishment. This project will introduce green gram in rice cropping system to increase land productivity, improve soil fertility and enhance farmers’ nutrition and income.
WOTRO thank you so much for your choice of the six new projects. They look exciting with practical deliverables that will transform lives of many people at grass root level. In addition to providing the much needed evidence of what works to transform lives, these projects will enhance skills gaps and will be easy to sustain by the beneficiaries at all levels especially community level.