1Regreening Africa Policy Brief 1 2019

Policy Gaps and Opportunities for Scaling Agroforestry in

sub-Saharan Africa: Recommendations from a policy

review and recent practice

Funded by the European Union

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Agroforestry provides a unique opportunity to address the climate change emergency, land degradation and loss of biodiversity while contributing to national and regional development aspirations, targets, and commitments.

There are a number of different practices that are recognized as agroforestry in this brief, including farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) of trees on farmlands, assisted natural regeneration (ANR) of trees on community and national forest lands, the integration of high-value fruit, timber and nut trees species in farming systems, and soil and water conservation techniques involving the use of trees, shrubs and grasses, among others. The unique, identifying characteristic is the integration of trees in agricultural and pastoral lands within and across a range of spatial and temporal scales.

Despite vigorous efforts, agroforestry has not yet been sufficiently mainstreamed or supported through existing policy frameworks in Africa. Since agroforestry systems contain elements of agriculture, forestry, land, water, and environment, it tends to fall into the cracks between sectoral policies. It is, therefore, not well integrated into planning and financing under any of the key ministries.

Fragmentation and ineffective coordination among government institutions and stakeholders dealing with the different elements of agroforestry (private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research and academic institutions), leads to inefficiencies in financial resource use as well as duplication or poor attention to needed efforts.

These conditions are prompting a number of countries to embark on the development and legislative approval of holistic national agroforestry policies and comprehensive agroforestry strategies and action plans.

Farmers attending to a tree nursery in readiness for the nationwide tree planting campaign in Ethiopia. Photo Habtamu Regasa

Integrating trees in farming and pastoral landscapes – agroforestry is oneof the most effective tools we have for climate mitigation and adaptation,and for restoring degraded lands, while providing nutrition and livelihoodsbenefits to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Agroforestry systemson small-scale farms play a crucial role in reducing household risks anddiversifying incomes while providing nutritional benefits to vulnerablewomen and children, men, and youth who are locked out of the mainstreammarket economies.

Despite these important roles and the widespread of agroforestry practices,there are several critical barriers that hinder its accelerated adoption, evenin areas that have significant potential for these practices.

We provide a summary of findings and policy recommendations based ona review of policies and technologies completed as part of the EuropeanUnion (EU) funded Regreening Africa Programme, being implemented inKenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. We argue that successful adoption of agroforestry is dependent not only on designing appropriate technologies but upon ensuring an enabling policy, legal and institutional environment to underpin the scaling-up process.

Key findingsSummary

Development and intended application of this policy brief This policy brief was developed at the early stages of the European Union-funded projecton Reversing Land Degradation in Africa by Scaling-Up Evergreen Agriculture (RegreeningAfrica, 2017-22). The project is an active intervention deploying agroforestry for landrestoration across 1,000,000 hectares and targeting 500,000 households in eight Africancountries. The project has an explicit policy objective to accelerate the scaling-up of landrestoration through policy engagement in the target countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda,Somalia, Mali, Niger, Ghana, and Senegal. This brief is also building on agroforestry policyexperience supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry(FTA). Through systematic desk reviews, national workshops and discussions with localcommunities, the agroforestry policy environment and the current legal and institutionalarrangements were explored, and the barriers to and opportunities for supporting scaling-upof agroforestry across the project countries were identified and will be used to guide projectpolicy engagement. The recommendations provided in this brief outline key actions that mustbe taken to support the accelerated scaling-up of agroforestry across sub-Saharan Africa andrealize its enormous benefits to improving livelihoods and expanding the national economy.

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There is a critical need and opportunity to address the gaps in technical advisory and implementation capacities, and the financial mechanisms to scale agroforestry. Technical advisory services remain underfunded, under capacitated, and unfacilitated to support farmers in developing their agroforestry systems. The government advisory system must be strengthened as it will remain in place long after other projects have ended. Agroforestry is now embedded in the curricula of many agricultural and forestry universities in Africa, and in the agenda of a predominance of agriculture and forestry research institutions. This capacity should now be harnessed into accelerated practical learning efforts and more ambitious scaling-up programs.

Agroforestry value chain opportunities exist but require incentives, investment and favorable policy conditions to ensure their development, particularly as tree crops can take a number of years to produce.

Unsecured or ambiguous land and tree tenure create long-term uncertainty for farmers and pastoralists, restricting the success of agroforestry initiatives. In countries where land and tree tenure has been reformed in recent years, there has been a notable expansion in farmer adoption of agroforestry systems.

Farmers in Ghana clearing grass on an FMNR farm. Photo: Jason Amoo/ World Vision Ghana

Policy recommendations

Countries should develop and implement anational agroforestry policy, strategy, andaction plan that provides clear guidanceand alignment, and that can be integratedinto sub-national level plans, programs, andpolicies, using devolved structures whenthey exist. Countries should review, align,and revise their policies vis-à-vis supportfor the scaling-up of agroforestry, to benefitthe accelerated expansion of agroforestrycoherently and effectively.

1. Agroforestry Strategiesand Policies

3. Land and Tree Tenure

4. Extension and AdvisoryServices

2. Coordinated Implementation

Countries should ensure the coordinatedimplementation of agroforestry developmentthrough platforms or mechanisms that functioneffectively across the sectoral ministriesresponsible for agroforestry, in collaborationwith the private sector, NGOs, grassrootsorganizations, and other actors that arecritical to success in implementing agroforestrydevelopment on the ground. The platformor other mechanisms should set up effectiveinstitutional mechanisms, governance, andconsultation principles and processes forcoordinated actions among institutions andstakeholders. The devolution of nationalgovernment functions provides an opportunityfor the integration of agroforestry into subnationallevel plans, programs, and policies.A feedback link to research and advisoryorganizations, as well as NGOs and otherspromoting agroforestry, is also key to thecoordination and alignment.

Countries should further reform their landand tree tenure to promote agroforestryin line with the Voluntary Guidelines onthe Responsible Governance of Tenure ofLand, Fisheries and Forests in the Context ofNational Food Security, and the Principlesfor Responsible Investment in Agriculture andFood Systems with gender considerationsfully taken into account. Land and tree tenurereforms need to take into consideration thetenure rights of vulnerable groups, includingwomen. With clear rights over trees, womenand men farmers are strongly incentivizedto invest in agroforestry, to their benefit andto the benefit of the national economy andenvironment.

Countries should increase investmentsin rural advisory services, research andmonitoring systems to increase the capacityfor agroforestry, as a critical way to supportfarmers. This must be done with intentionaland strong linkages to the institutionsproviding research and training, as well asimplementing agents such as farmer leaders,government extension and non-governmentactors and would include working acrosssectors and stakeholders so that expertise,often held in research and educationinstitutions, and in environment ministries, isused to train advisory staff or tree nurseryoperators, typically within the agriculturalministries and partners. Robust monitoring,evaluation and learning processes mustbe in place for continual reflection andimprovement.

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Community Leader Aba Hawi sharing insights on land restoration efforts in Tigray, Ethiopia. Photo Gilberte Koffi/World Agroforestry

1. Despite vigorous efforts,agroforestry has not been sufficientlymainstreamed or supported yetthrough existing strategies or policyframeworks.

Our reviews show countries such as Kenya,Rwanda, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Senegalhave advanced agroforestry in their sectoralpolicies or programming, through thedevelopment or revision of their forest andagricultural policies, their National ActionPlan for climate change adaptation andtheir Nationally Determined Contributions.For instance, in 2009, the Kenyan Ministryof Agriculture enacted new Farm Forestryrules which require 10% of all farms tobe covered with trees, as a response tosevere deforestation. Another policy reformthat has directly targeted and benefitedthe expansion of agroforestry is the

reinterpretation and implementation of theForest Code in Niger that that strengthenedon-farm tree access, reduced punitivepunishment for tree cutting, and promoteddiscussion on access rights and thus helpedto expand the practice of FMNR to over 7million hectares of cropland.

Despite some noticeable efforts, keypolicy issues that hinder the adoption ofagroforestry were identified among thereviewed countries, including:

(i) The total lack of policies related toagroforestry in some cases, or agroforestrynot being sufficiently taken into account incurrent policies (e.g. Somalia, Mali);

(ii) The existence of policies that limitaccess, use and sale of tree products thatdiscourages farmers from cultivating trees ontheir land (e.g. Mali, Ghana);

Elaboration of key findings

(iii) Incoherent policies that prohibit oneaspect of agroforestry such as the pruningof trees, yet promote farmer-managednatural regeneration (e.g. Ghana); and (iv)fragmented policies developed by siloedsectors, leading to incoherence (e.g. Mali,where the predominance of the promotionof mechanization in agricultural policies isdisincentivizing the integration of trees onfarms).

These cases ultimately emphasize the lackof a focused agroforestry strategy or policyfor coordinating dispersed efforts that haveimpacts on agroforestry. They effectivelyand unintentionally prevent the acceleratedupscaling of agroforestry. Agroforestrytypically does not have its own policy space.It belongs to many sectors. Various aspectsof agroforestry spread across agriculture,forest, natural resources, and climate changepolicies or strategies. Of the eight countriesreviewed, most of the West Africa countrieshave not prioritized an agroforestry policy orstrategy, with greater progress seen in EastAfrica.

Rwanda is the only reviewed country thathas mainstreamed agroforestry acrossnational policies and plans (see Box 1).However, in many countries, numerouspolicy elements across different sectorscan be built upon to establish a nationalagroforestry strategy or policy. Ethiopia isclose to finalizing an agroforestry strategy,and Kenya has initiated the developmentof a strategy as well. Ghana has anagroforestry policy that dates back to 1986,and that could stand to be refined based oncurrent knowledge and experience. Somalia(Puntland and Somaliland), Mali, Senegal,and Niger all have agroforestry mentionedin various environmental, forestry, andclimate change strategies and plans. Still,no steps have yet been taken to developcomprehensive agroforestry-focused policies,strategies, or plans. A significant exampleoutside of Africa is India, which implementeda National Agroforestry Policy (see Box 2)that has had positive impacts in enhancinginvestment in agroforestry and incentivizingfarmers.

Rwanda Agroforestry Strategy and Action Plan

Rwanda recently developed an Agroforestry Strategy and Action Plan (2018-2027),to be implemented under the Rwanda Water and Forestry Authority in the Ministryof Environment. This Agroforestry Strategy and Action Plan creates a roadmap forpromoting leadership and synergies in agroforestry and engaging coordinatedaction to increase the adoption of agroforestry technologies at scale for enhancingRwanda’s agricultural landscapes, watersheds, and rural communities. The newForest Sector Strategic Plan (2017-2021) also outlines an increase in the number ofscattered trees on cropland and agroforestry areas up to 50 trees/ha by developingand intensifying agroforestry techniques on all suitable lands. Rwanda’s Vision2020 also includes agroforestry, and Rwanda’s National Strategy for transformation(2017-2024) aims to double the agroforestry coverage from 6% to 12% up 2024.

Box 1

5. Incentives and value chains 6. National and InternationalCommitments

Incentives and investment in developingviable tree product value chains are needed,including an enabling policy environment.Greater support for developing tree productvalue chains would include removing policyobstacles, providing or directing investment,enhancing credit access and providingmarket information.

Countries should implement and supportagroforestry activities at national, subnational, and local levels that contributeto the achievement of national aspirationsand commitments linked to the internationalagenda. Commitments such as theNationally Determined Contributionsfor cutting greenhouse gas emissions,Land Degradation Neutrality targets forreversing land degradation and the AichiTargets for addressing biodiversity lossprovide crucial political will for addressingthese interconnected challenges throughagroforestry. The commitments also offer anopportunity for leveraging finance, promotingcross-sectoral linkages and developingintegrated monitoring systems at the nationallevel.

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2. There is fragmented and ineffective coordination among institutions and stakeholders dealing with the different elements of agroforestry.

Taking agroforestry to scale requires coordina-tion and collaboration among high-rankingdecision-makers in various sectors, especiallyin agriculture, environment, and forestry. Theagroforestry agenda typically falls in-betweenthe related ministries, and very often, there isno dedicated home or institution with the man-date to coordinate the advancement of agrofor-estry or its integration with other developmentagendas. In Kenya, and Senegal, parts of themandate for agroforestry development weregiven to both the Environment and Agriculturesector ministries. In Ethiopia, agroforestrydevelopment is led by the Agriculture Ministry.

In Rwanda, Niger, and Mali, agroforestry fallsunder the Environment sector, while in Ghanaand Somalia, agroforestry does not have aclear institutional home.

When a lead ministry does exist, agroforestry is very often under-resourced, and there are no mechanisms by which to coordinate and connect the responsible ministry with other sector ministries, or with research institutions, or other implementing partners that are vital for its development. In Ethiopia however, the recent establishment of the Ethiopian National Water-shed and Agroforestry Multi-Stakeholder Plat-form (see Box 3), which is co-chaired by both the agriculture and the environment sectors, provides a valuable opportunity to facilitate awareness-raising, coordination, and harmoni-zation across sectors, as well as the creation of an enabling policy environment within which agroforestry can flourish.

National Oversight and Coordination Commit-tees have been established for the RegreeningAfrica project in each of the eight countries.These critical platforms link the project to seniorgovernment actors and could be strengthenedto provide a long term coordination role.

3. The prevalence of unsecured orambiguous land and tree tenurecreates long-term uncertainty forland managers, further restrictingthe success of agroforestryinitiatives.

Trees on farms, community forests, and pastorallands require clear and secure tenure rights.The absence of clearly defined property rightssignificantly affects farmers’ decisions aboutlong term investment in land, such as investingin trees and establishing agroforestry. Varioustypes of tenure insecurity were noted amongthe reviewed countries, such as the lack of for-mal titles to land (Ethiopia). In the West African

countries (Mali, Niger, Senegal and Ghana),the rights to trees were often separated fromrights to land and/or forest regulations inhibit-ed tree growing on farms. Farmers often lackedrights to manage the trees on their land and tomarket their tree products, and faced complicat-ed bureaucratic and expensive permit systems.In addition, in most reviewed countries, landpurchase price and rents are high, restrictingaccess by the poor and vulnerable (includingwomen), and the patrilineal system predomi-nates, which does not allow women to inheritor own land.

Farmers are severely discouraged from estab-lishing or managing trees on their land whenthe state claims ownership over those trees, orwhen the pruning or felling of trees is restrictedin agricultural landscapes, or when the state stillhas the power to grant concessions over treesin agricultural landscapes arbitrarily. Mecha-nisms to exempt agricultural lands from thesefelling and pruning bans are needed. Treeuser rights can be managed separately from

The India National Agroforestry Policy

Agroforestry adoption in India faced many obstacles, and an Agroforestry Policywas widely seen as necessary to overcome these challenges and to bring the differentministries working on agroforestry together to implement more coherent support. Thedevelopment and adoption of the Agroforestry Policy for India, starting in 2008, madeIndia the first nation in the world to adopt an inter-sectoral policy on agroforestry.

The policy provides incentives for the complete value chain of the agroforestry systemso that it becomes a self-propelling process. The policy is not only seen as crucial toIndia’s ambitious goal of achieving 33% tree cover, but also to providing many of theother benefits such as increasing food and nutritional security and supplying morefodder, fuelwood, and timber for India’s growing population. The policy provides aplatform for converging the various tree planting programs outside of forest areas,which are currently being implemented by different ministries such as agriculture, ruraldevelopment, and environment. It has also fostered the creation of a major investmentprogram aimed at supporting the States in their efforts to expand agroforestryamong small-scale farmers. The policy has also guided the strengthening of researchand extension on agroforestry, and it has resulted in many regulatory reforms thatincentivize farmers to engage more vigorously in cultivating trees on their land. A highlevel Inter-Ministerial Committee monitors the implementation of the policy. The Indiaexperience has demonstrated that it is crucial to have the broadest possible buy-inacross the political and ministerial spectrum. It fostered supporters to engage the widestpossible audience and to deftly “choreograph” how the policy would be developed toensure transparency, trust, and broad collective agreement.

Box 2

Establishment of the Ethiopian National Watershed and Agroforestry Multi-stakeholder Platform (NWAMP)

The establishment of the NWAMP aimed to accelerate the scaling-up of the adoptionof agroforestry in Ethiopia through developing agroforestry strategies. This includesbetter coordination and harmonization across sectors and amongst public and private actors and involving enhanced capacity development for research, advisory systems, farmers, and other actors. The Natural Resource Management Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and the country office of World Agroforestry jointly established and coordinate the NWAMP in collaboration with the sectoral ministries, commissions and departments including the water, energy and environment sectors. The NWAMP facilitates stakeholder linkages within and amongst national, regional, and international agroforestry and watershed networks. It helps to minimize the overlap of activities among implementing partners promoting agroforestry technologies and practices. Key roles and responsibilities of the NWAMP include facilitating awareness-raising and the sharing or dissemination of agroforestry knowledge products, while technically supporting the creation of an enabling policy environment within which agroforestry can flourish. This takes place through the support and guidance of policies, strategy, and plans development. NWAMP will also mobilize greater financial resources for agroforestry, support monitoring, and evaluation of the performance of agroforestry practices and the scope of scaling-up progress throughout the country.

Box 3

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land tenure, where this is useful, for example inEthiopia.Within the Humbo project on water-shed conservation, the government provideda legally-binding document granting “tree userrights”, as there was a mandatory requirementto receive carbon finance incentives in this proj-ect. In Ghana as in Niger, a reform process isunderway that may enhance ownership, access and use of trees by landowners. The VoluntaryGuidelines on the Responsible Governanceof Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in theContext of National Food Security, and thePrinciples for Responsible Investment in Agricul-ture and Food Systems offer a framework forpromoting tenure security.

4. There is a critical need andopportunity to address gaps intechnical advisory and implementationcapacities and the investments to scaleagroforestry.

One constraint that has been highlighted inseveral countries e.g., Rwanda, Senegal,and Ethiopia, is an insufficient investment inresearch and development of agroforestry tech-nologies, together with weak linkages betweenresearch, advisory, and knowledge transfer.The limited range of agroforestry practices thatare being promoted and the low availability ofhigh-quality tree seeds and seedlings were alsoemphasized.

Local knowledge should be harnessed in thedevelopment and promotion of agroforestryoptions across local contexts and scales.There are many NGOs, local organizations,cooperatives, and farmers/producer’s associa-tions that are working in agroforestry in the8 reviewed countries. They are increasinglyinvolved in the management of natural resourc-es at scale. However, dedicated agroforestryadvisory agents and the technical capacity ofthese staff to provide effective advisory servicesin agroforestry is often sorely lacking.

Farmer facilitators have now been trained andactivated in many countries. They should beused more widely as an avenue to demonstrateand disseminate the various technological

options that involve agroforestry. They are mosteffectively engaged when they are connectedwith well-equipped training and demonstrationcenters, as we observe in Kenya and Rwanda.Women farmers and other vulnerable groupsalso need to be encouraged and trained topractice agroforestry with promising results andopportunities on food security, resilience, andincome, as observed in Senegal, Mali, andGhana, for instance. Many agricultural universi-ties now offer curricula in agroforestry that areproviding an expanding cadre of agroforestrygraduates. These and the networks of agro-forestry research institutions in most countries should now be better linked to the advisory system and the growing efforts of NGOs and other actors in scaling-up agroforestry practic-es.

5. Strengthen Agroforestry value chains

Agroforestry value chains provide economicincentives to farmers, hence acceleratingadoption of tree-based technologies. Farmersgrow trees for fruits, nuts, energy (mainly char-coal and firewood), poles, fodder and fibrewhich are sold to provide additional householdincome, especially at a time when agriculturalcrops have failed, are out of season or havebeen depleted.

Agroforestry value chain opportunities existbut they are typically poorly developed. Thereare gaps in linking farmers to private sector toofftake the produce; and in development ofcritical infrastructure (roads, processing andstorage facilities).

Value addition of agroforestry produce remainslow hence farmers fetch very low prices. Aggre-gate marketing is developing rapidly in ruralareas particularly for horticultural crops wherefarmer groups harvest their produce, carry outinitial grading, sorting and packaging to fetchhigher prices, but rarely so for tree-based prod-ucts. Access to market price information is alsocrucial for farmers to be able to negotiate withvarious buyers.

A tree nursery with diverse species. Photo: World Agroforestry

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Bernard, F., M. Bourne, D. Garrity, C. Neely, and S. Chomba. 2019. Policy gaps and opportunities for scaling agroforestry insub-Saharan Africa: Recommendations from a policy review and recent practice. World Agroforestry (ICRAF), Nairobi.The authors would like to thank all the project partners who participated in country policy reviews.

This policy brief has been produced with financial support from the Europen Union. The contents of this brief are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

Tree-based value chains may require externalinvestment and subsidies to offset initial costs,particularly because trees can take a number ofyears to be economically productive. Farmerswho have successfully integrated trees into theirsystems often have a sense of a more sustain-able future income for their families.

Some agroforestry value chains exist in WestAfrica around cocoa and coffee in Ghana forinstance and are starting to develop aroundshea and cashew nuts in Ghana, Mali andSenegal. More opportunities exist around agro-forestry products in all the reviewed countries (e.g. Moringa stenotepala in Ethiopia, Moringaoleifera in Niger, Arabic gum in Senegal)but will require the removal of policy barriers tosmall-farm participation in markets and a policyenvironment promoting agroforestry that shouldbe based on developing market access andsound market information for tree products.

6. Agroforestry provides a uniqueopportunity to address the climatechange emergency, land degradationand loss of biodiversity whilecontributing to national, regionaland international targets andcommitments.

Most of the African countries have madecommitments under the AFR100 (African ForestLandscape Restoration) Initiative and the BonnChallenge, where agroforestry is recognizedas a pivotal intervention to achieve the ambitiousland restoration targets. Agroforestry also

contributes to the African Union Agenda 2063,the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution(NDC), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, and Aichi Targets on biodiversity conservation.

National plans and projects exist to reduce landdegradation, promote sustainable land manage-ment, and enhance livelihoods through agrofor-estry. Examples include the National ActionProgramme to Combat Drought and Desertifica-tion (2012) in Ghana, and Niger’s Economicand Social Development Plan 2017-2021, aswell as for 3N Initiative ‘Nigeriens NourishingNigeriens’ of 2012 with agroforestry relatedtargets and actions. Assisted natural regenera-tion of trees on farmlands and community landsplays a prominent role in these plans.

Other vital frameworks that are supporting theagroforestry agenda include:The Strategic Investment Framework for Sustain-able Land Management (SIF-SLM) in Senegal,Mali, and Niger, with its focus on minimizingdegradation, rehabilitating degraded landsand increasing food production; and the GreatGreen Wall initiatives in Senegal, Mali, Ethio-pia, Ghana, Niger and Somalia that arecombatting the effects of climatic change anddesertification. A focus on agroecologicalapproaches, including agroforestry, also showspromise to strengthen climate resilience inagriculture and livelihoods. A stronger monitor-ing and learning framework will be fundamentalto the ongoing success of these projects, andtheir contribution to the national commitments.