Towards improved natural resource management in African agriculture.

Barrett, Chris; Lynam, John K.; Place, Frank; Reardon, Tom; Aboud, A. A.

doi:10.1079/9780851995847.0287

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…This system produced no legume grain, with a preponderance of soil-building services. Long time horizons for ES may necessitate government subsidizes and farmer education (22). Supporting this contention is our experience in Ekwendeni, where technology adoption has been facilitated by over a decade of participatory action research on nutrition and agroecology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Diversification with legumes is widely promoted in Africa for sustainable productivity of agroecosystems (22). Yet degraded soils and limited access to improved seeds and superior rhizobia have often led to poor performance of annual legumes (19).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agroforestry species produce large amounts of leafy residues and fuel wood, but no grain. Labor requirements are often onerous, both to establish seedlings for transplanting and to minimize competition through frequent pruning of intercropped trees or shrubs (22). The maize-Tephrosia vogelii intercrop is an exceptional form of agroforestry because it has relatively modest labor requirements (13).…”

Section: Greening the Green Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Snapp

Blackie

Gilbert

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

303

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The Asian green revolution trebled grain yields through agrochemical intensification of monocultures. Associated environmental costs have subsequently emerged. A rapidly changing world necessitates sustainability principles be developed to reinvent these technologies and test them at scale. The need is particularly urgent in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields have stagnated. An unprecedented opportunity to reverse this trend is unfolding in Malawi, where a 90% subsidy has ensured access to fertilization and improved maize seed, with substantive gains in productivity for millions of farmers. To test if economic and ecological sustainability could be improved, we preformed manipulative experimentation with crop diversity in a countrywide trial (n = 991) and at adaptive, local scales through a decade of participatory research (n = 146). Spatial and temporal treatments compared monoculture maize with legume-diversified maize that included annual and semiperennial (SP) growth habits in temporal and spatial combinations, including rotation, SP rotation, intercrop, and SP intercrop systems. Modest fertilizer intensification doubled grain yield compared with monoculture maize. Biodiversity improved ecosystem function further: SP rotation systems at half-fertilizer rates produced equivalent quantities of grain, on a more stable basis (yield variability reduced from 22% to 13%) compared with monoculture. Across sites, profitability and farmer preference matched: SP rotations provided twofold superior returns, whereas diversification of maize with annual legumes provided more modest returns. In this study, we provide evidence that in Africa, crop diversification can be effective at a countrywide scale, and that shrubby, grain legumes can enhance environmental and food security.ecosystem services | nitrogen | rural development | sustainable agriculture

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Greening the Green Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Snapp

Blackie

Gilbert

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

303

194

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“…Second, because ISFM practices are knowledge intensive, a major challenge is to identify scaling up processes that are both effective and not too costly in terms of information provision and technical support. Third, there must be major efforts to make agricultural commercialization more attractive to small farmers (Barrett et al, 2002c). Low rates of market participation are leading correlates of both poverty and the absence of sustainable agricultural intensification through increased investment in the land (Barrett and Carter, 1999;Reardon et al, 1999).…”

Section: Summary: Enhancing Isfm's Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for integrated soil fertility management using organic and inorganic inputs: evidence from smallholder African agricultural systems

et al. 2003

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This paper reviews current organic nutrient management practices and their integration with mineral fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa with a view to understanding the potential impacts on a range of input markets. A number of different organic nutrient management practices have been found to be technically and financially beneficial, but they differ considerably as to their effectiveness and resource requirements. A review of African smallholder experiences with integrated soil fertility management practices finds growing use, both indigenously and through participation in agricultural projects. Patterns of use vary considerably across heterogeneous agroecological conditions, communities and households, but are stimulated by profitable commercially oriented agricultural opportunities. The potential for integrated soil fertility management to expand markets for organic inputs, labor, credit, and fertilizer is explored. We found that there are few direct analyses of these links and indirect evidence at this point in time is inconclusive. #

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“…Most countries in SSA also have poor physical infrastructure (road, irrigation, and power networks) and weak economic institutions (markets, credit, insurance, etc.). Coupled with a low capacity to innovate due to negligible investments in science, information and technology generation, and dissemination, these factors impose serious limits on the capacity of most countries in SSA to respond to and cope with temporary and permanent climate shifts and natural disasters (Barrett et al, 2002;Sachs, 2005;World Bank, 2009). The influences of such structural deficiencies and macroeconomic stress factors on vulnerability of SSA to CC are expected to be exacerbated under the predicted risks of future climate (IPCC, 2007b).…”

Section: Current Development Lags and Future Growth Scenarios For Ssamentioning

confidence: 99%

The double challenge of adapting to climate change while accelerating development in sub-Saharan Africa

Hassan¹

2010

Envir. Dev. Econ.

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ABSTRACT. Accelerating economic growth and social development is necessary to reduce the vulnerability and enhance the adaptive capacity of sub-Saharan Africa to cope with the consequences of predicted unfavorable future climate. This requires major investments and policy reforms to induce a needed radical transformation of the way development is currently pursued to a more climate-sensitive path of low carbon growth. Key gaps in the current knowledge base that call for major investments and urgent attention include the ability to forecast more robust local future climate and to account for the uncertainties associated with climate risks for ecosystems' functions and probable nonconvexities in future impacts to project more plausible scenarios for future development in sub-Saharan Africa and provide better information on the costs and benefits of potential actions to avert the negative consequences of climate change.

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Towards improved natural resource management in African agriculture.

Cited by 31 publications

References 0 publications

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Prospects for integrated soil fertility management using organic and inorganic inputs: evidence from smallholder African agricultural systems

The double challenge of adapting to climate change while accelerating development in sub-Saharan Africa

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