Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet Annual Performance Report FY 2016 October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016 Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab Annual Performance Report – FY 2016 11111111 i Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet Annual Performance Report FY 2016 This annual performance report for FY 2016 is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Kansas State University and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. Program activities are funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-13-00047. Cover photo: A woman threshes millet in a village near Koure, Niger in November 2015. Photo credit: Nat Bascom This publication may be cited as: Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet. October 2016. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet Annual Performance Report FY 2016. Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66 pp. Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab Annual Performance Report – FY 2016 11111111 ii Executive summary The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet completed its third year of programmatic activities in late July 2016. At that point in time, the third year of field-based research activities was firmly in the ground in Ethiopia, Senegal, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, the United States and South Africa after capitalizing upon off-season nurseries in many of the same locations. Harvest will begin in the 2017 fiscal year. Being at the mid-point of the program, research activities can be characterized as being in a “young adult” stage with many activities building upon foundations of initial trials (with attendant “growing pains”) in a search for additional data to build evidentiary bases for field phenotyping, genetic, agronomic and integrated pest management innovations. This field data has been complimented by off-season nurseries and more continuous, and less-seasonal, research and development of value- added food products and attendant food technology and science innovation. New, targeted research projects have been initiated that will contribute to genetic enhancement of sorghum and pearl millet. Near the end of the fiscal year, a new project designed to harness the potential of genomics-assisted sorghum breeding was approved after several months of project development, and will focus on application to a small country context with new collaborations between Haiti, Kansas State University and Cornell University. The pearl millet improvement program is also advancing after the hiring of a pearl millet breeder by Kansas State University in late FY 2015. This program revived the Kansas breeding program and initiated greenhouse studies during the winter. This has led to seasonal field trials, intellectual and materials exchange with the West African breeding team and a field monitoring tour of West African materials in September. Building these research projects has required investment in long-term capacity building through students and post- doctoral researchers. The Lab surpassed its original planning goals for long-term training with the cohort of students starting in the 2016-2017 academic year and this leads us to anticipate even higher numbers by the end of the program. Currently, thirty-eight students are enrolled in degree-seeking post-graduate coursework. In addition to the students that were originally identified in project proposals, intermediate research findings have generated new questions and opportunities. Through judicious use of available and leveraged funding, additional students were mobilized to contribute to the program’s goals. At the same time, food product and IPM technologies are ready for broader uptake. To meet information dissemination needs on these technologies and products, over 2,000 people were contacted through short- term trainings to bridge knowledge differences and adoption impediments. The Management Entity (ME) continues to contribute to human and institutional capacity development in our target countries through environmental management and mitigation support and training, facilitating private-public sector linkages in Ethiopia with the Kansas Department of Agriculture and building cross-cutting research activities on gender, mechanization and livestock. Leveraged university resources are being invested in applied economics research in West Africa and Ethiopia with supervision supplied by the director. The ME is working outside of target countries to build a stronger research and development community by participating in local agricultural field days and STEM outreach activities to emphasize the domestic and international linkages in sorghum and pearl millet science. The director has assumed leadership of the Innovation Lab Council, which is the umbrella group facilitating interaction between USAID and the Innovation Lab directors and staff. Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab Annual Performance Report – FY 2016 11111111 iii Table of contents Executive summary.......................................................................................................................................................................................... ii Table of contents ............................................................................................................................................................................................ iii Management entity information ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 External Advisory Board information ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Focus countries ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Ethiopia .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Senegal ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Niger .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Mali and Burkina Faso ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 List of program partners ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 United States ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Ethiopia .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Senegal ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Niger .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Mali ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Burkina Faso ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Germany ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 France............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Republic of South Africa ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Acronyms........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Program activities and highlights .................................................................................................................................................................