Enhancing food security and resilience in North Africa through improved seed systems and innovation platforms in wheat-based production systems

 

Wheat-based production systems are at the core of the agricultural systems in North Africa and the Middle East, providing income and staple food to more than 100 million households. Despite its cultural and economic importance, regional wheat productivity remains lower than the global average and most countries rely on wheat imports to meet the demand, which weakens their economies and increases the risks of food insecurity. The sustainability of wheat production is particularly threatened as climate change induces hotter temperatures, longer droughts and new pests and diseases. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas has developed improved, climate-resilient, and locally adapted wheat varieties, but their dissemination along national seed systems is very slow and too limited to significantly impact food security at scale.

The overall objective of this project is to enhance food security and climate resilience in Tunisia and Morocco through innovative, gender-responsive seed systems and scaling mechanisms of improved crop varieties and agronomic management practices in the wheat-based production systems. It will build capacities of national institutions and private stakeholders in developing more efficient, gender-responsive seed systems.

Among its activities, this project will establish context-specific and gender-responsive innovation platforms to pilot and demonstrate the impact of improved crop varieties and crop management practices with the active participation of stakeholders, especially women. It will also develop high-yielding, climate-resilient crop varieties and reduce the time it takes to release them to farmers. It is expected that 10,000 farmers will directly increase their food security through the project’s interventions.

This project is supported through the Wheat Research Accelerator Fund initiative, which is a co-funding partnership between IDRC and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.