PRECISE DEFINITION(S): This indicator measures the total number of direct beneficiary farmers, ranchers and other primary sector producers (of food and non-food crops, livestock products, wild fisheries, aquaculture, agro-forestry, and natural resource-based products), as well as individual processors (not firms), rural entrepreneurs, traders, natural resource managers, etc. that applied improved technologies anywhere within the food and fiber system as a result of USG assistance during the reporting year. This includes innovations in efficiency, value-addition, post-harvest management, marketing, sustainable land management, forest and water management, managerial practices, and input supply delivery. Technologies and practices to be counted here are agriculture-related, including those that address climate change adaptation and mitigation (including, but not limited to, carbon sequestration, clean energy, and energy efficiency as related to agriculture). Significant improvements to existing technologies and practices should be counted.
Examples for listed technology type disaggregates include:
- Crop Genetics: e.g. improved/certified seed that could be higher-yielding, higher in nutritional content (e.g. through bio-fortification, such as vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or rice, or high-protein maize, or drought tolerant maize, or stress tolerant rice) and/or more resilient to climate impacts; improved germ plasm.
- Cultural Practices: e.g. seedling production and transplantation; cultivation practices such as planting density, molding; mulching. –
- Livestock Management: e.g. improved livestock breeds; livestock health services and products such as vaccines; improved livestock handling practices.
- Wild Fishing Technique/Gear: e.g. sustainable fishing practices; improved nets, hooks, lines, traps, dredges, trawls; improved hand gathering, netting, angling, spearfishing, and trapping practices.
- Aquaculture Management: e.g. improved fingerlings, improved feed and feeding practices, fish disease control, pond culture, pond preparation, sampling & harvesting, carrying capacity & fingerling management.
- Pest Management: e.g. Integrated Pest Management, improved insecticides and pesticides, improved and environmentally sustainable use of insecticides and pesticides.
- Disease Management: e.g. improved fungicides, appropriate application of fungicides.
- Soil-related Fertility and Conservation: e.g. Integrated Soil Fertility Management; soil management practices that increase biotic activity and soil organic matter levels, such as soil amendments that increase fertilizer-use efficiency (e.g. soil organic matter); improved fertilizer; improved fertilizer use practices; erosion control.
- Irrigation: e.g. drip, surface, and sprinkler irrigation, irrigation schemes.
- Water Management -non-irrigation-based: e.g. water harvesting, sustainable water use practices, improved water quality testing practices.
- Climate Mitigation or Adaptation: e.g. conservation agriculture; carbon sequestration through low- or no-till practices; increased use of climate information for planning, risk reduction, and increasing resilience; increased energy efficiency; natural resource management practices that increase resilience to climate change.
- Marketing and Distribution: e.g. contract farming technologies and practices, improved input purchase technologies and practices, improved commodity sale technologies and practices, improved market information system technologies and practices.
- Post-harvest -Handling & Storage: e.g. improved packing house technologies and practices, improved transportation, decay and insect control, temperature and humidity control, improved quality control technologies and practices, sorting and grading.
- Value-Added Processing: e.g. improved packaging practices and materials including biodegradable packaging, food and chemical safety technologies and practices, improved preservation technologies and practices.
- Other: e.g. improved mechanical and physical land preparation, non-market-related information technology, improved record keeping, improved budgeting and financial management.
Note there is some overlap between the listed disaggregated here and those listed under 4.5.2(2) Number of hectares under improved technologies or management practices as a result of USG assistance. This overlap is limited to the technologies and practices that relate to activities focused on land. The list of disaggregates here is much broader because with this indicator we are aiming to track efforts focused on individuals (as opposed to land area) across the value chain in land and non-land based activity.
For the Sex disaggregate and the Total with one or more improved technology/practice disaggregate category, a beneficiary is counted once regardless of the number of technologies applied during the reporting year. If more than one beneficiary in a households applying improved technologies, count each beneficiary in the household who does so.
However, under the Technology Type Disaggregation, if the beneficiary applied more than one improved technology, count the beneficiary under each technology type (i.e. double-count). In addition, count the beneficiary once under the total w/one or more improved technology category. Since it is very common for Feed the Future activities to promote more than one improved technology, not all of which are applied by all beneficiaries at once, this approach allows Feed the Future to accurately track and count the uptake of different technology types, and to accurately count the total number of farmers applying improved technologies. See 4.5.2(2) for an example of how to double-count hectares and farmers.
If a beneficiary cultivates a plot of land more than once in the reporting year, s/he should be counted once under each type of technology if s/he applied the improved technology during any of the production cycles during the reporting year. S/he should not be counted each time the same improved technology is applied. For example, because of new access to irrigation as a result of a Feed the Future activity, a farmer can now cultivate a second crop during the dry season in addition to her/his regular crop during the rainy season. If the farmer applies Feed the Future promoted improved seed to her/his plot during one season and not the other, or in both the rainy season and the dry season, s/he would only be counted once under the Crop Genetics technology type disaggregate category. However, the area under improved seed should be counted each time it is cultivated under 4.5(16,17,18) Gross margin per unit of land and 4.5.2(2) number of hectares of land under improved technologies. Beneficiaries who are part of a group and apply improved technologies on a demonstration or other common plot with other beneficiaries, are not counted as having individually applied an improved technology The group should be counted as one (1) beneficiary group and reported under 4.5.2(42)Number of private enterprises, producers organizations… and community-based organizations (CBOs) that applied improved technologies. The area of the communal plot should be counted under 4.5(16,17,18) Gross margin per unit of land and 4.5.2(2) Number of hectares of land under improved technologies.
If a lead farmer cultivates a plot used for training, e.g. a demonstration plot used for Farmer Field Days or Farmer Field School, the beneficiary farmer should be counted under this indicator, and the area of the demonstration plot counted under 4.5(16) Gross margin per unit of land, if applicable and 4.5.2(2) number of hectares of land under improved technologies. However, if the demonstration or training plot is cultivated by Extension Officers or Researchers, e.g. a demonstration plot in a research institute, neither the area nor the Extension Officers or Researchers should be counted under the respective indicators.
This indicator, 4.5.2(5), counts individuals who applied improved technologies, whereas indicator 4.5.2(28)Number of private enterprises, producers organizations…and community-based organizations (CBOs) that applied improved technologies or management practices counts firms, associations, or other group entities applying association- or organization-level improved technologies or practices. 4.5.2(5) Number of farmers and others applying technologies/practices individual-level indicator should not count all members of an organization as having applied a technology or practice just because the technology/practice was applied by the group entity. For example, a producer association implements a new computer-based accounting system during the reporting year. The association would be counted as having applied an improved technology/practice under 4.5.2(42)Number of private enterprises, producers organizations…applying indicator, but the members of the producer association would not be counted as having individually-applied an improved technology/practice under
4.5.2(5) Number of farmers and others applying technologies/practices individual-level indicator. However, there are scenarios where both the group entity and its members can be counted, the group counted once under 4.5.2(42) and individual members that applied the technology/practice under 4.5.2(5). For example, a producer association purchases a dryer and then provides drying services for a fee to its members. The producer association can be counted under 4.5.2(42) and any association member that uses the dryer service can be counted as applying an improved technology/practice under 4.5.2(5).
Please refer to the Feed the Future Agricultural Indicators Guide (http://agrilinks.org/library/feed-the-future-ag-indicators-guide) for additional guidance on collecting and interpreting the data required for this indicator. |
DISAGGREGATED BY: Value chain actor type:
-Producers (e.g. farmers, ranchers, and other primary sector producers of food and non-food crops, livestock products, wild fisheries, aquaculture, agro-forestry, and natural resource-based products)
-Others (e.g. individual processors (but not firms), rural entrepreneurs, traders, natural resource managers, extension agents). Technology type (see explanation in definition, above): Crop genetics, Cultural practices, Livestock management, Wild fishing technique/gear, Aquaculture management, Pest management, Disease management, Soil-related fertility and conservation, Irrigation, Water management-non-irrigation based, Climate mitigation or adaptation, Marketing and distribution, Post-harvest – handling & storage, Value-added processing, Other; Total w/one or more improved technology/practice. Sex: Male, Female |
