Understanding African Farming Systems: Science and Policy Implications

Understanding African Farming SystemsScience and Policy Implications

Dennis Garrity, John Dixon, JM Boffa

Approach: why a farming systems lens?

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

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

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

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 and climate• markets and trade• technology and science• energy • information and human capital• institutions and policies

The farming systems of Africa

The density of undernourished people by farming system

The Highland Perennial Farming Systems in East Africa

Trend in biomass productivity by farming system

Tree cover on agricultural land by farming system

Aerial view of a parkland dominated by Faidherbia in Niger

Cereal-Root Crop Mixed Farming Systems: Africa’s Future Breadbasket?

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

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, business development, and education

• Highland mixed systems in Ethiopia have more limited but significant potential for such development.

• Agropastoral systems have strong labour migration, which can be rationalized with emphasis on 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.

• Agropastoral: Continue regreening with massive upscaling of farmer-managed natural regeneration.

• Highland perennial systems: Further strengthen integrated soil fertility management through dairy development with manure recycling.

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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– Maize mixed systems and Cereal root and tuber systems. – Agropastoral and pastoral systems