LINKING COMMUNITIES AND SCIENCE TO FEED MORE PEOPLE
East Gate Extension (EGX) bridges the gap between the struggles of smallholder farmers and the solutions of science. We assess local agricultural production constraints, identify the best science and expertise for the needs of each unique agricultural production system, then equip community organizations (civic or religious institutions) to transfer this knowledge through demonstration farms, seminars, or literature.
In many parts of Asia, rice crops are irrigated with rain provided during the monsoon wet season. But monsoons are sometimes too much of a good thing, causing young rice plants to be submerged and destroyed.
Yet, scientists have discovered wild rice varieties which tolerate being submerged, and are using them to breed new high yielding rice varieties which can survive total submersion for up to 14 days. Septiningsih et al. 2009
Food Security
There is a global race between population growth and food production. Estimates are by the year 2050, the population could require a 70% to nearly 100% increase in the food supply; a significant challenge, but one which can be met. Across the globe, a small army of scientists and agriculturalists are working to uncover the science necessary to meet this challenge. And despite the earth’s finite resources, their research is enabling us to produce more and more, with fewer and fewer resources.
Currently, the number of undernourished in the world roughly equates to the populations of South America, the United States, and Canada, combined.
Bananas (Musa spp.) are the fourth most important crop in the least developed countries (FAOSTAT, 2015), where they are primarily produced and consumed by poor farming families. Currently, there is an epidemic destroying banana crops across the globe. Panama disease, caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum, poses a threat to banana crops almost everywhere they are grown. But scientists are working quickly to develop new banana varieties with genetic immunity to this disease.
Amazingly, the same fungus is being researched for use as a biopesticide against one of the most devastating weeds in Africa, Striga, also commonly known as Witchweed.
Intensive grazing of livestock, in which too many animals are concentrated on an area of land, can decimate a landscape, stripping it of vegetation, leaving soils at risk of wind and water erosion. Thankfully, research is revealing new grazing strategies, coupled with precisely selected forages, can increase animal nutrition, decrease the occurrence of disease, build soil health, and improve the agro-ecosystem. All this while increasing meat and milk productivity, yet decreasing the amount of land required. Cabrera et al. 2017
For optimum growth, plants require more nitrogen than any other soil nutrient, and inadequate nitrogen often reduces crop yields for poor farmers who can't afford to purchase fertilizers. Even more challenging, certain soil bacteria also use large amounts of nitrogen, making this nutrient store unavailable to the crop.
While studying the effects of nitrogen from cattle waste, researchers have begun to focus on specific chemicals, naturally produced by plant roots, which can effectively shut down bacterial activity, giving plants an edge on available nitrogen. Termed biological nitrification inhibitors (BNI), it is now hoped these natural plant compounds can be boosted in other crops, increasing plant available nitrogen, thus increasing yields without expensive fertilizers. Byrnes et al. 2017
Extension?
Smallholder farmers (poor farmers, subsisting from small plots of land) in the developing world often live in nations with ineffective systems for sharing and demonstrating improved farming techniques. This process of sharing, teaching, and demonstrating the latest solutions of agricultural science is often termed “EXTENSION”. Systems of agricultural extension have been extremely effective in the United States. For over a century, American producers have had access to a local expert, an “extension agent”, whose singular role was to pass along advice from the results of agricultural research of universities, to the farmer who would utilize that advice on their farm. Farmers in the developing world haven’t had the same access to "extension".
The Gap
The need is obvious. The technology is available. But why are there still so many who struggle to eat? One major reason is the gap between the ongoing advances in agricultural science and the smallholder farming families who could significantly benefit from these breakthroughs. Scientists across the globe are continually developing better tools such as crop varieties that tolerate heat or drought, more resource-efficient crops, or crops resistant to insect damage or disease. Yet, too often these new "tools" never reach the farmers who need them, and scientists developing these tools readily admit a lack of people and processes to effectively disseminate new tools. This is the Gap. EGX closes the gap by linking community networks and organizations that need agricultural expertise, with scientists and researchers who need community networks.
