Understanding African Farming Systems as a Basis for Sustainable Intensification Dennis Garrity UN Drylands Ambassador & Senior Fellow, World Agroforestry Centre

The African Husbandman William Allen

1965 A monumental empathetic examination of African

farming systems as they were nearly a century ago.

"We must try to see the situation through the eyes of

the farmer, and put aside for the time being our own

preconceived ideas, prejudices, and conceptions of

good land-use, which derive from very different

societies and environments."

Farm household decision-making: Connecting resources, production, consumption and investment

The situation today:

Systems approaches on the defensive

Even though the history of technical interventions in

Africa has been a saga of many discouraging and well-

documented failures.

-- Technical recommendations are often derived from

generic assumptions rather than a detailed analysis of

local farm-level constraints and the livelihood settings within

which rural people make decisions, and evolve their farm

systems.

-- Prescriptions often based on poor analogy, for

instance, Asia’s green revolution, or on inappropriate

evolutionary models that Africa will progress through the

same stages of development that Europe or North America

followed.

The Situation

Farming systems education and training has

atrophied during the past two decades.

Countries lack a solid professional cadre of

development professionals with a systems

perspective.

Recommendations (1)

We need to launch a concerted effort to bring build

or rebuild it.

And embed systems approaches into national

agricultural investment plans (NAIPs) through

CAADP.

Let’s establish a task force through the systems

CRPs to backstop this process.

Recommendations (2)

To guide project development and monitoring,

let’s establish the body of questions and indicators

to determine whether a systems approach is

underpinning it.

To guide policy formulation, let’s develop a

framework to evaluate prospective policies from a

systems perspective.

The farming systems of Africa reclassified

African Farming Systems Analyzed

Maize-Mixed Farming Systems: An engine for rural growth

Agropastoral Farming Systems: Achieving resilience under duress

Highland Perennial Farming Systems: Sustainable intensification

Root and Tuber Crop Farming Systems

Cereal-Root Crop Mixed Farming Systems

Highland Mixed Farming Systems

Tree Crop Farming Systems in the Humid Lowlands

Forest-Based Farming Systems

Pastoral Farming Systems

Fish-Based Farming Systems

Irrigated Farming Systems

Perennial Mixed Farming Systems

Arid Pastoral and Oasis Farming Systems

Urban and Peri-urban Farming Systems

Cereal-Root Crop Mixed Farming Sub-Systems

Three scales of knowledge

that can help decision-makers

• 1st, the larger trends and drivers that are in motion at the

continental level, providing a backdrop at the macro level.

• 2nd, the level of the farming system and

subsystems, where the drivers play out in unique ways in the

local context. And

• 3rd, the household level, and how it responds to internal and

external forces, including policy interventions.

The drivers of farming systems change

• population, hunger and poverty

• natural resources degradation and climate change

• markets and trade

• technology and science

• energy

• information and human capital

• institutions and policies

Land degradation: Trend in biomass productivity

by farming system

The soil fertility conundrum Estimated marginal value product of nitrogen fertilizer (Kshs/kg N)

is dependent on soil carbon content (Barrett 2013)

Sustainable intensification through EverGreen Agriculture. Niger.

Conservation agriculture with Faidherbia albida trees

in Zambia

17 Countries are engaged in EverGreen Agriculture

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

Conservation Agriculture with trees

Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration +

Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland

EverGreen Agriculture Partnership

Steering

Committee

Farmers and farmer groups

International and regional

research

Civil Society

Youth and Education

Governments and Policy

International and regional development

Donors

Private Sector

Breaking News:

COMESA setting up a platform to assist 19

member countries to link the upscaling of

fertilizer tree technologies with national

input subsidy programs

African Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance Vision 25by25

25 million farmers practicing CSA by 2025

Five main strategies to improve

farm household livelihoods

• intensification of existing production patterns

• diversification of production and processing

• expansion of farm or herd size

• increased off-farm income

• exit from agricultural production.

Conclusions & Policy Implications

1. Rural populations have now reached critical levels

• Highland perennial systems: Strong rural-urban labour

market integration occurring in some subsystems. This can be

accelerated through education agri-business development

• Agropastoral systems have strong labour migration, which

can be strengthened by improving labour market information

and education.

Conclusions & Policy Implications

2. Tackling the decline in soil fertility

Governments can pursue a number of paths to support land

regeneration:

• Maize-mixed systems: In high-population subsystems target

fertilizer subsidies transitioning to tree biofertilisers; in low

population density subsystems expand area farmed through more

efficient tillage and conservation agriculture on smallholdings.

• Agropastoral: Continue regreening with massive upscaling of

farmer-managed natural regeneration along with fertilizer

microdosing and more efficient fertilizer input markets.

Conclusions & Policy Implications

3. Agricultural trade and markets

The key growth potential in lies at home, in the expanding

domestic and regional markets within Africa, where demand in

some areas already far exceeds supply. Enhancing these

markets, improving infrastructure, removing barriers and reducing

transactions costs.

Market development is important in all systems, but a priority in

systems with strong agricultural potential but poor market access

(e.g. Cereal root and tuber systems).

Proposed Way Forward

• Reinvigorate education and training in farming systems

approaches throughout Africa

• Institutionalization of the farming systems knowledge and

approach into regional and national policy making and planning

• Building of systems research capacity to complement existing

disciplinary expertise

• National efforts to apply farming systems analysis through the

CAADP process

• Guide project development and monitoring by establishing the

body of questions and indicators to determine whether a systems

approach is underpinning it. Guide policy formulation, by

developing a framework to evaluate prospective policies from a

systems perspective.

Land degradation: Trend in biomass productivity

by farming system

Southern Africa Conference on

Beating Famine Accelerating impact through landscape and

livelihoods regeneration

April 14-17, 2015 in Lilongwe

See Beatingfamine.com

d.garrity@cgiar.org

Approach: why a farming systems lens?

• Low productivity and rural food insecurity and poverty persist after many years of interventions

• Strong diversity and complexity of farming systems and farm-households’ potentials and needs

• Understanding farm household decision-making is essential for fostering innovation and accelerating adoption

The farming systems of Africa

Tree cover on agricultural land by farming system

The density of undernourished people

by farming system