Another big agricultural trial: Will Africa benefit?

By Clet W. Masiga

Agro-ecological intensification of farming systems has been recognised as one of the key strategies for transforming subsistence farming to commercialisation in Africa. 

This is a new move by the consortium for improving agriculture-based livelihoods in central Africa (CIALCA) and world experts on agricultural intensification to focus agricultural research on experiments that will focus on agro-ecological processes rather than that which focuses on use of external inputs and commodities rather than systems. 

The experiments will, in addition, be done without subsidising farmers and communicating the results of such complex knowledge generated from such experiments by expert institutions.  

The consortium brings together world leaders with significant influence in agricultural research from three of 18 institutions supported by the consultative group on international agricultural research (CGIAR). These are international institute of tropical agriculture (IITA), Bioversity, and the tropical soil biology and fertility programme of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT). 

These institutions have set up a research for development platform in various mandate areas in Africa aiming to identify improved production, market and nutrition options and to facilitate the access for development partners to these options. 

Therefore, their recommendation will have a significant influence on African leaders and the donor community in driving the agricultural research agenda for Africa in the next decade. 

The recommendations were summarised in four statements. If we are to maximise local soil fertility management practices, it was suggested that priority needs to be given to making greater use of agro ecological processes that optimise efficiency with only complementary use of external inputs like fertilizers. 

This should go hand in hand with a commodity-based value chain approach, which is thought to be more efficient in achieving system change than an integrated farming systems approach which is very complex. 

It was also thought that adoption of technology driven by subsidies and hand outs is counterproductive and that complex agricultural knowledge can only be communicated by expert institutions. 

The four recommendations were arrived at during the discussion to take stock of the state of the art agricultural intensification in the highlands of sub-Saharan Africa and to chart the way forward for agricultural research for development in the humid highlands, specifically in the humid tropics consortium research programme and the CIALCA consortium. 

It was agreed that African farmers face numerous difficulties in improving production and productivity due to pests and diseases, and declining soil fertility. It was also recognised that fertilizers and pesticides are difficult to obtain, expensive and not properly evaluated in African farming systems.   

Agro ecological intensification is a practical, knowledge-based approach with potential to respond both to the needs of smallholder farmers for increased production through more efficient use of local resources and to the demands placed on the high-input export sector for more environmental sustainability. 

This approach focuses on biological mechanisms to suppress pests and diseases, strategies to increase crop yield and management of soil nutrient cycles for a healthier and more productive crop. 

In this approach, management of functional biodiversity and deployment of better knowledge about agro-ecological interactions serve to reduce losses, optimise crop residue breakdown and soil nutrient fixation, and promote crop health. 

Technically, the outcomes of this multimillion dollar agricultural experiment will contribute to information required to influence policy for agricultural growth in Africa. However, the impact would be more if other options were considered. 

As such I believe that these recommendations need to be taken seriously as it will influence agricultural research agenda for Africa. The results will have a direct impact on food security, farming incomes and agricultural economy. 

The writer is a conservation biologist/geneticist and farm entrepreneur