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We calculated a simple indicator of food availability using data from 93 sites in 17 countries across contrasted agroecologies in subSaharan Africa (>13,000 farm households) and analyzed the drivers of variations in food availability. Crop production was the major source of energy, contributing 60% of food availability. The off-farm income contribution to food availability ranged from 12% for households without enough food available (18% of the total sample) to 27% for the 58% of households with sufficient food available. Using only three explanatory variables (household size, number of livestock, and land area), we were able to predict correctly the agricultural determined status of food availability for 72% of the households, but the relationships were strongly influenced by the degree of market access. Our analyses suggest that targeting poverty through improving market access and off-farm opportunities is a better strategy to increase food security than focusing on agricultural production and closing yield gaps. This calls for multisectoral policy harmonization, incentives, and diversification of employment sources rather than a singular focus on agricultural development. Recognizing and understanding diversity among smallholder farm households in sub-Saharan Africa is key for the design of policies that aim to improve food security.food security | smallholder farmers | yield gap | resource scarcity | farm size A chieving sustainable food security (i.e., the basic right of people to produce and/or purchase the food they need, without harming the social and biophysical environment) is a major challenge in a world of rapid human population growth and large-scale changes in economic development (1). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), production on smallholder farms is critical to the food security of the rural poor (2) and contributes the majority of food production at the national level. National policies and local interventions have profound impacts on the opportunities and constraints that affect smallholders (3). However, policy frameworks that aim to improve food security and rural livelihoods in the developing world face many uncertainties and often fail (4).The formulation of effective policies needs adequate information on how different options affect the complex issues surrounding food security and sustainable development. A complication in generating such information is the large diversity within and among smallholder farming systems. Agroecological conditions, markets, and local cultures determine land use patterns and agricultural management across regions, whereas within a given region, farm households differ in many ways, including resource endowment, production orientation and objectives, ethnicity, education, past experience, management skills, and in the farm households' attitude toward risk. Policies by their nature have to be widely applicable, but recognizing this diversity in farm households is key to designing more effective policies to help poor farmers (5). Understanding the main drivers of ho...

Global support for Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a pathway to Sustainable Intensification is strong. CA revolves around three principles: no-till (or minimal soil disturbance), soil cover, and crop rotation. The benefits arising from the ease of crop management, energy/cost/time savings, and soil and water conservation led to widespread adoption of CA, particularly on large farms in the Americas and Australia, where farmers harness the tools of modern science: highly-sophisticated machines, potent agrochemicals, and biotechnology. Over the past 10 years CA has been promoted among smallholder farmers in the (sub-) tropics, often with disappointing results. Growing evidence challenges the claims that CA increases crop yields and builds-up soil carbon although increased stability of crop yields in dry climates is evident. Our analyses suggest pragmatic adoption on larger mechanized farms, and limited uptake of CA by smallholder farmers in developing countries. We propose a rigorous, context-sensitive approach based on Systems Agronomy to analyze and explore sustainable intensification options, including the potential of CA. There is an urgent need to move beyond dogma and prescriptive approaches to provide soil and crop management options for farmers to enable the Sustainable Intensification of agriculture.

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