There is an urgent need to increase agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa in a sustainable and economically-viable manner. Transforming risk-averse smallholders into business-oriented producers that invest in producing surplus food for sale provides a formidable challenge, both from a technological and socio-political perspective.
This book addresses the issue of agricultural intensification in the humid highland areas of Africa regions with relatively good agricultural potential, but where the scarce land resources are increasingly under pressure from the growing population and from climate change.
In addition to introductory and synthesis chapters, the book focuses on four themes: system components required for agricultural intensification; the integration of components at the system level; drivers for adoption of technologies towards intensification; and the dissemination of complex knowledge. It provides case studies of improved crop and soil management for staple crops such as cassava and bananas, as well as examples of how the livelihoods of rural people can be improved.
The book provides a valuable resource for researchers, development actors, students and policy makers in agricultural systems and economics and in international development. It highlights and addresses key challenges and opportunities that exist for sustainable agricultural intensification in the humid highlands of sub-Saharan Africa.
With growing population and food security risks, there is an urgent need to increase sustainable agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. This book addresses the issue of agricultural intensification in the humid highland areas of Africa. It provides case studies of improved crop and soil management for staple crops such as cassava
1. Agro-ecological Intensification of Farming Systems in the East and
Central African Highlands
2. Agricultural Intensification and the Food
Security Challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa
3. The Agro-ecological Solution?!
Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an Emphasis
on the East African Highlands Theme 1: Systems Components
4. CIALCA
Interventions for Productivity Increase of Cropping System Components in the
African Great Lakes Zone
5. Exploring the Scope of Fertilizer Use in the East
African Region
6. The 4R Nutrient Stewardship in the Context of Smallholder
Agriculture in Africa
7. Mitigating the Impact of Biotic Constraints to Build
Resilient Banana Systems in Central and Eastern Africa
8. Challenges for the
Improvement of Seed Systems for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Eastern
Africa Theme 2: System Integration
9. CIALCA's Efforts on Integrating Farming
System Components and Exploring Related Trade-offs
10. Towards Ecologically
Intensive Smallholder Farming Systems: Design, Scales and Trade-offs
Evaluation
11. Using the Livestock Ladder as a Means for Poor
Croplivestock Farmers to Exit Poverty in Sud-Kivu Province, Eastern DR Congo
12. N2Africa: Putting Nitrogen Fixation to Work for Smallholder Farmers in
Africa
13. Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in East
African Coffee Ecosystems Theme 3: Drivers for Adoption
14. Agricultural
Technology Diffusion and Adoption in Banana and Legume Based Systems of
Central Africa
15. Supply and Demand Drivers of the Sustainable
Intensification of Farming Systems through Grain Legumes in Central, Eastern
and Southern Africa
16. Assessing and Improving the Nutritional Diversity of
Cropping Systems
17. Disseminating Agroforestry Innovations in Cameroon: Are
Relay Organizations Effective?
18. Participatory Re-introduction of Vicia
Faba Beans in Resource-poor Farming Systems: Adoption of a Farmer-led
Initiative Theme 4: Communicating and Disseminating Complex Knowledge
19.
Walking the Impact Pathway: CIALCAs Efforts to Mobilize Agricultural
Knowledge for the African Great Lakes Region
20. Scalability and Farmer
Heterogeneity: Implications for Research on Sustainable Intensification
21.
Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D): An Approach to
Enhance the Livelihoods of Smallholder Farmers in the Lake Kivu Region
22.
Communication Channels Used in Dissemination of Soil Fertility Management
Practices in the Central Highlands of Kenya
23. Targeting Farmers Priorities
for Effective Agricultural Intensification in the Humid Highlands of Eastern
Africa
Bernard Vanlauwe is the director for Central Africa and Natural Resource Management at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Piet van Asten is a systems agronomist at IITA-Uganda working on sustainable intensification of perennial-based cropping systems (coffee, banana, cocoa) in Africa's humid zones, based in Kampala, Uganda.
Guy Blomme is a Bioversity International scientist working on germplasm and integrated disease management for more resilient and productive banana-based cropping systems in east and central Africa, based in Kampala, Uganda.
