Category Archives: Blog

By Torben Timmermann for CCAFS

June 18, 2012

“Re-greening of dry lands is not expensive and it is not technically difficult. In fact it is being done and it is fundamental to make smallholder farmers more productive, profitable and more resilient”.

These were the opening words from Christopher Shore, Director of Natural Environment and Climate Issues at World Vision, at the start of a Rio+20 side event on “Re-greening for Resilient Landscapes”. The idea was to present concrete examples on re-greening for resilient landscapes and give suggestions on how these can be scaled-up to benefit more farmers and pastoralists around the world, who are now suffering from dryland degradation.  It is important that the international donor community stops reacting to crises. We know that events such as the 2011 drought and subsequent crisis in East Africa, and the current lack of rains in the Sahel region of West Africa, will continue to take place in other parts of the world. Providing emergency relief to every crisis is neither sustainable nor affordable. Instead, there is a need to secure resilience proactively.

Targeting drylands is important due to the strong connection between land degradation, desertification and other global issues such as climate change, droughts and floods, famine and poverty. Drylands, together with grazing systems and crop production, are home to almost two billion people globally and one billion in Africa alone. Up to one-third of the global drylands are degraded and 74 per cent are at risk of desertification, which poses threats to crops and livestock. Deforestation is also a huge concern, contributing desertification and land degradation. Given these threats, countries have a huge opportunity to re-green their land, which can help to increase agricultural production and enhance the resilience of local communities to droughts and other disasters.

There are many innovations that can raise productivity in the soils, such as tree plantation, agroforestry, soil management; the question is how these can be scaled-up to benefit more smallholder farmers and pastoralists.

“Ensuring the right collaboration among key stakeholders is crucial” said, Carlos Seré, Director for strategic planning at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The systems are highly complex so working in silos is not an option. Emergency relief resources and development investments must be brought together with scientific research, include funds for provision of information via communication technologies. “Only by ensuring this process will small-holder farmers become resilient in the long run”, said Seré. He pointed out that until recently there had been a tendency to view things from a technical perspective only. “It is now clear that this has to be mixed with financial cash transfers; payments for environmental services and wildlife management,” he said, including also “carbon sequestration, scaling-up index insurance, new ICT solutions and getting the policy dialogue right”.  There is also great potential in scaling-up work from emergency relief actions, where aid reaches the country, but is not really invested in long-term supporting activities or institutions.

Re-greening must take stock of already existing plants and biodiversity. Chris Shore presented a case of tree planting, where foreign trees where re-planted in the Sahel. Needless to say, only 5 – 20 percent of those trees grew to full size. Instead, what had brought real success, for example in the Sahel, was reforestation from the existing plantation. Carefully treated what seemed to be small bushes were in fact trees that could easily grow up to two-meters tall. The results were revolutionary. Five million hectares of land have been reforested to date, improving soil fertility, holding water better and increasing agricultural productivity. All these farmer-led activities helped increase household incomes, a clear incentive for farmers to adopt new practices. 

Dennis Garrity, former Director General at the World Agroforestry Centre, now leads a major Evergreen Agriculture initiative, which includes a number of African organizations working scale-up their efforts. Garrity pointed out that this low-cost and low-risk way of doing business is now at a tipping point. With the right up-scaling this can benefit tens of millions of smallholder farmers over the next few years. The dryland areas are moving towards a whole new future where crops are grown in association with trees and natural regeneration of the trees that increases productivity.

If governments do their part to help mobilize organizations and ensure up scaling, he emphasized, then this “evergreen” agriculture can be one of the world’s great success stories in the coming years.

 

This post was written by Torben Timmemann, Head of Program Coordination and Communications at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

By Christopher Mesiku for Agroforestry World

May 22, 2012

In a recent BBC interview, World Agroforestry Centre scientists agree that the Sahara Desert is expanding and they are committed to support efforts to stop it.

Some experts have in the past suggested fuelwood as the driver of the desertification. Others say changing rainfall patterns and intensive land-use practises are responsible for the expansion.

Distinguished Board Research Fellow of the World Agroforestry Centre, Dennis Garrity as well as other Centre scientists are continuing their support for an African Union  initiative called the Great Green Wall of Africa in an effort to stop the expansion of the Sahara desert. In his opinion, what is needed is Evergreen Agriculture. Dennis says “Evergreen agriculture improves overall soil health which contributes to slowing the Sahara expansion.”

The Great Green Wall which will extend from the Senegalese coast to the Djibouti coast upon completion, can be achieved when practises such as Evergreen Agriculture are used. According to Dennis, Evergreen Agriculture offers one of the best defences against desertification because its affordable, sustainable and accessible farming methods benefit both rural smallholder farmers as well as the environment.

Listen to the BBC interview.

Find out more about the Centre’s desertification research.

By Mike McGahuey for Agroforestry World

April 26, 2012

The question is not, “should farmers use inorganic or organic fertilizer?” but rather, “How can farmers increase soil organic matter in a cost-effective way in order to recycle nutrients, increase fertilizer-use efficiency and establish the foundation for building and sustaining soil productivity in Africa?” 

Many agricultural developmental agencies either support the idea of farmers using more inorganic fertilizer or very little or none at all. Some scientific literature support the use of inorganic fertilizers while others refute the claim.

However, a review of the scientific literature shows a strong synergy between inorganic fertilizers and soil organic matter. It claims the two can work symbiotically to produce and sustain more productive soils,[i] particularly for resource poor smallholders.

African Agriculture: Dirt Poor by Natasha Gilbert shows how problematic the debate has become.

This is particularly the case on weathered soils– upon which most African dryland farmers depend. [ii]  Research out of West Africa by International Fertilizer Development Centre  IFDC, Agricultural Research for Development CIRAD, and others show that fertilizer-use efficiency (FUE) is directly and positively related to soil organic matter content (SOM). [iii] These studies show that in weathered soils with low SOM, a high percentage of nutrients applied in inorganic fertilizer are leached past crops’ root zones or are tied up, effectively increasing the unit price and risk to the farmer. Studies in Kenya by Marenya and Barrett[iv] show that farmers know this. Other studies report that farmers preferentially use fertilizers on soils with relatively higher levels of organic manure. [v]

Approaches such as Integrated Soil Fertility Management, in which inorganic fertilizers are applied in tandem with agricultural practices that increase the soil’s organic matter content, have been shown to increase Fertilizer Use Efficiency (FUE) significantly. [vi]

However, lest we think that the solution is easy, IFDC studies point out that amending soil organic matter content is not easy if it means finding tons of organic matter per hectare and then transporting it to the field, if they can even find the 4 or more tons per hectare that many soils would require annually. [vii]

This underscores the convenient fact that agroforestry annually delivers tons of organic manure to the soil. [viii]  Consequently, the positive effect of the leaf-fall from Faidherbia albida and other field trees is two-fold—it conveys nutrients from the lower part of the soil profile to a crop’s root zone and it builds up soil organic matter, thereby increasing FUE and establishing the foundation for increasing and sustaining soil productivity.

In light of the evidence, the question is not, “should farmers use inorganic or organic fertilizer?” but rather, “How can farmers increase soil organic matter in a cost-effective way in order to recycle nutrients, increase fertilizer-use efficiency and establish the foundation for building and sustaining soil productivity in Africa?”  Part of that answer will be for development institutions to follow the example of many African farmers and to mainstream agroforestry systems within agricultural strategies.

 

[i] Kelly, Valerie A. (2005).  Factors Affecting Demand for Fertilizer in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The World Bank, Agriculture and Rural Development Discussion Paper 23.

[ii] Breman, Henk, B. Fofana and A. Mando (2007).  The Lessons of Drente’s ‘Essen’:  Soil Nutrient Depletion in Sub-Saharan Africa and Management Strategies for Soil Replenishment.  In: Braimoh, A.K. & P.L.G. Vlek, 2007.  Land use and soil resources.  Springer Media B.V., p. 145-166.

[iii] International Fertilizer Development Center (2005).  Development and Dissemination of Sustainable Integrated Soil Fertility Management Practices for Smallholder Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa:  Final Report, March 2005.

[iv] Marenya, Paswel P. and, Christopher B. Barrett (2009), Soil quality and fertilizer use rates among smallholder farmers in western Kenya, Agricultural Economics 40 (2009) 561–572.

[v] P Marenya, Paswel P. and, Christopher B. Barrett (2009).  State-Conditional Fertilizer Yield Response on Western Kenyan Farms.  Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 91(4) (November 2009): 991–1006.

[vi] Wopereis, M.C.S., A. Tame´lokpo, K. Ezui, D. Gnakpe´nou, B. Fofana, H. Breman (2005).  Mineral fertilizer management of maize on farmer fields differing in organic inputs in the West African savanna.  Field Crops Research 96 (2006) 355–362.

[vii] Breman, 2007.

[viii] Boffa, J.M. (1999).  Agroforestry Parklands in Sub-Saharan Africa, FAO Conservation Guide.

 

By Mieke Bourne and Yvonne Otieno for Agroforestry World

April 14, 2012

 

Environmental degradation can only be reversed by addressing direct and indirect drivers of change. The said drivers of change include public participation in decision-making, cultural factors and technological change. Collectively these factors influence the level of production and consumption of ecosystem services and sustainability of the production base.

This was said by participants at the Beating Famine Conference who were speaking during a panel discussion that sought to address the issue of land regeneration for food security. During this panel session, different presenters from World Vision and the World Agroforestry Centre made presentations on approaches that had worked in different areas.

The major limiting factor to food security in Africa may be based on land health. Other impacts of shocks on food production such as weeds and drought can be increased by building resistance into the systems. This was according to Douglas Brown, Director, Agriculture and Food Security, World Vision International who made a presentation titled The foundations for resilient livelihoods: soils, savings and trees.

He observed how the systems around livelihoods of smallholder farmers are complex and interlinked with   many aspects from labour availability, land resources and food consumption variations.

“By understanding the system you can effect change and for World Vision the main areas that have been identified for investment as a foundation for resilient livelihoods are soils, savings and trees,” he said. He proposed that while there are many other important factors in land regeneration, if these three factors are not considered, then building resilience in the system would be a great challenge.

“These three areas of investment are activities that smallholder farmers can undertake on their own farms that contribute to resilience in a positive way,” he added.

Picking up on the issue of challenges, the second presentation focused on how Landcare programmes are working to address some of the institutional challenges that have led to land degradation within East Africa.

According to Joseph Tanui from World Agroforestry Centre, Landcare has worked in the region using an action research approach and has linked individuals and groups to address issues at landscape level while ensuring that individuals still benefit.

“We present Landcare as an ethic and a philosophy that enables individuals and communities to approach agriculture in a nurturing way,” said Tanui.

“Landcare often uses a community identified need as an entry point activity. It seeks to develop innovative platforms to represent a number of groups to influence policy and negotiate by-law creation on behalf of the community,” he added.

Tanui explained that Landcare works through principles that ensure participation, ownership and demand-driven development and use of multi-institutional strategies. Additionally it involves understanding and managing trade-offs with the community, enhancing the role of local government and building on past experiences.

Tanui’s presentation focused on Grassroots participation in land regeneration through the Landcare approach. Landcare is defined as a movement of autonomous farmer-led organizations; it is an extension approach that inexpensively disseminates agroforestry and other technologies as a set of appropriate land management practices.

Some preliminary results indicate that improved water and soil conservation and knowledge management and access was reported by those participating in the Landcare programme. A table was presented demonstrating how Landcare programmes have been funded and launched in different countries in unique ways. Of particular interest is the case of South Africa where the programme was mainstreamed into the Ministry of Agriculture compared to East Africa where a combination of donor, the World Agroforestry Centre and NGO support laid the foundation for Landcare activities.

Rowland Bunch, Agroecologist  (and author of Two Ears of Corn: A Guide to People–Centered   Agricultural) Improvement changed the focus of the session to the subject of soil by making a presentation on Green manure: soil recuperation at zero cost. According to him, experience from Central America in the 1970s and 80s has shown dramatic improvement of the soil using mulch and then green manure. Composting had a large impact however, for cereal production the cost of its production exceeded its benefits. Green manure cover crops for this purpose include trees and bushes and can be cut down at any stage of growth and are often left on the soil surface to be broken down by natural processes including worms and termites.

Rowland explained how hundreds of thousands of farmers in Latin America are using a variety of green mulch systems and incorporating zero tillage once the soil biomass is sufficient. Green manure in addition to improving soil biomass can control weeds, improve fertility and can be used as food. For many farmers there are edible leaves or beans that are consumed before the green manure crop is incorporated into the soil. He also noted that within the semi-arid and arid areas the green mulch system is almost exclusively dominated by woody perennials. He recommended that since green manure crops do not occupy space that the farmer uses for crops, they must not incur cash costs and they must not increase labour costs.

Triple bottom line of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) was the subject of the fourth presentation made by Rowan Reid, Project Manager- FMNR,  World Vision Australia and Rob Francis Coordinator, Australian Master TreeGrower Program. According to the presenters, the FMNR technology is considered simple and effective, and since it conveys knowledge and not materials, it is affordable. They explained that though there is little data and impact, what is available suggests about a 70% increase in yield and farmer accounts.

“Farmers don’t need an economist, if the technology matches their immediate needs, capability and resources; perception of risks and aspirations then it is common sense,” said Rowan.

FMNR takes away the risk of planting trees and losing them, a good entry-point and advantages for scaling up. FMNR is a good idea, the question now is how do you introduce a simple idea and scale it up?

The final presentation during this session was by Jonathan Muriuki who focused on Evergreen Agriculture in East Africa. In his presentation, he described how the highlands of East Africa are characterized by steep slopes with erosion threats while the drylands are generally overgrazed and degraded. The area is subject to conventional farming practices with intensive tillage that destroys the biological and ecological integrity of the soil system.

One way to help regeneration was through Conservation Agriculture. Conservation Agriculture involves the application of three principles – permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance and crop rotations and associations.  Conservation Agriculture with Trees  (CAWT) is one of the three forms of Evergreen Agriculture. The other forms are regeneration practice/method and trees in conventional agriculture. Evergreen Agriculture is a type of agroforestry in which trees are intercropped with field crops.

According to Jonathan, when trees are integrated into the Conservation Agriculture system, one sees increased benefit in the three principles. Tree roots and soil fauna take over the tillage function, the increased biomass from trees protects the soil and feeds the soil biota and reduce weeds, pests and diseases.

However, three things; right germplasm, proper practices and enabling environment are needed to scale up CAWT. There are plans to implement three Evergreen Agriculture projects in the East Africa region. One of the projects will be implemented in Machakos in Kenya and Mbarali in Tanzania. This project will focus on characterization of typologies, germplasm distribution systems, approaches for extension, demonstration and participatory trials and knowledge management and communication.

Other parallel sessions focused on land regeneration for climate change adaption and  Carbon sequestration, sustainable water & water energy for land regeneration.

Useful Resources

Biographies of experts at the Beating Famine Conference

Paper by Joseph Tanui, Diane Russell, Delia Catacutan, and Thomas Yatich Landcare in East Africa

A short history of FMNR by Tony Rinuado

Watch videos Landcare in Kenya, Uganda and  Tanzania

By Paul Stapleton for Agroforestry World

Originally published on December 6, 2011

A learning event at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day held in association with United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa discussed how to raise awareness of the potential for Evergreen Agriculture as an approach to improve livelihoods, adaptation and mitigation in the tropics, and its successful expansion in Africa.

The event, which was organized by the World Agroforestry Centre, IFAD, UNEP and the African Development Bank, also looked at how to identify elements for actions for Evergreen Agriculture to achieve greater prominence and eligibility in the adaptation and mitigation policies of developing countries and globally. The questions were particularly relevant as a broad alliance is now emerging amongst governments, research institutions and development agencies to expand Evergreen Agriculture across hundreds of millions of hectares in Africa and Asia.

Evergreen Agriculture combines agroforestry with the principles of conservation farming. The addition of agroforestry offers multiple livelihood benefits to farmers, including sources of green (organic) fertilizer to build healthier soils and enhance crop yields, and providing fruits, medicines, livestock fodder, and fuelwood. Environmental benefits include land rehabilitation, a more effective water cycle and watershed protection, increased biodiversity, increased carbon accumulation and storage and greater resilience to climate change; addressing mitigation and adaptation.

Dennis Garrity, Senior Research Fellow at the World Agroforestry Centre, and a key proponent of the approach, noted that there were two systems of Evergreen Agriculture emerging in Africa. In western Africa, farmer-managed natural regeneration of indigenous trees in farmlands is spreading across the semiarid farmlands in the region, especially in Niger, where medium to high density systems of Faidherbia albida and annual crops occupy over 5 million hectares, and they are rapidly diffusing across the country. “Farmers are also using the approach in Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries,” said Garrity. This clear impact has stimulated a new commitment to the regreening of the Sahel among donors and countries.

The approach in eastern and southern Africa is different; trees are being integrated into farming systems by active planting. Zambia is recommending the planting of 100 trees per hectare of farmland. Malawi has extended Evergreen Agriculture through village movements to over 200 000 farmers in the past 5 years, with maize yields more than doubling in these multi-trees species systems, including Sesbania sesban, Gliricidia sepium and Tephrosia candida. Kenya has enacted a bold policy of achieving 10 percent tree cover on all farmlands, and Ethiopia, where F. albida is common, is starting a program to distribute 100 million seedlings to 1 million farmers.

Mario Boccucci, representing UNEP, explained why Evergreen Agriculture must be included in the revitalization of agriculture in a green economy. “Evergreen Agriculture works,” he said, “It is a matter of scaling it up.” Clearly there is a need to transform how we approach our land production systems in the next 50 years. We need another 120 million hectares of arable land to be put into production to meet future demand. We need mechanisms to work together to deliver this transformation and the information and the data available for the decision makers to use. There is an urgent need to work together to accomplish these challenges. In Rio+20, leaders will be looking for the opportunity to make major decisions, and revitalizing agriculture can be one of them. We need to develop a powerful, meaningful strategy for action with a powerful constituency behind it.

Prince Kampondamgaga of the Farmers Union of Malawi described his experiences from Malawi. “There has been a very clear policy direction in rolling out Evergreen Agriculture across the country,” he said. “Key issues include food security, pest management, water management and market management.” The two types of Evergreen Agriculture have been adopted, farmer-managed and tree-planted annual cropping systems. Farmer organizations are playing a key part, especially in defining conservation agriculture and its applications, as well as engaging the farmers.

Dr Elwyn Grainger Jones of IFAD talked about how Evergreen Agriculture can be mainstreamed within loan and grant programs for scaling-up for smallholders. IFAD started engaging in Evergreen Agriculture as far back as the mid-1980s, when their project staff noted how effective farmer-managed natural regeneration was in the field. The approach was folded into subsequent projects of broader natural landscape regeneration. “Farmer to farmer communication worked really well,” he said. “But to be successful at the local level needed individual champions and village community groups, knowledge and clear tenure and rights over the trees.” He also noted that the interests of forestry departments do not always line up with agroforestry and natural regeneration, especially in terms of ownership of the trees.

By Kate Langford for Agroforestry World

Originally published October 7, 2011

“If you choose the right species of trees and manage them in the right way, they can be compatible with agriculture and provide many benefits,” said Dennis Garrity in addressing the World Congress of Conservation Agriculture during his last week as Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre.

Garrity outlined examples of how trees are transforming the livelihoods of many African farmers and at the same time improving exhausted soils.

While attending the conference in Brisbane, Australia, Garrity was interviewed on QUT News and by Radio Australia. In the latter interview he discusses the challenges of disseminating the message about the benefits of trees on farms to farmers in Africa.

“Nut trees and other cash crops are a source of food as well as cash to farmers,” explains Garrity. “You tend to get a greater income per square metre with tree-based systems,”

While conservation agriculture techniques are increasingly popular in countries like Australia, smallholder farmers in Africa face many hurdles to adopting the practice. One of the key principles in conservation agriculture is retaining crop residues. But in Africa, most smallholder farmers have both crops and livestock so they tend to use all available crop residues to feed their livestock.

Garrity points to examples of how Evergreen Agriculture –incorporating trees into crop production systems – has boosted crop production by up to 200 percent. One form of Evergreen Agriculture, known as Conservation Agriculture with Trees or CAWT, keeps the emphasis on reduced tillage, but expands the principle of residue retention to include the integration of trees and shrubs in crop fields.

Of particular importance to African farmers are fertilizer trees. These trees improve soil fertility by drawing nitrogen from the air and transferring it to the soil through their roots and leaf litter. In a region where two-thirds of farmers cannot afford to buy mineral fertilizers, the trees provide an inexpensive organic solution.