Agriculture Green Development: a model for China and the world

Sustainable intensification is a key component of agricultural development in Africa, urgently needed to wean the continent off foreign food supply and to limit agricultural farmland expansion. It is expected that a relatively small fraction of farmers will adopt fertilizer technology, as profits in current economic settings are relatively small while risks are considerable with varying prices and uncertain yield responses. Many smallholders depend on off-farm income and local markets for food supply. Structural adjustments are therefore needed to allow management of larger units of land by trained farmers willing to take this opportunity, while recognizing land right sensitivities. There are large opportunities for African commodity crops to improve food security, including cassava and East African highland banana that strongly respond to fertilizer with limited environmental risks under good management. This requires investments in better functioning markets, local fertilizer production facilities that can produce regional crop blends and cost-efficient distribution networks, providing balanced fertilizers for African farmers.

Section: Tunneling Through: Green Solutions or Murky Waters?mentioning

confidence: 78%

Sustainable intensification of agriculture in Africa

Schut¹

2020

“…Using drip irrigation calls for corresponding changes in fertilizer management because current high fertilizer inputs greatly threaten resources and the environment. Fertilizer overuse in China has been widely reported in recent years [1,2,10,17] . Here, despite the application of ˃ 400 kg• ha −1 N, nitrogen deficit occurred at some locations in the coarser-textured Zones 3 and 4 under border irrigation (Fig.…”

Section: The Current Situation and Field Management Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They concluded that increasing irrigation water productivity should rely on the use of water-saving technology, optimum fertilizer rates, agricultural mulching film, and pesticides. Although a large amount of research has been conducted, sustainable agricultural development in China continues to face many challenges such as water shortage, low resource use efficiency, and environmental contamination [17] . Moreover, few system analyses and interdisciplinary studies have been conducted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant Density, Irrigation and Nitrogen Management: Three Major Practices in Closing Yield Gaps for Agricultural Sustainability in North-West China

Guo

Shukla

et al. 2021

• A relative yield of 70% was obtained under both border and drip irrigation. • Drip irrigation saved water and lowered yield variability compared to border irrigation. • Drip irrigation led to accumulation of soil nitrogen and phosphorus in the root zone. • Relative yield may increase 8% to 10% by optimizing field management. • Plant density, irrigation and nitrogen are major factors closing yield gap in NW China.

“…Yet, despite these major differences, sustainable agricultural intensification of sub-Saharan African agriculture may benefit from elements of the Chinese experience of agricultural innovation and recent efforts to boost "Agricultural Green Development" [22] . Particularly valuable elements for testing the potential of agricultural transformation may be the fostering of effective agricultural input and output markets, the local small-scale production of simple machinery, seed and postharvest processing units including small dairies for milk processing, the use of the "Science and Technology Backyard" system for knowledge transfer [23] , and the strengthening of agricultural credit in combination with tenure reforms.…”

Section: China's Agricultural Development: An Ambiguous Model For Agrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward sustainable intensification of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa

Buerkert¹,

Schlecht²

2020

Across the African continent efforts to intensify agriculture have been limited to specific commodities, locations or particular production schemes. The causes for the widespread failure to overcome low land and labor productivity while maintaining ecosystem services have often be analyzed but remain poorly understood. A socialecological system approach may help to better understand the complex nature of ecological disadvantages, postcolonial structures, limited connect between producers and consumer markets, low off-farm livelihood opportunities, partial underpopulation and lacking experience with the concept of sustainable production as a major impediment for sustainable intensification of the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, recent success stories in agro-pastoral systems as well as urban vegetable and animal production and associated value chains in West Africa, and in intensive mixed-cropping systems of the Great Lakes Region show the potential of stakeholder-driven agricultural intensification. Proper interpretation of these cases may provide lessons for a more widespread eco-intensification of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa.