Rising to the challenge of sustainable intensification of agricultural production in Africa

Farming systems design to support action research for development

Charlotte Klapwijk, Carl Timler, Nester Mashingaidze, Jeroen Groot Katrien Descheemaeker, Linus Franke, Pablo Tittonell, Ken Giller

Mateete Bekunda, Asamoah Larbi, Regis ChikowoGatien Falconnier, Mary Ollenburger, Tom van Mourik

Wageningen University, IITA, ICRISAT

Africa RISING East and Southern Africa annual review and planning meeting, Lilongwe, Malawi, 3-5 September 2013

Introduction Entry points for sustainable intensification:• Farm components and practices: crop and animal yield gaps• Farm yield gaps: configurations of components and inputs• Interactions with social-ecological and economic environment:

networks, markets, resources

Integrated farming systems analysis needed:• Context-specific• On-farm testing• Embedded in communities

Farming systems analysisSurvey

Rapid characteriz.

Detailed description

Explorationinnovations

Functional typology

Structural typology

Systems(re)design

Extrapolation

Farm diagnoses

Tradeoff analysis

Farm innovations

Potentialimpact

Malawi• Dedza and Ntcheu

Tanzania• Babati and Kongwa & Kiketo

Ghana• Northern• Upper West and Upper East with N2Africa project

Mali• Bougouni and Koutiala with ICRISAT

Where?

Farm selection – Y frame

Data collection

Preliminary results Tz, Mw

Preliminary resultsProposed improvementmentioned by farmers

Babati (Tz)

Kongwa (Tz)

Dedza (Mw)

Ntcheu (Mw)

New crops, cultivars, processing 0.43 0.60 0.88 0.74

Inputs (fertilizers, seeds) 0.25 0.31 0.38 0.23

Land availability 0.23 0.13

Economic resources 0.07 0.15 0.20 0.26

Advice, education and research 0.23 0.13

Improved farm management 0.22 0.06

Technologies and machines 0.17 0.33

Natural resources (soils, manures) 0.14 0.14 0.03

Subsidies 0.02 0.05

Social initiatives, groups 0.01

Large diversity of farm sizes and endowment Farmers identified large sets of improvements To be explored:• The role of functional and human/social farm characteristics in

grouping and targeting• Role of exploration (solution spaces) and design steps in the

delivery of entry points for farm improvement• Cross-country comparison of farming systems, their constraints and

potential entry points

Discussion

Rapid characterization survey completed (Mw, Tz) or ongoing (Gh, Ma)

Secondary data (crops, animals, etc.) collected Data inserted into Farm DESIGN tool (Mw, Tz) Data overviews made (Mw, Tz) Farms for detailed analysis selected (Mw, Tz) or ongoing

(Gh, Ma)

Presented at Farming Systems Design conference

Progress overview

Detailed data collection (Sep-13) Data analysis and explorations (Oct-Nov-13) Suggestions for entry points available (Dec-13)

And...• Cross country comparison (Sep-Dec-13)• Make plan for phase 2 (Sep-Nov-13)

Next steps

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation

africa-rising.net

Thank you for your attentionjeroen.groot@wur.nl