Reporting 2021 Evidences Evidences Study #3351 Contributing Projects:      ● P343 - Policy engagement to build awareness of opportunities for mitigating and controlling aflatoxins in informal markets Part I: Public communications Type: OICR: Outcome Impact Case Report Status: New Year: 2019 Title: Private sector partnership increased adoption of Aflasafe, reducing aflatoxin accumulation and improving net incomes for smallholders in Nigeria Short outcome/impact statement: Impact evaluation of an IITA-implemented project found that the project created a niche premium market for Aflasafe-treated (AT) maize in Nigeria. The AgResults project incentivized private agribusinesses to work with smallholder farmers to adopt Aflasafe. The project stimulated exponential Aflasafe uptake and increased each smallholder’s net income from maize by $318 and use of AT maize as food by 13%. The main limitation to creation of a larger market for AT maize was awareness of aflatoxin and its health risks. This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:01 (GMT+0) 1 Reporting 2021 Evidences Outcome story for communications use: The AgResults program was an innovative funding mechanism to reward private-sector actors for delivering public-good results. One of its investments was The Nigeria Aflasafe Challenge Project, a five-year collaboration with private sector grain traders to work with smallholder farmers to adopt Aflasafe. Aflasafe are tailor-made products for each country developed by IITA in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture and local national institutions designed to reduce aflatoxin in maize. The grain traders (agri-businesses) were rewarded with payments of $18.75 per metric ton of Aflasafe-treated maize. Payments were triggered when tests verified the prevalence of Aflasafe in the maize delivered. During the project, 32 agri-businesses worked with 75,786 smallholder farmers who applied Aflasafe on 99,503 hectares of maize fields in Nigeria. In total, farmers used about 1,000 tons of Aflasafe and produced 213,406 tons of maize. In an independent evaluation of the Aflasafe Challenge project, the evaluators found: • Aflasafe uptake increased by 56 percentage points. • A niche market was created, smaller than expected • Smallholder net income from maize increased by $318, largely through higher payments for maize increasing supply of aflatoxin-safe maize • Smallholder awareness of aflatoxin increased by 22 percent and there was little change on consumer behavior for safer maize. This supports the hypothesis that the access to premium markets are the main incentive for increasing aflatoxin-safe maize supply. Easing the opportunities for smallholder farmers to access higher-value maize markets and their capacity to do so was demonstrated. Health challenges still exist of how to mitigate aflatoxin exposure in the maize in non=premium food markets that most poor consumers rely on. Links to any communications materials relating to this outcome:     ● https://agresults.org/projects/nigeria     ● https://tinyurl.com/y8c3fyg9 Part II: CGIAR system level reporting Link to Common Results Reporting Indicator of Policies : No Stage of maturity of change reported: Stage 2 Links to the Strategic Results Framework: Sub-IDOs:     ● Reduced biological and chemical hazards in the food system     ● Increase capacity of beneficiaries to adopt research outputs Is this OICR linked to some SRF 2022/2030 target?: Yes SRF 2022/2030 targets:     ● # of more farm households have adopted improved varieties, breeds or trees Description of activity / study: Geographic scope:     ● National This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:01 (GMT+0) 2 Reporting 2021 Evidences Country(ies):      ● Nigeria Comments: Key Contributors: Contributing CRPs/Platforms:      ● A4NH - Agriculture for Nutrition and Health Contributing Flagships:      ● F3: Food Safety Contributing Regional programs: Contributing external partners:      ● FCDO - Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (formerly DFID)(United Kingdom)      ● BMGF - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation      ● Abt Associates      ● Government of Canada      ● Government of Australia      ● The World Bank      ● USDA - U.S. Department of Agriculture      ● USAID - U.S. Agency for International Development CGIAR innovation(s) or findings that have resulted in this outcome or impact: Aflasafe is a safe, natural and environmentally-friendly biocontrol product that can reduce aflatoxin by more than 80% in maize and groundnut. Aflasafe products are tailor-made for each country using native competitive and widely adapted strains of Aspergillus flavus that cannot produce aflatoxins. The technology was developed by IITA in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) and local national institutions. Nigeria is first country where Aflasafe has been available for commercial use since 2013. Innovations: This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:01 (GMT+0) 3 Reporting 2021 Evidences Elaboration of Outcome/Impact Statement: The AgResults Nigeria Aflasafe Challenge Project, funded by AgResults and implemented by IITA, was a six-year, pay-for-results prize competition that incentivized private sector actors to work with smallholder farmers to adopt Aflasafe. Private sector aggregators and grain traders (“agri-businesses”) recruited farmers and trained them on good practices to produce aflatoxin-reduced maize. The agribusiness purchased Aflasafe and sold it to smallholder farmers under different models. After production, farmers sold part of the safe maize to the agribusinesses for sale in markets that paid premiums for aflatoxin standard-compliant maize. Laboratory testing verified the prevalence of the active ingredients of Aflasafe in the maize and triggered the payment of $9.38 to $18.75 per metric ton of Aflasafe-treated maize, from the Project itself. Through the project’s lifetime, 32 agri-businesses worked with 75,786 smallholder farmers who applied about 1,000 tons of Aflasafe on 99,503 hectares of maize fields in Nigeria. Farmers produced 213,406 tons of maize grain and around 95% of it was safe for consumption [1]. Abt Associates conducted an external impact evaluation of the project, which was published in 2019 [2]. The external evaluators compared expected impacts against actual findings using rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods. The project increased Aflasafe uptake exponentially, from 1,015 farmers in year 1 to 26,260 in Year 6. It created a niche premium market with a robust number of agri-businesses, although the market was smaller than expected in terms of the quantity of maize transacted. The project increased each smallholder’s net income from maize by $318 by increasing their access to premium markets. Home consumption of Aflasafe-treated (AT) maize increased by 13%. The project created an economic reason for smallholders to engage in the AT and/or aflatoxin compliant (AT/AC) maize market. The evaluation results indicate that the project created a niche market for AT maize in Nigeria. These results are likely to sustain if smallholders and agri-businesses continue to have access to premium markets for AT maize. The key constraint that limited the development of a market for AT maize was widespread understanding of the aflatoxin problem and its inherent health risks. Additional public investment in awareness raising was suggested as one area to pursue. However, substantially more efforts are needed to increase awareness about aflatoxins and their health impacts among maize farmers and consumers in Nigeria. References cited: [1] Bandyopadhyay R, Atehnkeng J, Ortega-Beltran A, Akande A, Falade TDO, Cotty PJ. 2019. “Ground-truthing” efficacy of biological control for aflatoxin mitigation in farmers’ fields in Nigeria: from field trials to commercial usage. Frontiers in Microbiology 10: 2528 [2] Narayan, T.; Mainville, D.; Geyer, J.; Hausdorff, K.; and Cooley, D. 2019. AgResults Impact Evaluation Report: Nigeria Aflasafe™ Challenge Project. Rockville, Maryland: Abt Associates. Quantification: This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:01 (GMT+0) 4 Reporting 2021 Evidences Gender, Youth, Capacity Development and Climate Change: Gender relevance: 1 - Significant Main achievements with specific Gender relevance: The evaluators write (p.31-32): AgResults did not...appear to stimulate gender inclusiveness. The gender balance of production was skewed towards men...only 10% of farmers producing in 2016/2017 were women...In our evaluation sample, only 5% of households in the treatment group were female-headed households. There are several possible explanations for this low level of inclusion: • The way competitors recruited participants. • The tendency for relatively higher-capacity smallholder households to participate in competitor outgrower schemes. • The fact that households typically applied Aflasafe on only a portion of their land and male-managed plots are more likely to be oriented to commercial purposes. Youth relevance: 0 - Not Targeted CapDev relevance: 1 - Significant Main achievements with specific CapDev relevance: The private agribusinesses were trained in maize agronomy, aflatoxin management and business development aspects by the project. The agribusinesses in turn trained farmers to implement the agronomic practices to boost productivity as well as improve quality by using Aflasafe and other pre- and post-harvest aflatoxin management practices. More than 75,000 farmers were trained by the agribusinesses. Climate Change relevance: 0 - Not Targeted Other cross-cutting dimensions: NA Other cross-cutting dimensions description: Outcome Impact Case Report link: Study #3351 Contact person: Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, Principal Plant Pathologist, IITA r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org This report was generated on 2022-08-19 at 08:01 (GMT+0) 5