The aim of this four-year (July 2010-December 2013) program in eastern and southern Africa is to improve farm-level food security and productivity, in the context of climate risk and change, through the development of more resilient, profitable and sustainable farming systems that overcome food insecurity for significant numbers of farm families in eastern and southern Africa. The program promotes the use of maize-legume technologies of adapted varieties and develops comprehensive agronomic packages that increase productivity and sustainable intensification of maize-legume cropping systems. The key focus areas of the program are farmer and stakeholder participation and economic evaluation of the new technologies. The program has a comparable set of activities in the five SIMLESA implementing countries in eastern and southern Africa. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) supports the program which is being managed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (as the commissioned organization) in collaboration with the NARS of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA), the International Center for Research for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation of Queensland (QDEEDI/QAAFI), and Murdoch University in Western Australia. Support for NARS researchers is provided through the participation of partner institutions (CIMMYT, ACIAR ASARECA, ICRISAT, QAAFI and Murdoch University).

SIMLESA has made significant progress during the first year and laid the foundation for stronger performance in the coming years. Most of the activities planned during the reporting period were
implemented and significant results produced in all the program countries. In Objective one, baseline surveys of 4,600 randomly selected households from and surveys of maize-pigeon pea,
maize-beans, maize-groundnuts, and maize-soybean cropping systems in 580 villages in five countries were conducted by a total of 101 enumerators (25 of whom were women). Community
level data was also collected from these villages to complement and provide a broader socioeconomic context for the farm household data. The surveys covered several districts
distributed in two agro-ecological zones in each country. The survey instruments and tools were developed by NARS staff, with additional input on gender provided by ASARECA staff. Data clearing,
verification and analysis is already underway to develop various research reports in the following period.

Under objective 2, a total of 215 on-farm exploratory, 13 researcher-managed trials and 14 participatory variety selection sessions were carried out in the five countries. Different treatments
of maize-legume intercrop and rotations were demonstrated in farmers' fields. The field days which took place to enhance farmer-to-farmer cross pollination of ideas, also created more interest in
community awareness initiatives. Local innovation platforms were established in four out of five countries and are showing promising results. Farmers reported challenges with weed and residue
management in some trial sites for testing agronomic and conservation agriculture systems in the target countries in the first year and this will be addressed in the following seasons.

Under Objective 3 farmers and stakeholders selected pre-released varieties suitable for their farming systems. The following maize varieties were selected: (Ethiopia-hybrids(BH661;BH543),
OPVs (Melkassa 2,Melkassa 6Q, Gibe 2 & Gibe 3); Kenya-hybrids (KH500-39E, KDH3, WH105, KH500Q, KH631Q, H624, H520, KH533A & KM0406), OPVs (KDV1, Embu Synth, KKSynth2, WS303 &
KM0403); Malawi-hybrids (MH26 & MH27), OPVs (ZM523, ZM623, ZM309 & ZM721); Mozambique-hybrids (CZH511 & Olipa), OPVs (ZM523, Tsangano & Chinaca) and Tanzania-hybrids (Selian H308,
Selian H208, SAH779, SAH638 & SAH636), OPVs (SA523 & SA525). Farmers considered some or all of the following factors when making their selections in the participatory variety selection (PVS) trials: yield level, early maturity, drought tolerance, pest resistance, medium height and palatability/taste. It was clear that farmers' active assessment and strong stakeholders' involvement (private seed companies, fertilizer companies, input dealers, local authorities, and extension) are key for the success of the PVS initiatives in both countries.

Under Objective 4, the ASARECA-SIMLESA team conducted a gender mainstreaming training workshop in Arusha, Tanzania. In addition, twenty-three NARS scientists participated in the M&E
framework development workshop in Nairobi, facilitated by ASARECA. Substantial progress was made in terms of capacity building under Objective 5. Five NARS and two ASARECA scientists attended a SIMLESA/ACIAR M&E and Impact Assessment (IA) workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Two NARS scientists from Mozambique attended a BECA Scientific writing workshop held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2010. Two scientists attended the BNF training workshop at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The first SIMLESA annual partners review and planning meeting and PSC meeting were held in March 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya. Sixteen SIMLESA researchers participated in the APSIM modeling training workshop from 19 to 24 March in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia. All participating partners undertook their year 1 and some year 2 country planning meetings during the reporting period.

Six 4WD double cabin all-terrain vehicles were procured for use by the SIMLESA country teams in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique for field activities and research related trips. This has
substantially improved infrastructural constraints for the national programs and enhanced the ability to implement field activities in less accessible areas, often bypassed and unable to benefit
from farming systems research. Plans are underway to procure two vehicles for the Tanzania SIMLESA teams. Various pieces of research equipment have already been purchased for the country
teams and more is being procured. A number of students were selected for Ph.D. studies.