The Annual Report 2015-2016 is an 88-page report that summarizes the current structure and priorities of the Horticulture Innovation Lab, with updates from each of its research project teams for FY 2016.

Executive Summary

The Horticulture Innovation Lab management entity at the University of California, Davis manages a portfolio of nine projects, three Regional Centers and two Buy-Ins during FY2016. Our program was active in Africa (Guinea, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia), Southeast Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand) and Central America (Guatemala and Honduras), with a Trellis Project in Ghana. Projects underway focus on making the case for horticulture for nutrition, understanding gender constraints in horticulture systems, identifying and promoting adoption of appropriate postharvest technologies to reduce produce losses, conservation agriculture for vegetable production, introducing grafted tomato seedlings, testing irrigation solutions for small-scale farms, and introduction of drip irrigation. We are also working to scale two technologies, drying beads and insect barrier nets, with some early success with scaling of drying beads in Bangladesh. Recently awarded projects will focus on nematode control in Guatemala and production of safe vegetables in Cambodia.

Our program collaborated with several other Innovation Labs during the past year. We have a joint project with the Nutrition Innovation Lab funded by USAID Bangladesh, and also collaborate with the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab (Cambodia), Integrated Pest Management Innovation Lab (Cambodia and Nepal), and the Small Scale Irrigation Innovation Lab (Uganda). The Horticulture Innovation Lab also collaborates extensively with the World Vegetable Center through many of our research projects. The World Vegetable Center is a key partner providing improved germplasm of African indigenous vegetables, tomatoes, and expertise in vegetable seedling grafting. We also collaborated with the World Vegetable Center, Tanzania to improve the postharvest infrastructure at HORTI-Tengeru.

The Horticulture Innovation Lab has also actively collaborated with USAID Missions, even more than usual during the past year with our Mission Service Projects RFP. Missions were encouraged to submit ideas for small research projects that would benefit their value chain projects. Two projects were selected and we worked collaboratively with the Missions in Burkina Faso and Tajikistan to develop the RFPs. In addition, we were pleased to launch our new Buy-In project from USAID Guatemala, MasRiego, which developed out of our report, Advancing Horticulture in Central America, an assessment of constraints to horticulture sector growth in Central America, funded by the USAID Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. This assessment highlighted the need for irrigation solutions for smallholder farmers.

Our Regional Centers in Thailand and Honduras have increased their regional impact and have leveraged their funds from the Horticulture Innovation Lab. For example, the Center at Kasetsart University was awarded a leading role in a large USAID Regional Development mission for Asia project led by Winrock. Kasetsart University will manage approximately $500K to scale a number of technologies relevant for smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, including at least one technology developed by the Horticulture Innovation Lab. The Regional Center at Zamorano is part of a large Government of Honduras led program to improve the current extension system in that country. Our third regional center is under development in Zambia and will launch in February 2017.

See the complete Annual Report 2015-2016 for additional sections, including:

• Executive Summary
• Program Activities and Highlights
• Key Accomplishments
• Research Program Overview and Structure
• Research Project Reports
• Associate Award Research Project Reports
• Human and Institutional Capacity Development
• Innovation Transfer and Scaling Partnerships
• Environmental Management and Mitigation Plan
• Open Data Management Plan
• Governance and Management Entity Activity
• Other TopicsIssues
• Future Directions
• Appendices