Innovation by large numbers of smallholder farmers will need to accelerate if global commitments to end hunger are to be achieved in the face of climate change and other global changes that are caused by and impact agriculture.
Tag: Agroecology
How land and tree tenure condition agroecological transitions at scale
Land and tree tenure are critical for the adoption and scaling of agroecological approaches that ensure sustainable, socially just and secure global food systems. In many regions, land and tree tenure remain weak, contentious and insecure, thereby hampering smallholder farmer adoption of agroecological practices, sustainable investment and equitable benefit sharing mechanisms.
Uptake of agroecological practices is conditioned by intrahousehold dynamics and changes in women’s labor profiles
Planting basins (pits dug in crop fields to hold water in which crops are then planted) are an effective agroecological response to increased drought frequency and severity but their creation and maintenance are labour intensive. The research reported here examined intrahousehold decisions and gender relations surrounding the use of planting basins by over 2,500 farmers in the eastern drylands of Kenya.
Implementing farmer-centered approaches to scale agroecological principles in smallholder systems in Niger and Kenya
Smallholder farming is a critical contributor to global food security but is highly threatened by land degradation, loss of soil function/fertility and corresponding low crop yields. Land degradation must be addressed through active engagement of farmers to integrate restorative agricultural practices on their farms.
Participatory varietal selection accelerates farmer-led agroecological transition in Nepal
Maize yields had been stagnant in the midhills of Nepal before a systems approach was used to inform participatory varietal selection in a farmer-led agroecological transition context involving the incorporation of fodder trees on farmland.
Planned Comparison Protocol. Andhra Pradesh Community-based Natural Farming (APCNF)
Like many other states, AP has been losing soil organic carbon, plant diversity and above ground biomass at a rapid rate. Vast areas of the state are lying bare. A holistic approach was therefore required to address the root causes of the biophysical constraints for agricultural systems.
Evaluating woody species composition and regeneration in controlled and free grazing systems for scaling up agroforestry in the highlands of northern Ethiopia
Understanding the performance of agroforestry woody species in controlled and free grazing systems is crucial for scaling up agroforestry practices. The objective of this study was to identify and evaluate the determinants of agroforestry woody species composition and regeneration in free and controlled grazing systems in the Ethiopian highlands. Household and field surveys were conducted on 83 and 171 households selected from controlled grazing (CG) and free grazing (FG) systems, respectively. Woody species performance was compared between the two grazing systems using independent T-test. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) was used to identify the factors determining woody species density/abundance, diversity and regeneration. Most trees were grown for fuel wood and timber rather than for fodder. CG users owned more diversified species and abundant regenerates and mature trees/shrubs than FG users. The SUR results showed that herd size, farmland size, fencing, plantation of seedlings, education, wealth, grazing system, farmland distance from homestead and slope were the major factors affecting the composition and regeneration of species. Specifically the SUR results per-household indicated that woody species regeneration was highly affected by grazing system. Fencing is the common underlying factor positively affecting species diversity, regeneration and density of mature trees. Homestead distance from road and number of planted seedlings significantly affected density of regenerates and mature trees. Density of mature trees and species diversity were significantly affected by agroecology and slope. Woody species diversity was significantly affected by education, wealth, farmland size and project participation. Our findings revealed that the scaling up of woody species in agroforestry requires not only CG and favorable agroecology but also matching of agroforestry options with household and farmland characteristics.
Understanding and influencing agency and behaviour change in Kenya
This country brief is part of the outputs for Work Package 5 of the CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology. The focus of Work Package 5 is understanding and then influencing individual and collective agency and behavior among food system actors (FSAs) to drive inclusive and equitable agroecological transformation. Through learning from past experiences relevant to agroecological transformation, this country brief aims to inform the development of the Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALL) and the approach to the Agroecology Initiative’s (AE-I’s) activities in Kenya. The aim is to investigate successes and failures in achieving behaviour change, the nature of the change(s) achieved as well as the aims and assumptions behind the actions planned to enable change. The country brief outlines the trends in initiatives that make a significant contribution to agroecological transformation in terms of numbers of initiatives, types of initiatives, and AE principles promoted.
People-Centric Nature-Based Land Restoration through Agroforestry: A Typology
Restoration depends on purpose and context. At the core it entails innovation to halt ongoing and reverse past degradation. It aims for increased functionality, not necessarily recovering past system states. Location-specific interventions in social-ecological systems reducing proximate pressures, need to synergize with transforming generic drivers of unsustainable land use. After reviewing pantropical international research on forests, trees, and agroforestry, we developed an options-by-context typology. Four intensities of land restoration interact: R.I. Ecological intensification within a land use system, R.II. Recovery/regeneration, within a local social-ecological system, R.III. Reparation/recuperation, requiring a national policy context, R.IV. Remediation, requiring international support and investment. Relevant interventions start from core values of human identity while addressing five potential bottlenecks: Rights, Know-how, Markets (inputs, outputs, credit), Local Ecosystem Services (including water, agrobiodiversity, micro/mesoclimate) and Teleconnections (global climate change, biodiversity). Six stages of forest transition (from closed old-growth forest to open-field agriculture and re-treed (peri)urban landscapes) can contextualize interventions, with six special places: water towers, riparian zone and wetlands, peat landscapes, small islands and mangroves, transport infrastructure, and mining scars. The typology can help to link knowledge with action in people-centric restoration in which external stakeholders coinvest, reflecting shared responsibility for historical degradation and benefits from environmental stewardship.
Measuring household legume cultivation intensity in sub-Saharan Africa
Legumes form part of an ecological-based solution to intensification in areas with limited access to external inputs. Despite a number of decades of intervention, uptake of legumes has been slow within smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We explore the drivers behind the adoption of legumes by developing an indicator of household legume cultivation (HLC) from a bespoke survey of small-scale farm households in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A beta regression framework identifies the range of intensities across sites and farms, indicating a limited influence of agro-ecological zones and formal institutions on uptake. Age, income and gender have positive but very marginal effects. Intensive legume cultivations were less driven by commercial growth objectives or access to market oppourtunities indicating lack of legume markets to incentivize production. There was little interest in expanding farm area, which reflects the lack of assets available to these farmers and leads to the use of legumes for providing home nutrition, or supporting farm fertility and livestock feed. Further development of this HLC metric would be enabled by consistent data gathering across regions, or at least equally detailed studies of legume uptake. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.