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Understanding African Farming Systems as a Basis for Sustainable Intensification Dennis Garrity UN Drylands Ambassador & Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry Centre
The African Husbandman William Allen
1965 A monumental empathetic examination of African
farming systems as they were nearly a century ago.
"We must try to see the situation through the eyes of
the farmer, and put aside for the time being our own
preconceived ideas, prejudices, and conceptions of
good land-use, which derive from very different
societies and environments."
Farm household decision-making: Connecting resources, production, consumption and investment
The situation today:
Systems approaches on the defensive
Even though the history of technical interventions in
Africa has been a saga of many discouraging and well-
documented failures.
-- Technical recommendations are often derived from
generic assumptions rather than a detailed analysis of
local farm-level constraints and the livelihood settings within
which rural people make decisions, and evolve their farm
systems.
-- Prescriptions often based on poor analogy, for
instance, Asia’s green revolution, or on inappropriate
evolutionary models that Africa will progress through the
same stages of development that Europe or North America
followed.
The Situation
Farming systems education and training has
atrophied during the past two decades.
Countries lack a solid professional cadre of
development professionals with a systems
perspective.
Recommendations (1)
We need to launch a concerted effort to bring build
or rebuild it.
And embed systems approaches into national
agricultural investment plans (NAIPs) through
CAADP.
Let’s establish a task force through the systems
CRPs to backstop this process.
Recommendations (2)
To guide project development and monitoring,
let’s establish the body of questions and indicators
to determine whether a systems approach is
underpinning it.
To guide policy formulation, let’s develop a
framework to evaluate prospective policies from a
systems perspective.
The farming systems of Africa reclassified
African Farming Systems Analyzed
Maize-Mixed Farming Systems: An engine for rural growth
Agropastoral Farming Systems: Achieving resilience under duress
Highland Perennial Farming Systems: Sustainable intensification
Root and Tuber Crop Farming Systems
Cereal-Root Crop Mixed Farming Systems
Highland Mixed Farming Systems
Tree Crop Farming Systems in the Humid Lowlands
Forest-Based Farming Systems
Pastoral Farming Systems
Fish-Based Farming Systems
Irrigated Farming Systems
Perennial Mixed Farming Systems
Arid Pastoral and Oasis Farming Systems
Urban and Peri-urban Farming Systems
Cereal-Root Crop Mixed Farming Sub-Systems
Three scales of knowledge
that can help decision-makers
• 1st, the larger trends and drivers that are in motion at the
continental level, providing a backdrop at the macro level.
• 2nd, the level of the farming system and
subsystems, where the drivers play out in unique ways in the
local context. And
• 3rd, the household level, and how it responds to internal and
external forces, including policy interventions.
The drivers of farming systems change
• population, hunger and poverty
• natural resources degradation and climate change
• markets and trade
• technology and science
• energy
• information and human capital
• institutions and policies
Land degradation: Trend in biomass productivity
by farming system
The soil fertility conundrum Estimated marginal value product of nitrogen fertilizer (Kshs/kg N)
is dependent on soil carbon content (Barrett 2013)
Sustainable intensification through EverGreen Agriculture. Niger.
Conservation agriculture with Faidherbia albida trees
in Zambia
17 Countries are engaged in EverGreen Agriculture
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
Conservation Agriculture with trees
Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration +
Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland
EverGreen Agriculture Partnership
Steering
Committee
Farmers and farmer groups
International and regional
research
Civil Society
Youth and Education
Governments and Policy
International and regional development
Donors
Private Sector
Breaking News:
COMESA setting up a platform to assist 19
member countries to link the upscaling of
fertilizer tree technologies with national
input subsidy programs
African Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance Vision 25by25
25 million farmers practicing CSA by 2025
Five main strategies to improve
farm household livelihoods
• intensification of existing production patterns
• diversification of production and processing
• expansion of farm or herd size
• increased off-farm income
• exit from agricultural production.
Conclusions & Policy Implications
1. Rural populations have now reached critical levels
• Highland perennial systems: Strong rural-urban labour
market integration occurring in some subsystems. This can be
accelerated through education agri-business development
• Agropastoral systems have strong labour migration, which
can be strengthened by improving labour market information
and education.
Conclusions & Policy Implications
2. Tackling the decline in soil fertility
Governments can pursue a number of paths to support land
regeneration:
• Maize-mixed systems: In high-population subsystems target
fertilizer subsidies transitioning to tree biofertilisers; in low
population density subsystems expand area farmed through more
efficient tillage and conservation agriculture on smallholdings.
• Agropastoral: Continue regreening with massive upscaling of
farmer-managed natural regeneration along with fertilizer
microdosing and more efficient fertilizer input markets.
Conclusions & Policy Implications
3. Agricultural trade and markets
The key growth potential in lies at home, in the expanding
domestic and regional markets within Africa, where demand in
some areas already far exceeds supply. Enhancing these
markets, improving infrastructure, removing barriers and reducing
transactions costs.
Market development is important in all systems, but a priority in
systems with strong agricultural potential but poor market access
(e.g. Cereal root and tuber systems).
Proposed Way Forward
• Reinvigorate education and training in farming systems
approaches throughout Africa
• Institutionalization of the farming systems knowledge and
approach into regional and national policy making and planning
• Building of systems research capacity to complement existing
disciplinary expertise
• National efforts to apply farming systems analysis through the
CAADP process
• Guide project development and monitoring by establishing the
body of questions and indicators to determine whether a systems
approach is underpinning it. Guide policy formulation, by
developing a framework to evaluate prospective policies from a
systems perspective.
Land degradation: Trend in biomass productivity
by farming system
Southern Africa Conference on
Beating Famine Accelerating impact through landscape and
livelihoods regeneration
April 14-17, 2015 in Lilongwe
See Beatingfamine.com
d.garrity@cgiar.org
Approach: why a farming systems lens?
• Low productivity and rural food insecurity and poverty persist after many years of interventions
• Strong diversity and complexity of farming systems and farm-households’ potentials and needs
• Understanding farm household decision-making is essential for fostering innovation and accelerating adoption
The farming systems of Africa
Tree cover on agricultural land by farming system
The density of undernourished people
by farming system
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