Research published in this special issue on cocoa agroforestry illustrates the multifunctional role of shade trees for sustaining cocoa production and improving farmers’ livelihoods, and addresses tradeoffs between higher cocoa yield and the provision of ecosystem services to local households and global society. Indeed, the use of diverse shade in cocoa cultivation is threatened by a new drive towards crop intensification. The removal of shade trees diminishes smallholders’ ability to adapt to global change driven by demographic pressure, food insecurity, cocoa price volatility and climate change. Some forms of crop intensification may reduce ecological resilience of cocoa production systems, making adaptation strategies, combining shade trees with innovative management practices, essential for sustaining cocoa yield. Managing trade-offs between yield and environmental services at the cocoa plot and landscape scales requires a multi-disciplinary approach to identify key management options that goes beyond the artificially polarized debates around intensified versus traditional agroforestry practices, or more generally, land-sparing versus land-sharing strategies. The global challenge facing the cocoa sector today is how to increase cocoa production to meet growing demand, without expanding the area under cocoa. This means finding sustainable ways to maintain cocoa production within today’s producing regions, particularly West Africa, through a series of technical innovations geared towards smallholders. Inappropriate intensification may result in heavy deforestation on new pioneer fronts, such as the Congo basin, and existing cocoa being replaced either by other agricultural commodities, or by less resilient and less environmentally friendly production practices.
Tag: agriculture
Agroforestry and watershed functions of tropical land use mosaics
An ‘ecohydrology’ approach involves more than a focus on the degree of forest cover in the upper watersheds, as the quantity, timing and quality of water flows is determined by the land cover and land use in the whole landscape. We discuss the different perceptions that still exist on the special relations between ‘forest’ and ‘watershed functions’ and consider which specific function is relevant for whom. Land use change can modify the evapotranspiration and hence the total water yield of a catchment, but also the pathways that water will take and hence the amount of soil particles, nutrients, agrochemicals and (in arid regions) salt that it will carry downstream. Evenness of river flow is influenced by the infiltration rates in the landscape if small areas are considered. Partial spatial independence of rainfall becomes a dominant explanation of ‘evenness of flow’ when larger areas are considered, reducing the relative importance of land use. Agroforestry options for the riparian zone can have a major impact on the water quality and evenness of flow perceived downstream, probably exceeding the importance of forest cover in upper watersheds.
Agroforestry as plant production system in a multifunctional landscape
Agroforestry 1 , the topic of this public lecture, refers to the (re-) integration of agriculture and forestry. It includes trees on farms, farmers in the forests and the manifold interactions between agriculture and forestry as the basis of rural livelihoods, as components of landscapes, as sectors of the economy and as opportunities and challenges to achievement of sustainable development goals in general.For a long time the dominant paradigm was that the world would be a better place if ‘ forests ’ and ‘ agriculture ’ would be handled as separate domains of policy, institutions and disciplines for applied science. It’s time for that ‘theory of change’ to change itself. Coining the term agroforestry, some 40 years ago, has created some space to do so, as we will see, but more is needed
Agroforestry for soil fertility replenishment: evidence on adoption processes in Kenya and Zambia
This paper examines farmer assessment, use and adoption of agroforestry systems for soil fertility replenishment in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on three primary case studies: improved fallows in eastern Zambia; improved fallows in western Kenya; and biomass transfer (applying leaves as green manure) in western Kenya. It is revealed that improved fallow and biomass transfer systems are feasible and acceptable to farmers, at least at the modest levels with which they are initially being used. Economic analyses have also found the systems to be profitable to farmers in terms of returns to land and labour. Lastly, the systems are being used by a wide range of farmers.
Scoping adaptation needs for smallholders in the Brazilian Amazon: a municipal level case study
Recent years have witnessed increased investment in African rural landscapes for agriculture and food security, poverty alleviation, climate change adaptation, and ecosystem conservation. While such investments historically tended to be made independently under sectoral programs, a new wave of integrated landscape initiatives (ILIs) is promoting integrated, multi-objective management of rural landscapes. We surveyed leaders and managers of 87 ILIs in 33 African countries to provide the first region-wide portrait of contexts, motivations, design, participation, and outcomes of such initiatives. Results suggest that ILIs are promoting “multi-functionality” of rural regions, while aiding stakeholders in mediating tradeoffs and synergies among multiple outcomes.
A hard nut to crack
Great cooks in Cameroon have a secret ingredient: a fine, pale-brown paste made by grinding the roasted kernels of the forest tree species Ricinodendrom heudelotti. A small amount of the paste, known locally as njansang, livens up the flavour of food and thickens soups, making it a valued commodity. Extracted and dried, njansang stores well and fetches good prices on the market. In 2006 a study found that four self-help groups in central Cameroon earned 2.8 million CFA (US$5,500) from the sale of 3,000kg of njansang. Njansang’s high price is related to the long, tedious and labour-intensive artisanal processes used to obtain the commodity from R. heudelotti fruits. This difficult processing procedure represents a major constraint in the value chain, creating a bottleneck to wider production and commercialisation of this valuable commodity.
A note on the onset of the rains in East Africa
A review of pasture and fodder production and productivity for small ruminants in the Sahel
The focus of this review is on feed scarcity, prompting a series of studies on woody fodder species used in sheep feeding. Despite the human pressure on land and climate change, restoration experiences of rangelands (direct sowing, water harvesting techniques, livestock density control, etc.) proved to be successful, both environmentally and economically. Smallholder households increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability.
Combining soil fertilization, cropping systems and improved varieties to minimize climate risks on farming productivity in northern region of Burkina Faso
Background: In search of options to cope with climate change and variability, a trial combining fertilization and improved varieties of millet and cowpea (intercropped or as sole crop) was conducted on three sites (Lemnogo, Tibtenga and Ramdolla) in the northern region of Burkina Faso. The application of cattle manure (3tha1), micro-dose (3ghole1 equivalent to 62kgha1) of a mineral fertilizer composed of 14% N, 23% P2O5 and 14% K2O (NPK), their combination and a control (no manure and no NPK) as four soil fertilization options, two improved varieties of millet (SOSAT-C88 and IKMP5), two varieties of cowpea (KVX 396-4-5-2D and KVX 61-1) and two cropping systems (millet-cowpea intercropping, sole crop) were tested on-farm for two seasons (2013 and 2014). During the third season a survey was conducted on the acceptability by farmers of the tested combinations as a way of buffering or coping with rainfall variability. Results: Two-year trial revealed that the combination of manure and NPK applied to the intercropping of millet and cowpea significantly increased crop production (land equivalent ratio=1.83±0.18 and 1.78±0.20, intercropping millet variety IKMP5 with cowpea KVX 61-1 and intercropping millet variety SOSAT-C88 with cowpea KVX 396-4-5-2D, respectively). During erratic rainfall year, intercropping millet IKMP5 and cowpea KVX 61-1 performed the best, while under well-distributed rainfall conditions, intercropping millet SOSAT-C88 with cowpea KVX 396-4-5-2D displayed higher production, respectively, for millet and cowpea. Some varieties were not well accepted by most farmers (based on a survey of 36 farmers) mainly because of loss in grains before harvest for millet IKMP5 (97%) and high grain attacks by insects in storage for cowpea KVX 61-1 (89%). The alternative for farmers rejecting these varieties could be the intercropping of millet SOSAT-C88 and cowpea KVX 396-4-5-2D fertilized with manure. Conclusions: Making weather forecasts and related agronomic advices available to farmers in this region will allow them to better plan their agricultural practices such as mineral fertilizer application and will also be a great move toward climate-smart agriculture. Developing more performant storage measures that drastically reduce insect attacks for some of the tested varieties (cowpea KVX 61-1, for instance) could contribute to promoting their adoption.
The Rural Household Multi-Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) for rapid characterisation of households to inform climate smart agriculture interventions: Description and applications in East Africa and Central America
Achieving climate smart agriculture depends on understanding the links between farming and livelihood practices, other possible adaptation options, and the effects on farm performance, which is conceptualised by farmers as wider than yields. Reliable indicators of farm performance are needed in order to model these links, and to therefore be able to design interventions which meet the differing needs of specific user groups. However, the lack of standardization of performance indicators has led to a wide array of tools and ad-hoc indicators which limit our ability to compare across studies and to draw general conclusions on relationships and trade-offs whereby performance indicators are shaped by farm management and the wider social-environmental context. RHoMIS is a household survey tool designed to rapidly characterise a series of standardised indicators across the spectrum of agricultural production and market integration, nutrition, food security, poverty and GHG emissions. The survey tool takes 40–60 min to administer per household using a digital implementation platform. This is linked to a set of automated analysis procedures that enable immediate cross-site bench-marking and intra-site characterisation. We trialled the survey in two contrasting agro-ecosystems, in Lushoto district of Tanzania (n = 150) and in the Trifinio border region of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras (n = 285). The tool rapidly characterised variability between farming systems at landscape scales in both locations identifying key differences across the population of farm households that would be critical for targeting CSA interventions. Our results suggest that at both sites the climate smartness of different farm strategies is clearly determined by an interaction between the characteristics of the farm household and the farm strategy. In general strategies that enabled production intensification contributed more towards the goals of climate smart agriculture on smaller farms, whereas increased market orientation was more successful on larger farms. On small farms off-farm income needs to be in place before interventions can be promoted successfully, whereas on the larger farms a choice is made between investing labour in off-farm incomes, or investing that labour into the farm, resulting in a negative association between off-farm labour and intensification, market orientation and crop diversity on the larger farms, which is in complete opposition to the associations found for the smaller farms. The balance of indicators selected gave an adequate snap shot picture of the two sites, and allowed us to appraise the ‘CSA-ness’ of different existing farm strategies, within the context of other major development objectives. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.