Productivity effects of agroecological practices in Africa: insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis

IF 5.6 1区农林科学 Q1 FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Food Security Pub Date : 2024-11-18 DOI:10.1007/s12571-024-01504-6

Miriam E. Romero Antonio, Amy Faye, Bibiana Betancur-Corredor, Heike Baumüller, Joachim von Braun

{"title":"Productivity effects of agroecological practices in Africa: insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Miriam E. Romero Antonio, Amy Faye, Bibiana Betancur-Corredor, Heike Baumüller, Joachim von Braun","doi":"10.1007/s12571-024-01504-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Scholars have proposed agroecology as a promising method for promoting sustainable and socially just agricultural production systems. However, the extent to which agroecological practices will generate the yields required to ensure sufficient food globally remains unclear. This notion is particularly true in the context of Africa, where agricultural productivity is low but levels of hunger and malnutrition are high. To address this knowledge gap, this article undertakes a systematic review of empirical studies to assess the overall status of agroecology-related research in Africa. Using descriptive and meta-analytical methods, we evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of agroecological practices on land and labour productivity. Our analysis of 501 peer-reviewed articles reveals that the body of agroecology-related literature in Africa has been growing in the past 10 years from approximately 10 to more than 70 studies per annum before and after 2014, respectively, with a strong focus on East Africa, particularly Kenya. The majority of the reviewed studies relate to but do not mention agroecology in the title or abstract. Thus, solely relying on studies that use the term may introduce bias and overlook valuable research contributions to the field. The meta-analysis could identify 39 agronomic studies with 392 observations in which agroecological practices were compared to monocrop systems (defined as plots where similar plants grow alongside each other simultaneously and sequentially from one season to the next) with or without inputs as the control groups. The meta-analysis indicates that agroecological practices are associated with a positive and significant difference in land productivity, compared to that for monocrop systems especially so when monocrops are grown without inputs. However, the size and direction of yield differs by practice, crop, climatic factor, soil property and type of control.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":567,"journal":{"name":"Food Security","volume":"17 1","pages":"207 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12571-024-01504-6.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Security","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-024-01504-6","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Scholars have proposed agroecology as a promising method for promoting sustainable and socially just agricultural production systems. However, the extent to which agroecological practices will generate the yields required to ensure sufficient food globally remains unclear. This notion is particularly true in the context of Africa, where agricultural productivity is low but levels of hunger and malnutrition are high. To address this knowledge gap, this article undertakes a systematic review of empirical studies to assess the overall status of agroecology-related research in Africa. Using descriptive and meta-analytical methods, we evaluate empirical evidence on the effect of agroecological practices on land and labour productivity. Our analysis of 501 peer-reviewed articles reveals that the body of agroecology-related literature in Africa has been growing in the past 10 years from approximately 10 to more than 70 studies per annum before and after 2014, respectively, with a strong focus on East Africa, particularly Kenya. The majority of the reviewed studies relate to but do not mention agroecology in the title or abstract. Thus, solely relying on studies that use the term may introduce bias and overlook valuable research contributions to the field. The meta-analysis could identify 39 agronomic studies with 392 observations in which agroecological practices were compared to monocrop systems (defined as plots where similar plants grow alongside each other simultaneously and sequentially from one season to the next) with or without inputs as the control groups. The meta-analysis indicates that agroecological practices are associated with a positive and significant difference in land productivity, compared to that for monocrop systems especially so when monocrops are grown without inputs. However, the size and direction of yield differs by practice, crop, climatic factor, soil property and type of control.

查看原文本刊更多论文

非洲农业生态实践对生产力的影响：来自系统回顾和荟萃分析的见解

学者们提出，农业生态学是促进可持续和社会公正的农业生产系统的一种有前途的方法。然而，农业生态实践将在多大程度上产生确保全球足够粮食所需的产量仍不清楚。这一概念在农业生产力低但饥饿和营养不良程度高的非洲尤其正确。为了解决这一知识差距，本文对实证研究进行了系统回顾，以评估非洲农业生态学相关研究的总体状况。利用描述和元分析方法，我们评估了农业生态实践对土地和劳动生产率影响的经验证据。我们对501篇同行评议文章的分析显示，在过去10年里，非洲农业生态学相关文献的数量一直在增长，分别从2014年前后的每年约10篇增加到70多篇，其中重点关注东非，尤其是肯尼亚。大多数被审查的研究与农业生态学有关，但在标题或摘要中没有提到农业生态学。因此，仅仅依赖使用该术语的研究可能会引入偏见，并忽视对该领域有价值的研究贡献。荟萃分析可以确定39项农艺研究和392项观察结果，其中农业生态实践与单一作物系统（定义为相似植物同时并排生长的地块，从一个季节到下一个季节依次生长）进行比较，有或没有投入作为对照组。荟萃分析表明，与单一作物系统相比，农业生态实践与土地生产力的显著正相关，特别是在没有投入的情况下种植单一作物时。然而，产量的大小和方向因实践、作物、气候因素、土壤性质和控制类型而异。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Food Security FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY-

CiteScore

14.00

自引率

6.00%

发文量

审稿时长

>12 weeks

期刊介绍： Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches. Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet. From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas: Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition Global food potential and global food production Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs: § Climate, climate variability, and climate change § Desertification and flooding § Natural disasters § Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production § Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption. Nutrition, food quality and food safety. Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs: § Land, agricultural and food policy § International relations and trade § Access to food § Financial policy § Wars and ethnic unrest Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.