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Ola Westengen
Department of International Environment and Development Studies/Noragric, Faculty of Landscape and Society, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), 1430 Ås, Norway

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Journal article
Published: 05 May 2021 in World
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The problem addressed in this paper is the challenge of moving from formulating policy goals to achieving the promised results. The purpose is to assess the possible role of innovation in agriculture as a way of contributing towards achieving the Malabo Declaration commitments and the zero hunger Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) in six African countries. Since the SDGs are high on both international and many national agendas, there is a need to increase our knowledge of how to move beyond formulating goals. The approach includes both quantitative and qualitative data from a multisite research and development project. Moving from promises in relation to policy goals such as SDG2 and the Malabo Declaration to actions that make a difference at local level is a challenging task, and COVID-19 has added negatively to that challenge. Technological and institutional innovations exist that have the potential to improve the agricultural productivity, food security, and income levels of smallholder men and women farmers. However, innovation processes are hindered by barriers related to governmental, economic, knowledge-based, socio-cultural, and resource-based factors. To overcome these barriers, governance needs to go further than defining goals, and proceed to the next step of establishing effective implementation mechanisms that ensure the promised result.

ACS Style

Ruth Haug; Susan Nchimbi-Msolla; Alice Murage; Mokhele Moeletsi; Mufunanji Magalasi; Mupenzi Mutimura; Feyisa Hundessa; Luca Cacchiarelli; Ola Westengen. From Policy Promises to Result through Innovation in African Agriculture? World 2021, 2, 253 -266.

AMA Style

Ruth Haug, Susan Nchimbi-Msolla, Alice Murage, Mokhele Moeletsi, Mufunanji Magalasi, Mupenzi Mutimura, Feyisa Hundessa, Luca Cacchiarelli, Ola Westengen. From Policy Promises to Result through Innovation in African Agriculture? World. 2021; 2 (2):253-266.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ruth Haug; Susan Nchimbi-Msolla; Alice Murage; Mokhele Moeletsi; Mufunanji Magalasi; Mupenzi Mutimura; Feyisa Hundessa; Luca Cacchiarelli; Ola Westengen. 2021. "From Policy Promises to Result through Innovation in African Agriculture?" World 2, no. 2: 253-266.

Articles
Published: 20 April 2021 in The Journal of Peasant Studies
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The ‘grain hypothesis', postulated by James Scott, suggests that cereals are ‘political crops’ intrinsic to state formation. Drawing the classical agrarian political economy of maize into dialogue with recent more-than-human political ecology, we explore the grain hypothesis with empirical material from present day Malawi and India. The evolution and ecology of the maize plant, we argue, has made it a strong agent of history, one that has enabled resilience, but also facilitated state and capital entanglement in the global agro-food system. This imperial maize assemblage is set on expansion, but it will continue to meet resistance in coevolved peasant-maize alliances.

ACS Style

Jostein Jakobsen; Ola T. Westengen. The imperial maize assemblage: maize dialectics in Malawi and India. The Journal of Peasant Studies 2021, 1 -25.

AMA Style

Jostein Jakobsen, Ola T. Westengen. The imperial maize assemblage: maize dialectics in Malawi and India. The Journal of Peasant Studies. 2021; ():1-25.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jostein Jakobsen; Ola T. Westengen. 2021. "The imperial maize assemblage: maize dialectics in Malawi and India." The Journal of Peasant Studies , no. : 1-25.

Journal article
Published: 20 February 2021 in Agronomy
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Seed security is central to crop production for smallholder farmers in developing countries, but it remains understudied in relation to long-term seed sector development. Here, we compare seed systems in two districts of Central Ethiopia characterized by subsistence-oriented teff cultivation and commercially oriented wheat production and relate this to the country’s pluralistic seed system development strategy (PSSDS). Our analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative information from a household survey and focus group discussions with farmers, as well as document review and key informant interviews with actors that make up the seed sector in the study sites. Farmers in both districts used a range of seed sources but primarily obtained their seeds from informal sources. Evidence of seed insecurity was found in both districts, as apparent from discrepancies between what the seed farmers say they prefer and those they actually use, limited availability of improved varieties and especially certified seeds of these, challenges with seed quality from some sources, and differentiated access to preferred seed and information according to sex, age and wealth. We find that the interventions prioritized in the PSSDS address most of the seed security challenges and seed system dysfunctions identified, but implementation lags, particularly for the informal seed system, which is largely neglected by government programs. The intermediate system shows promise, but while some improvements have been made in the formal system, vested political, organizational, and economic interests within key institutions represent major obstacles that must be overcome to achieve truly integrative and inclusive seed sector development.

ACS Style

Teshome Mulesa; Sarah Dalle; Clifton Makate; Ruth Haug; Ola Westengen. Pluralistic Seed System Development: A Path to Seed Security? Agronomy 2021, 11, 372 .

AMA Style

Teshome Mulesa, Sarah Dalle, Clifton Makate, Ruth Haug, Ola Westengen. Pluralistic Seed System Development: A Path to Seed Security? Agronomy. 2021; 11 (2):372.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Teshome Mulesa; Sarah Dalle; Clifton Makate; Ruth Haug; Ola Westengen. 2021. "Pluralistic Seed System Development: A Path to Seed Security?" Agronomy 11, no. 2: 372.

Perspective
Published: 09 November 2020 in Nature Plants
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Crop diversity underpins food security and adaptation to climate change. Concerted conservation efforts are needed to maintain and make this diversity available to plant scientists, breeders and farmers. Here we present the story of the rescue and reconstitution of the unique seed collection held in the international genebank of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Syria. Being among the first depositors to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, ICARDA managed to safety duplicate more than 80% of its collection before the last staff had to leave the genebank in 2014 because of the war. Based on the safety duplicates, ICARDA since 2015 have rebuilt their collections and resumed distribution of seeds to users internationally from their new premises in Morocco and Lebanon. We describe the multifaceted and layered structure of the global system for the conservation and use of crop diversity that enabled this successful outcome. Genebanks do not work alone but in an increasingly strengthened and experienced multilateral system of governance, science, financial support and collaboration. This system underpins efforts to build sustainable and socially equitable agri-food systems. Genebanks are repositories of genetic diversity, and getting the seeds to the facilities depends on committed researchers going, if necessary, into war-torn areas in order to save and transport their resources. This narrative recounts one such journey and the system that underpins these facilities and individuals.

ACS Style

Ola T. Westengen; Charlotte Lusty; Mariana Yazbek; Ahmed Amri; Åsmund Asdal. Safeguarding a global seed heritage from Syria to Svalbard. Nature Plants 2020, 6, 1311 -1317.

AMA Style

Ola T. Westengen, Charlotte Lusty, Mariana Yazbek, Ahmed Amri, Åsmund Asdal. Safeguarding a global seed heritage from Syria to Svalbard. Nature Plants. 2020; 6 (11):1311-1317.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ola T. Westengen; Charlotte Lusty; Mariana Yazbek; Ahmed Amri; Åsmund Asdal. 2020. "Safeguarding a global seed heritage from Syria to Svalbard." Nature Plants 6, no. 11: 1311-1317.

Original article
Published: 27 January 2020 in The Journal of World Intellectual Property
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Farmers' and breeders' access to a genetic diversity is essential for food system sustainability. The implementation of international agreements regulating access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) varies substantially between countries. Here, we examine why some countries implement a restrictive access governance regime, taking Ethiopia as a case. Drawing on commons theory and historical institutional analysis, we analyze historical, political, and economic factors that have shaped Ethiopia's access regime. Based on interviews with key actors and stakeholders and document analysis, we identify three overarching ideational and material factors that can explain Ethiopia's current policy: (a) the influence of narratives about Ethiopia as a biodiversity treasure trove on the Ethiopian cultural identity; (b) the economic importance of agriculture based on PGRFA with origin in the country; and (c) the political influence of the genetic resource movement that promotes farmers' rights as a counter measure to stringent intellectual property rights (IPR), and on‐farm PGRFA management as complimentary to ex situ conservation and formal seed system development. The Ethiopian case illustrates that countries' governance of access to PGRFA must be understood in connection with, and not in isolation from, IPR regimes and the historical, political, and cultural role of PGRFA in the country in question.

ACS Style

Teshome H. Mulesa; Ola T. Westengen. Against the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia. The Journal of World Intellectual Property 2020, 23, 82 -120.

AMA Style

Teshome H. Mulesa, Ola T. Westengen. Against the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia. The Journal of World Intellectual Property. 2020; 23 (1-2):82-120.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Teshome H. Mulesa; Ola T. Westengen. 2020. "Against the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia." The Journal of World Intellectual Property 23, no. 1-2: 82-120.

Original research article
Published: 24 July 2019 in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
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Climate change is already negatively affecting Sub Saharan African agriculture. One of the most effective ways to adapt on farm is to switch crop varieties. This technological change depends on the policies and institutions involved in governing the seed systems on which farmers rely for access to suitable seeds. Whilst the need for seed systems to adapt and become more resilient is indisputable, the question of how this is best achieved is debated. The dominant seed system development pathway promoted by international development actors is characterized by formalization and commercialization of the seed sector. In order to assess political and social outcomes of this development agenda, we compare maize seed system development in Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania, combining policy analysis with quantitative analysis of farmers' seed use. We show that while the development policies promoted by international donors have similar objectives in the three countries, national policies and the seed systems farmers use differ substantially. National policies are shaped by political and historical factors and established in an interplay between state institutions, international donors and private input suppliers. Drawing on a new livelihood dataset, we show that in all three countries the formalization agenda is most visible in maize seed systems, with 25, 61, and 58% of the maize farmers planting improved maize varieties in the study sites in Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania, respectively. The inroads of improved maize, and particularly hybrid maize, in farmers' seed systems reflects these seeds high profitability for private seed companies. The tenuous use of improved varieties in crops such as sorghum reflects the limitation of the private sector-based seed system development approach in other crops and illustrates the need for public research and governance. Comparison of households cultivating improved maize with households cultivating local maize reveals that the first group is significantly wealthier and more food secure than the latter. This suggests that better-off households are likely to benefit first from the commercial formalization agenda. We argue that climate-smart seed policies and seed system development strategies must be sensitive to differences between farming systems and different groups of farmers if they are to deliver socially fair outcomes.

ACS Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Ruth Haug; Paul Guthiga; Eric Macharia. Governing Seeds in East Africa in the Face of Climate Change: Assessing Political and Social Outcomes. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 2019, 3, 1 .

AMA Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen, Ruth Haug, Paul Guthiga, Eric Macharia. Governing Seeds in East Africa in the Face of Climate Change: Assessing Political and Social Outcomes. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 2019; 3 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Ruth Haug; Paul Guthiga; Eric Macharia. 2019. "Governing Seeds in East Africa in the Face of Climate Change: Assessing Political and Social Outcomes." Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 3, no. : 1.

Original paper
Published: 03 February 2018 in Food Security
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Genebanks conserve key resources for handling current and future challenges to food production and security. The role of genebanks has evolved from primarily serving plant breeders to include long-term biodiversity conservation and distribution to a wider user community. International policy frameworks stress the complementarity of ex situ and in situ conservation and management, but a dichotomy prevails in the public and scholarly agricultural development discourse. Here, we present a study of existing linkages between the two conservation and management approaches, their challenges and future options. First, we show that farmers, farmer organizations, and NGOs now comprise a considerable user group of genebank material, receiving at least 8% of the seed samples distributed from international genebanks in 2015, on par with the proportion distributed to the commercial seed sector. Second, we map and categorize approaches to introduce genebank material into farmers’ seed systems. Based on a survey, interviews and a literature review we categorize direct genebank-farmer linkages into six categories: (1) Reintroduction, (2) Emergency Seed Interventions, (3) Community Seed Banks, (4) Participatory Plant Breeding, (5) Variety Introduction, and (6) Integrative Seed System Approaches. We investigate the merits of these approaches as alternative and complementary pathways for enhancing farmers’ access to crop diversity. Finally, we discuss challenges related to scale, sustainability and legal frame conditions and point out opportunities to realize synergies to achieve the ultimate goal of the ex situ conservation agenda and the farmers’ rights agenda, namely to strengthen farmers’ access to suitable seeds.

ACS Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Kristine Skarbø; Teshome Hunduma Mulesa; Trygve Berg. Access to genes: linkages between genebanks and farmers’ seed systems. Food Security 2018, 10, 9 -25.

AMA Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen, Kristine Skarbø, Teshome Hunduma Mulesa, Trygve Berg. Access to genes: linkages between genebanks and farmers’ seed systems. Food Security. 2018; 10 (1):9-25.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Kristine Skarbø; Teshome Hunduma Mulesa; Trygve Berg. 2018. "Access to genes: linkages between genebanks and farmers’ seed systems." Food Security 10, no. 1: 9-25.

Article
Published: 09 September 2017 in Agriculture and Human Values
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The promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) for smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa is subject to ongoing scholarly and public debate regarding the evidence-base and the agenda-setting power of involved stakeholders. We undertake a political analysis of CA in Zambia that combines a qualitative case study of a flagship CA initiative with a quantitative analysis of a nationally representative dataset on agricultural practices. This analysis moves from an investigation of the knowledge politics to a study of how the political agendas of the actors involved are shaping agrarian practices. From its initial focus on CA as soil conservation and sustainable agriculture, the framing of the initiative has evolved to accommodate shifting trends in the policy arena. In tandem with the increased focus on climate adaptation, we see an increased emphasis on private sector-led modernisation. The initiative has shifted its target group from the poorest smallholders to prospective commercial farmers, and has forged connections between its farmer-to-farmer extension network and private input suppliers and service providers. The link between CA and input intensification is reflected in national statistics as a significantly higher usage of herbicides, pesticides and mineral fertilizer on fields under CA tillage compared to other fields. We argue that the environmental and participation agendas are used to buttress CA as an environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural development strategy, while the prevailing practice is the result of a common vision for a private sector-led agricultural development shared between the implementing organisation, the donor and international organisations promoting a new green revolution in Africa.

ACS Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Progress Nyanga; Douty Chibamba; Monica Guillen-Royo; Dan Banik. A climate for commerce: the political agronomy of conservation agriculture in Zambia. Agriculture and Human Values 2017, 35, 255 -268.

AMA Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen, Progress Nyanga, Douty Chibamba, Monica Guillen-Royo, Dan Banik. A climate for commerce: the political agronomy of conservation agriculture in Zambia. Agriculture and Human Values. 2017; 35 (1):255-268.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ola Tveitereid Westengen; Progress Nyanga; Douty Chibamba; Monica Guillen-Royo; Dan Banik. 2017. "A climate for commerce: the political agronomy of conservation agriculture in Zambia." Agriculture and Human Values 35, no. 1: 255-268.

Book chapter
Published: 23 November 2016 in Climate Change and Multi-Dimensional Sustainability in African Agriculture
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Crop adaptation plays a key role in enabling farmers to adapt to the impacts of climate change. According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), cultivar adjustment is the single most effective on-farm adaptation strategy, but the report is largely silent on the modalities of cultivar adjustment; what are the assumptions with regard to the cultivar types used and the institutional context in which the adjustments will take place? The objective of the current paper is to explore these modalities and enhance our understanding of the potential for crop adaptation in Sub Saharan Africas’s agriculture. We identify the key environmental impacts and the adaptation options vis-à-vis these impacts. Drawing on insights and perspectives from the international scholarly literature on genetic resources and seed systems, we report on a local case study from the semi-arid zone in Tanzania. Farmers use a range of varieties and seed systems to cope with current climatic stress and our findings from Tanzania illustrates that crop adaptation is not only a question of switching from one modern variety to another as commonly assumed in the Climate Change impact and adaptation literature. In our case study, only 24 % of the maize seeds and 8 % of the sorghum seeds were sourced through seed supply channels classified as formal. However, in the case of maize, we found that at least 11 % of the seeds sourced from informal seed supply channels were farm-saved modern varieties. Open Pollinated Varieties of maize developed in public breeding programs in collaboration with international programs in the 1980s are still an important part of farmers’ adaptive capacity. Our results further indicate that crop adaption can happen through creolization between modern and local varieties in the local seed system. We argue that seed security in the face of climatic change depends on adaptive seed systems, which integrate formal and informal seed system approaches to the development, release and distribution of varieties.

ACS Style

Ola T. Westengen; Trygve Berg. Crop Adaptation to Climate Change in SSA: The Role of Genetic Resources and Seed Systems. Climate Change and Multi-Dimensional Sustainability in African Agriculture 2016, 327 -343.

AMA Style

Ola T. Westengen, Trygve Berg. Crop Adaptation to Climate Change in SSA: The Role of Genetic Resources and Seed Systems. Climate Change and Multi-Dimensional Sustainability in African Agriculture. 2016; ():327-343.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ola T. Westengen; Trygve Berg. 2016. "Crop Adaptation to Climate Change in SSA: The Role of Genetic Resources and Seed Systems." Climate Change and Multi-Dimensional Sustainability in African Agriculture , no. : 327-343.