Increasing Food Production in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Environmental Problems and Inadequate Technological Solutions

Matlon, Peter J.; Spencer, Dunstan S. C.

doi:10.2307/1240976

Cited by 53 publications

(28 citation statements)

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“…Average sorghum and millet yields decreased to slightly below 300 kg/ha (Matlon and Spencer 1984;Matlon 1990). As a result, the majority of farm households had annual food deficits of 50% or more (Broekhuyse 1983).…”

Section: Wider Research and Experience With Faidherbiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evergreen Agriculture: a robust approach to sustainable food security in Africa

et al. 2010

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Producing more food for a growing population in the coming decades, while at the same time combating poverty and hunger, is a huge challenge facing African agriculture. The risks that come with climate change make this task more daunting. However, hundreds of thousands of rain fed smallholder farmers in Zambia, Malawi, Niger, and Burkina Faso have been shifting to farming systems that are restoring exhausted soils and are increasing food crop yields, household food security, and incomes. This article reviews these experiences, and their broader implications for African food security, as manifestations of Evergreen Agriculture, a fresh approach to achieving food security and environmental resilience. Evergreen Agriculture is defined as the integration of particular tree species into annual food crop systems. The intercropped trees sustain a green cover on the land throughout the year to maintain vegetative soil cover, bolster nutrient supply through nitrogen fixation and nutrient cycling, generate greater quantities of organic matter in soil surface residues, improve soil structure and water infiltration, increase greater direct production of food, fodder, fuel, fiber and income from products produced by the intercropped trees, enhance carbon storage both above-ground and belowground, and induce more effective conservation of aboveand below-ground biodiversity. Four national cases are reviewed where farmers are observed to be applying these principles on a major scale. The first case involves the experience of Zambia, where conservation farming programmes include the cultivation of food crops within an agroforest of the fertilizer tree Faidherbia albida. The second case is that of the Malawi Agroforestry Food Security Programme, which is integrating fertilizer, fodder, fruit, fuel wood, and timber tree production with food crops on small farms on a national scale. The third case is the dramatic expansion of Faidherbia albida agroforests in millet and sorghum production systems throughout Niger via assisted natural regeneration. The fourth case is the development of a unique type of planting pit technology (zai) along with farmer-managed natural regeneration of trees on a substantial scale in Burkina Faso. Lastly, we examine the current outlook for Evergreen Agriculture to be further adapted and scaled-up across the African continent.

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Section: Wider Research and Experience With Faidherbiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Evergreen Agriculture: a robust approach to sustainable food security in Africa

et al. 2010

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“…We speculate that the unexplained variance could be due to other ecological factors in the value chain that have not been incorporated in the regression model. These include a high micro-variability in land quality -that is a relative instability of soils and their different responses to application of inputs [18], as well as soil conditions prior to use of clean seeds, fertilizer, or fungicides. Soils that already contain bacteria wilt will limit yields even when all required inputs are used correctly.…”

Section: Use Of Fungicidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low potato yields in Kenya: do conventional input innovations account for the yields disparity?

Wang’ombe

Dijk

2013

Agric & Food Secur

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Background: Potato yields in Kenya are less than half the amount obtained by some developed countries. Despite more acreage being dedicated to the crop, annual production has not improved. Kenya's low yields have been blamed on a failure to use clean seeds, fertilizers, fungicides and irrigation. The article examines the impact of adopting these innovations on enhancements of yields. Results: The regression coefficients indicate that clean seeds have the greatest impact followed by irrigation, fungicides and fertilizers. However, clean seeds have the lowest adoption rate, with only 4.5% of the respondent sample using such seeds. Irrigation adoption was also low at 23% but there is widespread usage of fungicides and fertilizers at 92% and 96% respectively. Adoption of the four innovations more than doubled the yields but the absolute amount remained less than 50% of the 40 tons per hectare obtained by the leading world producers. The less than optimal gains can be attributed to the nonlinear relationships of the variables, which indicate the importance of more precise, proper application of inputs in order to obtain higher yields. Linear regression could only explain 10% of the variation but nonlinear regression improved R squared to 80%. The unexplained variables accounting for 20% appear to be essential for a further enhancement of yields, given the big difference between those currently achieved in Kenya and those in developed countries.

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“…But this approach proved unsuccessful as many of the imported varieties failed to outperform local ones (Evenson, 2003;Evenson and Gollin, 2003). Matlon and Spencer (1984) recounted a case in which out of 2000 mangrove swamp rice varieties imported into West Africa, only two performed on par with the best local varieties. The underperformance of imported varieties motivated the need for research that exploit the genetic diversity of Africa's land races and wild rice (CGIAR, 1993).…”

Section: Innovations For Increasing Domestic Productivitymentioning

confidence: 99%