Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development最新文献

{"title":"The future: towards agenda 2063.","authors":"M. Bwalya, S. Mkomwa, R. Shula, S. Lugandu, A. Kassam","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 This chapter discusses the foreseeable future of agriculture in Africa, which has a major contribution to make in terms of food security, and also in terms of economic, social and environmental development. The changing climate in Africa already calls for the adoption of the best alternative agricultural production strategy that can deliver both productivity and ecosystem services. This chapter also highlights important findings from the book such as the new expertise and experience in Conservation Agriculture (CA) that has been gained, especially during the last decade. Research, training, farmer innovation and the increasing agricultural investments in institution building mean that CA now holds greater promise of serving as a sustainable pillar in the implementation of Agenda 2063. Also included in this chapter is a transcription of the speech of the Director General of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Mr Mzamo Michael Mlenganaduring during the official opening of the Congress, wherein he called for a greater contribution by CA and the multi-stakeholder CA community of practice towards Agenda 2063.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116078672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conservation agriculture for climate smart agriculture in smallholder farming systems in Kenya.","authors":"A. Micheni, P. Gicheru, O. Kitonyo","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Climate change is any significant change in climatic conditions. Such changes may negatively affect productivity of the rain-fed agriculture practised by over 75% of the smallholder Kenyan farmers. The effect leads to failure to sustainably provide adequate food and revenue to famers. It is on this basis that an almost 8-year field study was conducted to evaluate and scale climate resilient agricultural technological options associated with Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems and practices (no-till; maintenance of permanent soil cover; and crop diversification - rotations and associations), complemented with good agricultural strategies. The activities involved were targeted to sustainably increase productivity of maize-legumes farming systems while reducing environmental risks. The results showed improved soil properties (physical, chemical and health) and consequently increased crop yields and human nutrition by over 30%. Such benefits were attributed to cost savings arising from NT and reduced labour requirement for weed control. This was further based on enhanced crop soil moisture and nutrients availability and use efficiency leading to over 25% yield increase advantage. Apart from the field trials, the study used the Agricultural Production Simulator (APSIM) computer model to simulate CA scenario with the aim of providing potential quick answers to adopting CA practices for farm system productivity. The results were inclusively shared, leading to over 21% increase in the number of farmers adopting the CA practices within and beyond the project sites. The study's overall recommendation affirmed the need to integrate the CA practices into Kenyan farming systems for sustainable agricultural livelihoods and economic opportunities.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"467 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117311102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Centres of excellence in conservation agriculture: developing African institutions for sustainable agricultural development.","authors":"S. Mkomwa, S. Lugandu, N. Macharia, Alexandra Bot, W. Mutai","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an important component in addressing food insecurity, biodiversity degradation and water scarcity challenges. Its adoption in Africa has lagged behind other continents. One major area of need to enable the acceleration of the adoption of CA in Africa relates to building the necessary cross-sectoral institutional and human capacity across the education-research-extension-enterprise axis along the value chain. This study was conducted in order to contribute to the discussions about the need to create sustainable institutions: specifically, Conservation Agriculture Centres of Excellence (CA-CoEs) in Africa. The CA-CoEs model includes a stakeholder team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support and/or training in CA, with linkages to service providers along the value chain. This literature-based research involved systematic identification, collection, analysis and documentation of data to identify and address the unique roles these CA-CoEs play in the promotion and adoption of CA and their level of performance. It employed a CA quality assurance self-assessment tool to measure the performance of the CA-CoEs against predetermined performance descriptors. Although the CA-CoEs are facilitating and catalysing adoption of CA, their capacity in providing the CA-related programmes, training and research is not optimal. CA-CoE quality assurance of services can be helpful in identification and design of measures for addressing the challenges faced. To be impactful, CA-CoEs need well-coordinated, participatory and demand-driven CA-based agricultural practices, information services and knowledge for farmers and other stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), CA service providers and CA equipment manufacturers.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129322566","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Malabo Declaration and agenda 2063: making climate smart agriculture real with conservation agriculture in Africa.","authors":"S. Mkomwa, A. Kassam, M. Bwalya, R. Shula","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 The African Union (AU) has provided the vision and even a hint of the future through Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, to be achieved, in part, through accelerated agricultural growth and transformation, leading to shared prosperity and improved livelihoods. The promulgation is contained in the Malabo Declaration of the AU Summit held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, in June 2014. Attaining the ambitious commitments of ending hunger, doubling productivity, halving post-harvest losses and poverty, enhancing resilience in livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and other shocks, and reducing child stunting to 10% and numbers of underweight children to 5% by 2025 requires a definition of the strategies and the operative paradigms. The Declaration also calls for African agriculture to become climate smart. This chapter presents the strategic positioning of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in making climate smart agriculture (CSA) real in Africa and harnessing partnerships, informed by science and analyses of lessons from past interventions. We conclude that investing US$50 per household, in a capacity development programme in CA for 25 million households, has the potential to increase land productivity, produce food surpluses and transform livelihoods, thus attaining the Malabo Declaration targets. The investment in and adoption of CA-based CSA to that magnitude will not only move Africa's agriculture to a new level, where a significant proportion of agricultural land is managed with CA systems, but also supply competitively priced raw materials for transformative industrial and economic growth in Africa.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123834795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Research and technology development needs for scaling up conservation agriculture systems, practices and innovations in Africa.","authors":"J. Mureithi, S. Mkomwa, A. Kassam, N. Macharia","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Although the net agricultural production across all regions of Africa has experienced a significant increase, African agriculture has performed below its potential over recent decades. Many aspects have been fronted to curb this situation, including sustainable intensification of farming systems and value-chain transformation through Conservation Agriculture (CA) across Africa. Based on the latest update, Africa has about 2.7 million ha under CA, an increase of 458% over the past 10 years with 2008/09 as baseline. However, this constitutes a mere 1.5% of the global area under CA, and less than 1.4% of the total cropland area in Africa. A combination of modern techniques and the optimization of agroecological processes in CA systems and practices requires that agricultural research plays a bigger role in its evolution and focus in the different regions of Africa. This targeted research should crucially contribute towards making agriculture in Africa more productive, competitive, sustainable and inclusive in terms of its functionality towards the farmer, society and nature. Scientific solutions for agricultural transformation need to be pursued without losing sight of the potentials and fragility of Africa's agricultural environments, the complexity of its agricultural production systems and the continent's rich biodiversity. The agricultural research and development agenda in Africa must build on the rich traditional farming culture, knowledge and practices, supported by coherent longer-vision for investments in science for agricultural development. Most of these investments are expected to come from national public and private sources, with governments also expected to invest in generation of 'public goods' such as the national or global environmental benefits typical of CA, and to also catalyse innovation and support market growth. The absolute imperative is that farmers must shift from outdated conventional tillage-based methods to modern, well-tested and knowledge-based methods of land use. Making this transition will be difficult without the creation of an enabling environment. This chapter discusses the various roles and advances required in CA-based research that will support the adoption of CA systems by millions of smallholder farmers in Africa with a view to enhancing sustainable and effective agricultural development and economic growth.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"377 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121944333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Historical review and future opportunities for wider scaling of conservation agriculture in Tunisia.","authors":"H. C. M’hamed, H. Bahri, M. Annabi, A. Frija, Zied Idoudi","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 In Tunisia, rainfed agriculture is facing the major challenges of low and irregular rainfall, as well as natural resources degradation. These are further accentuated by climate change. Changes in technical and management paradigms are needed to boost agricultural productivity. Since the early 1990s in Tunisia, a Conservation Agriculture (CA) system has been proposed as an adapted set of management principles to ensure more efficient and resilient agricultural production systems. In the last 20 years several research and development (R&D) projects have been implemented. Research findings in Tunisia show that the long-term adoption of CA allows increased crop yields and water use efficiency of cereals, enhanced soil biological life and soil organic carbon and reduced energy costs at farm level. Despite promising research results, adoption and up-scaling of CA in Tunisia has been rather modest (currently some 16,000 ha are managed under CA systems). The purpose of this book chapter is to summarize the previous R&D projects dealing with CA in Tunisia. It also aims to provide better insights into the complexity and potential ongoing solutions for integrating crops and livestock into CA systems. Crop-livestock systems dominate a large part of northern and central Tunisia where most of the rainfed field crops are produced.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130725655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What drives small-scale farmers to adopt conservation agriculture practices in Tanzania?","authors":"John E. Sariah, Frank E. Mmbando","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Conservation Agriculture (CA)-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) practices in this study comprised minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, intercropping of maize and legumes, and use of improved crop genotypes and fertilizers, and were tested on-farm in different agroecologies in northern and eastern Tanzania. The results for six consecutive years of study indicate increased adoption of CASI practices compared to the baseline year (2010). The major impacts of these practices were reduced production costs, labour savings and overall increased crop and land productivity. The average area allocated to improved maize-legume (ML) intercrop rose during the project period by 5.28 ha per household, of which 15% was under complete CASI practices. Adoption trends show that, on average, 6.5% of adopters across the study and spillover communities started adoption in the 2nd year and about 14% of farmers adopted the practices over the next 3-5 years. Demographic and human capital (family size, education, age and farming experience), on-farm CASI demonstrations, farmer to farmer exchange visits, social capital (farmers' group or a cooperative), access to input and output markets (improved seeds, herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides and equipment) and food security were found to have positive and significant effects on adoption of a range of CASI practices. These results suggest continued and long-term efforts in investments in demonstrations, institutionalizing CASI practices in NARS, and good links to input and output markets, including appropriate machinery, are necessary to achieve sustained adoption.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124349912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of climate smart agriculture in Africa.","authors":"R. Mrabet, R. Moussadek","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Climate change, food system complexity and changing international demands are creating new realities, challenges and opportunities. In this respect, unlocking Africa's agricultural potential is both a vital and a daunting aspiration to achieve commitments to the climate and development of the visionary and optimistic framework of Agenda 2063. In response to these challenges and drivers, climate smart agriculture (CSA) was promoted by governments and international organizations to functionally contribute to reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptation to climate change while ensuring sustainable progress in living standards, value chains and mitigation capacities of farming systems. Remarkable benefits in terms of increased productivity and performances of farming systems, enhanced farmers' resilience, environment and value chain sustainability, and developments of CSA in Africa and lock-in barriers exclusion are under way. These are because of investment in policy formulation and planning, approaches, alliances, incentives, capacity development, research, knowledge sharing, networking and engagement in bold regional and local initiatives. Side benefits from CSA are numerous for Africans in general and for producers and growers in particular. They include poverty alleviation through green growth, just and ethical transformation, gender equity and empowerment, shared prosperity and entrepreneurship via innovation. Overall, investing in CSA and particularly in Conservation Agriculture may greatly enhance a country's strategic thinking and capacity to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121208945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of conservation agriculture on soil properties and maize grain yield in the semi-arid Laikipia county, Kenya.","authors":"P. Kuria, J. Gitari, S. Mkomwa, P. Waweru","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Low and unreliable rainfall, along with poor soil health, is a main constraint to maize production in the semi-arid parts of Kenya that account for over 79% of the country's land area. In the vast county of Laikipia, farmers continue to plant maize despite the predominantly low quantities of precipitation. Participatory farmer experimentation with Conservation Agriculture (CA) was undertaken for six consecutive growing seasons between July 2013 and December 2016 to determine the effectiveness of CA as a method of improving soil properties and enhancing maize yields with the limited rainfall quantities received in these parts of Kenya. The main CA practices tested include chisel tine furrow opening (ripping) and live legume (Lablab purpureus) cover crop, as well as maize stover mulches, all implemented under varying inorganic fertilizer rates. The research was done across 12 administrative locations of Laikipia County where soils are mainly Phaeozems and Vertisols with a clay-loam texture. The research design used was researcher-designed and farmer-managed. In each of the 12 trial sites, participatory farmers' assessments and field days were carried out as a way of outreach to the bigger farming communities around the trial sites. The research findings obtained demonstrated that the use of CA impacts positively on soil properties and is a viable practice for enhancing maize yields in these moisture deficit-prone parts of the country. Soil chemical analysis assessment results showed that CA impacted positively on a number of soil mineral components including organic carbon, total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and pH. Midseason chlorophyll content assessment of the maize crop showed that there was good response to fertilizer application, as well as to mulching with crop residues for soil cover. Maize grain yield data also showed that the use of a CA package comprising chisel tine ripping combined with mulching by plant residues and use of mineral fertilizer resulted in a two- to threefold increase in grain yields above the farmer practice control. Mean maize grain yield in farmer practice plots was 1067 kg ha-1 compared with the CA-treated plot with mineral fertilization that yielded 2192 kg ha-1.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128081192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lessons learnt from concern worldwide's conservation agriculture interventions in Malawi and Zambia, 2010-2018.","authors":"C. Wahl","doi":"10.1079/9781789245745.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1079/9781789245745.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract\u0000 Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a gateway technology intended to build both the productivity and resilience of smallholder farmers. Since 2010, the Ireland-based NGO Concern Worldwide has been promoting CA with extremely poor farmers in Malawi and Zambia. In the context of the specific regions within both countries, similar conditions of limited labour capacity, low financial capacity, poor soil health and constrained agriculture extension services were the primary barriers to the poorest farmers. Initial CA projects utilized broad, standardized approaches to CA with subsidized inputs that led to yield increases, but saw limited non-subsidized adoption. As a result, Concern has adapted its approaches to CA to better accommodate and embrace innovation by lead farmers, understanding different adoption strategies for follower farmers and working to improve input supply systems to meet farmers' needs. However, major constraints to adoption remain for the poorest and, going forward, CA projects will need to incorporate robust strategies for household financial stability such as the graduation model; fostering greater innovation by lead farmers within CA principles to meet local contexts; and integrating seed selection and saving for non-commercialized food crops to spur large-scale adoption of CA by the poorest farmers.","PeriodicalId":113586,"journal":{"name":"Conservation agriculture in Africa: climate smart agricultural development","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129703145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}