Embrapa and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), with headquarters in Cali (Colombia), under the coordination of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), started the impact assessment of the Regional Project for the Strengthening of the Cotton Sector in the Low Shire and Zambeze Basins, in the African countries Malawi and Mozambique. The project, which has been ongoing since early 2015,reached the final phase of the first stage. The Embrapa researchers participated in different phases of the project, including as support to ABC in the conception, coordination, implementation - with special emphasis on the process of training African technicians -, and the structuring of the cotton seed production system. The data collection for the assessment was held between October and November in both countries; it included a sample comprising 284 farmers from the two regions that received and introduced seeds from the Project in their croplands, as well as control groups (farmers who did not receive seeds from the project), and aims at assessing economic impacts. A second sample with 90 interviewees, involving farmers who planted the basic seeds to supply the Project, rural extension technicians, researchers and executives of African institutions, aims at assessing social-environmental and institucional impacts and scalability. The second stage of the project is currently under negotiation. The team from Embrapa was asked to participate in the assessment by ABC as a result of their recognized experience in multidimensional impact assessment, whose results are annually published in the Social Report. As for CIAT, the center was selected through an international call promoted by ABC and managed by UNDP (United Nations Development Program), given its enormous experience in the subject, especially in African countries. CIAT is part of CGIAR, ian institution that coordinates scientific investigation conducted by 15 research centers that work in the fields of food security, reducing rural poverty, and improving health and human nutrition. First results of the assessment Preliminary analyses of the impact assessment indicate that the farmers who planted the basic cotton seeds were able to triple their production. “Before, they would harvest about 500 - 600 kilos per hectare; since the project, they started to produce between 1,500 and 2,000 kilos per hectare”, affirmed the researcher from Embrapa's Secretariat of Intelligence and Strategic Relations (SIRE), Flavio Avila, one of the people responsible for the collecting the data of the second sample. As a development from this increase in productivity, Avila observes that the cotton seed producers were able to increase income and started to live with more quality of life, better diets, and even purchased goods like motorcycles and traction animals to use in their farms. Besides the Project's impact assessment in itself, ABC is interested in using Embrapa and CIAT's experience to establish their own system to monitor and assess the impact of technical cooperation projects involving products and areas other than cotton and that are being implemented in other regions of the world. Check some preliminary results from the project (original news articles in Portuguese): Rural extension agent at the Shire-Zambeze Project speaks about doubling local cotton production after the technical cooperation project Impact assessment of the Shire-Zambeze Project continues in Mozambique Brazilian process of seed delinting changes scenario of Mozambique cotton crops History Signed in 2015, the goal of the Project was to expand national institutional and human resource capacity (i.e. researchers, extension agents and farmer leaders in Malawi and Mozambique) for the use and dissemination of cotton production technologies in smallholdings in Malawi and Mozambique. On the Brazilian side, Embrapa is the institution responsible for implementing and conducting the technical activities referring to the training of trainers and participatory horizontal technology transfer. In addition to improving seed quality, the researchers, especially technicians from Embrapa Cotton, included in the training events themes like pest and disease control techniques, spacing, intercropping, and others. The target audience of the project are smallholders with properties where an average of up to 1.5 hectares are designated to sow cotton and food crops. “One of the findings from the project diagnosis is that farmers did not use quality seeds in the farms. Then, one of the goals was to work towards making good quality seeds available for the farmers located in the rural areas by the rivers Shire (Malawi) and Zambeze (Mozambique), thus improving competitiveness”, explains Avila. Research details The economic impact assessment research happens is coordinated by the impact team of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The data for the study was collected through interviews with 284 farmers who used the basic cotton seeds produced and distributed by the Project and followed the technical recommendations, as well as farmers who did not use them (control group). The Embrapa team, in turn, is working on the assessment of the economic, social and environmental impacts using the Ambitec-Agro method.They surveyed basic cotton seed growers, rural extension technicians, researchers and executives of African institutions who worked in the processes of improving crop and seed quality, totalling a sample of 90 participants. To collect such data, in October/November Avilas and the analyst from Embrapa's Secretariat of Institutional Development (SDI) Graciela Vedovoto visited properties located in the Low Shire and Zambeze basins, in the African countries of Malawi and Mozambique. “The assessment is still ongoing, but the collected evidence already point to a positive direction”, confirms Avila, highlighting that this is the first impact assessment that Embrapa performs in international projects using the Social Report's methodology, which includes economic, social, environmental and institutional analyses. Another methodology that is being added to the impact assessment research of the Shire-Zambeze project is Vuna, developed by the DFID (Department of International Development, United Kingdom), , which measures the potential for project expansion, that is, if it is possible to expand it and the necessary requirements. Such analysis is very important, as there is an expectation that by the end of the second stage of the project they are fully able to be self-sufficient, giving continuity to the activities and incorporating the technologies into the strategies of local farmers and institutes, dispensing with Embrapa and ABC”, Avila states. In Mozambique, participating institutions include Mozambique's Cotton Institute (IAM) and Mozambique's Center for Cotton Seed Research and Multiplication (CIMSAM), under Mozambique's Agricultural Research Institute (IIAM). Participants from Malawi include Makoka Research Station, under the Ministry of Agriculture's Department of Agricultural Research and Services (DARS), and Malawi's Cotton Council. In Brazil the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) also participated in the process of training African technicians. Learn more about the project here (content in Portuguese) Translation: Mariana Medeiros