Sustainable agriculture: Developing a common understanding for modernization of agriculture in Africa

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has become central to all sectors all over the world, from agriculture to environment to business, engineering and industrialization. The principle of sustainability is the same all over these sectors. However, the understanding of the term may vary from sector to sector depending on how it may be applied to a specific sector. Sustainable agriculture is a term that continues to gain prominence in the agricultural sector but not without lots of misunderstanding, controversy and challenges. It is necessary that the sector has a common understanding of this term if it has to be applied by all and sundry. This is more so today due to the heightened importance of sustainable agriculture following its elevation to a key target in Sustainable Development Goal No. 2. This paper has been necessitated by the need to address the divergent perceptions of sustainable agriculture, which make it difficult to universally apply the concept in the agricultural sector and which could adversely affect the attainment of the goal's target. Sustainable agriculture has been wrongly linked to a return to either the low yields or poor farmers that characterized the 19 th century and the use of low value labour-intensive agricultural resources and production systems. It has also been viewed as an attack on conventional agriculture and intended for use by resource-poor farmers. With these perceptions, a common way forward towards sustainable agriculture is not possible. The paper highlights the varied but related definitions of sustainable agriculture and suggests that because of the "boundary object" nature of the definition, the principles of sustainable agriculture should provide a good guide to be followed in pursuit of the same. The paper suggests possible reasons why sustainable agriculture concept is not widely applied in Africa and proposes important actions to be undertaken to enhance wider application of this concept in agricultural systems.

Influence of education on placement of production in the AIC in the conditions of Industry 4.0

“…The scientific foundations of production in the AIC in the conditions of Industry 4.0 are set in the concept of AIC 4.0 (Agriculture 4.0) and are considered in the works Altukhov et al (2019), Belenkova et al (2018), Bogoviz et al (2018), Butorin and Bogoviz (2019), Kansanga et al (2019), Ogemah (2017), Polyakova et al (2019), Sergi et al (2019a), Sergi et al (2019b), Sibirskaya et al (2017) and Weltzien (2016). The current role of education during placement of production in the AIC is studied in the publications such as De Castro and Saes (2018), Popkova (2019), Popkova et al (2017a), Popkova et al (2017b) and Yost et al (2019).…”

QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN THE AGRO-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ON THE BASIS OF TERRITORIAL-SECTORAL PLACEMENT AND SCIENTIFIC & TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT

“…and the advantages of AIC 4.0 as a means of rationalization of agricultural production are emphasized in the works Weltzien, C. (2016), Butorin and Bogoviz (2019), and Altukhov et al (2019). The necessity for state stimulation of scientific& technical development as a means of increasing the effectiveness and competitiveness of the AIC on the basis of cases that reflect successful practical experience of various countries of the world is substantiated in the work Kansanga et al (2019) by the example of Ghana and New Zealand and in Ogemah (2017) by the example of African countries. As a result of the literature review, it is possible to conclude that though the separate distinguished blocks of scientific knowledge are rather elaborated, there's no systemic opinion on the problem of quality management in the AIC on the basis of territorial-sectoral placement and scientific& technical development in the modern economic science.…”

Impacts of Sustainable Agricultural Practices on Food Security, Nutrition, and Poverty among Smallholder Maize Farmers in Morogoro region, Tanzania

“…In addition to the aforementioned factors, this study argues that the available empirical literature on the impacts of adopting SAPs remains inconclusive. Previous studies have shown substantial contributions of adopting SAPs in production, household income, and food security (Adenle et al, 2019;Bekele et al, 2021;Bongole et al, 2021;Ehiakpor et al, 2021;Kassie et al, 2013;Ma & Wang, 2020;Manda et al, 2016;Ndiritu et al, 2014;Ogemah, 2017;Zhou et al, 2018;Rose et al, 2019;Zeweld et al, 2020). However, the is insufficient literature on the impact of adopting multiple SAPs consisting of manure, intercropping, crop residual, improved maize varieties, and crop rotation on food security, nutrition, and poverty in Tanzania.…”