‘Reconciling agricultural intensification with environmental sustainability’.  - 26 January 2023

This seminar on ‘Reconciling agricultural intensification with environmental sustainability’ was comprised of eight thematic talks, by internal and external speakers, and a moderated panel discussion involving speakers, the seminar chairperson as well as seminar participants. The seminar was chaired by Jonne Rodenburg, Professor of Agronomy at NRI, and the panel discussion was moderated by Jeremy Haggar, Professor of Agroecology at NRI.

PRESENTATIONS

Prof. Sieglinde Snapp, Program Director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program at CIMMYT, presented an overview of relevant work done at CIMMYT, entitled ‘Sustainable Agrifood Systems in the Global South’. Referring to current challenges of climate change, conflict and COVID19, she talked about how CIMMYT’s researchers are seeking to catalyse sustainable intensification, aimed at inclusivity and environmental sustainability. The overarching challenge in this work is that performance of crop production systems is, by definition, local, with a a great deal of variability over space and time. CIMMYT deals with this by engaging farmers in participatory on-farm research, enhancing farmers’ agency and gender sensitive ‘future proofing’. CIMMYT applies a systems approach including forecasting and modelling tools and conducting long-term experiments. Agronomic research and development work focuses on crop establishment timing to optimise the output of improved maize and wheat varieties. Mechanisation and appropriate service provider models can allow timely interventions and reduce labour, while soil fertility management is optimising fertiliser use efficiency. Among the main research outputs are CIMMYT's farmer agency tools, such as Nutrient Expert. These are hand-held electronic devices or smart-phone apps using soil archives and open access data, helping smallholder farmers to make site-specific soil and crop management decisions. Such tools empower farmers and extension agents to address variability by providing information to improve soil management and to share data and findings.

Questions were asked on the role and integration of livestock in these systems; the linkage between soils research and extension; the use of technologies between hand tools and full mechanisation; and gender implications of mechanisation. It was explained that CIMMYT and ILRI work together on integration of crops and livestock. CIMMYT works with extension agents in Malawi through the Africa Rising project and LUANAR University. Increased provision of processing equipment and tractors made accessible through service providers can reduce labour demands. Multidisciplinary teams are looking at reduction of drudgery and whether increased productivity can reduce food prices.

Dr Chanyalew Seyoum Aweke, an Assistant Professor and Director for Research Extension and Publication at Haramaya University in Ethiopia, talked about ‘Pathways for an agroecologically integrated food system for improved food security in Ethiopia’. He presented work done on sustainable productivity enhancement of food crop production, showing crop and livestock production metrics from different districts. The study included an assessment of dietary needs and use of a tool for agroecology performance evaluation (TAPE). He concluded that the vast majority of farms are not diversified and not resilient, implying vulnerability to the impact of shocks. Most farms are not applying sustainable agroecological management techniques and on these farms the dietary diversity is relatively low. Households with more advanced agroecological management had better dietary diversity and production. Agroecological-based farming is likely to improve both agricultural production and contribute to environmental sustainability. The main barriers to wider adoption are limited awareness. There is a need to share success stories and continue with participatory processes in the fields.

Prof. Vernon Kabambe, Professor of Agronomy at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi, talked on the question "Can a hub model facilitate effective agroecology technology and adoption – experiences and lessons from the Malawi Agroecology Intensification hub (AEI Hub Mw)". He presented the state of agricultural productivity and environmental degradation in Malawi and the work the AEI-hub does to improve sustainability of agricultural systems by facilitating awareness of practices and influencing policy. Examples of research topics are the use of double row cropping of groundnut, animal manure and biochar. One of the main challenges observed in Malawi is to increase farmer knowledge and adoption of sustainable production practices. The AEI-hub aims to improve this by organising agricultural fairs, farmer field day events, the use of online communication tools and farmer instruction videos and wide use of conventional media, e.g. radio, TV series, newspapers, publications and technical briefs.

Questions concerned the extent of impact, the role of extension and the consistency of policy between research and NGOs. Impact has not yet been measured, but baseline indicators and farmers’ and stakeholders’ feedback were collected. Collaborative activities from social platforms and planning have improved. Extension is active at district level, and also NGOs. The system could be strengthened at the planning stage. Policy consistency is occasionally low if planning is not tailored to the specific region.

Rachel Chase, a PhD candidate at NRI, University of Greenwich and Kew Botanical Gardens, supported by the FaNSI programme, presented ‘Enhancing food security with enset -a multipurpose, drought-tolerant staple crop in SW Ethiopia’. Wild enset is found in East and Southern Africa but only domesticated in Ethiopia where it is part of indigenous farming systems in drought prone regions. It has a range of food and non-food uses. Rachel’s research objectives are to determine the impact of climate on enset production, to identify functional traits that confer drought tolerance and explore trait variation among landraces, and to understand enset’s response to drought, soil nutrient and the interactions of these two components. She observed positive correlations between enset production area and years of severe droughts, implying farmers respond to drought by increasing their area under enset. She also identified that enset landraces grown in drier areas have more waxy leaves and lower stomatal conductance than landraces grown in wetter areas.

Questions were raised on the economic viability of enset expansion given that it is a low value crop, and the forms in which it is sold. Economic viability is an issue - farmers maintain enset as security crop, but harvesting and processing could be improved. Enset is mainly consumed locally but is also sold in different forms including as fermented uncooked dough.

Dr Leonel Lara-Estrada, a fellow in agroforestry at NRI, under the Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI), talked about ‘Exploring the coffee agroforestry systems’ potential for productivity and adaptation & mitigation to climate change’. He presented a typology of different kinds of coffee agroforests, according to input levels, shading intensity and tree species and how these different systems perform at different altitudes in terms of productivity, climate change mitigation and adaption. His study demonstrated the importance of farm location and management with respect to these performance indicators. The typologies are potentially useful in supporting processes of adjustment to climate change.

A question was asked on whether there are trade-offs between shade and pests and diseases. This has been problem where there is poor management of shading.

Dr Marcos Paradelo-Pérez, a fellow in soils at NRI, under the Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI), talked about ‘Removing fluoride from soil for safe crop production’. Fluoride is an issue in soil pollution affecting plant growth and human health. This was a study conducted on soils near Mt Meru in Tanzania. He showed that fertilizers increase soluble fluoride fractions in alkaline soils and that fermented seaweed has the potential to reduce fluoride availability. The use of locally produced bio-adsorbents (hydroxyapatite-activated seaweed biochar) can stabilise soil fluoride and thereby reduce exposure risks and improve cropping outputs.

Questions were on whether use of seaweed increases soil salinity, and whether seaweed biochar is easily produced by farmers. There is some increase in salinisation, but seaweed is washed before it is made into biochar. It is not difficult to make seaweed biochar, but the activity is a semi-industrial process.

Grace Kangara, a Soil Scientist in Climate- and Nutrient-Smart Agriculture at Rothamsted Research in the Department of Sustainable Soils and Crops, presented ‘Similar Sides of a Coin: The need for locally adaptable solutions for sustainability’. She presented some sustainable productivity enhancement solutions, including work on conservation agriculture (with examples from Zimbabwe), integrated soil fertility management, and agronomic biofortification with micronutrient-based fertilisers for more nutritious crops. For the latter, she gave an example from different landscapes in Ethiopia. It was concluded that ecological intensification practices could partly substitute for nitrogen fertiliser input requirements.

Questions asked were whether ecological intensification can substitute for nitrogen fertiliser – which appears better from long term trials; how transferable these technologies are to countries with no extension service; and on evidence for the sustainability of conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe. Ecological intensification with crop rotations, nitrogen fixing legumes and use of organic nutrient resources are best used as complementary approaches to mineral fertilizer use. Farmers’ groups are an alternative for sharing information where there are no extension services. In terms of sustainability, the literature indicates an impact on greenhouse gas emissions but there are some mixed messages. Support services are often necessary and there’s a risk that once programmes end, farmers revert to previous practice.

Prof. Regis Chikowo, a Professor of Agronomy of the University of Zimbabwe, talked on ‘Achieving a reconciliation of agricultural intensification and environmental sustainability’. His work is in soil science and agroecology, with a focus on maize production. He showed that currently existing yield gaps in maize can be reduced by improved soil fertility management. Important challenges in maize production systems in southern Africa are soil phosphorus deficiency, acidity and the wide-spread occurrence of light textured inherently poor soil types. Farmers also generally have poor access to fertilisers. The use of cattle manure, integration of nitrogen fixing grain legumes and doubled-up legume (groundnut and pigeon pea) rotation in maize production systems are some of the solutions he works on. He observed a 3-fold increase in maize yields from judicious application of both N and P, enhanced nutrient cycling and biological N2-fixation by integration of legumes. Soil conservation and rainwater management measures, such as tied ridging, deliver additional yield increases while maintaining environmental integrity.

Questions concerned current knowledge of yield gaps in legumes, whether legumes require phosphorus to be sustainable and implications of increased soya growing this year for maize supply. If Soya bean is grown in rotation with well fertilised maize crops, inoculation, good germplasm and increased plant density, this can double the yield and suppress weeds. Direct fertilisation of legumes is rarely done - farmers allocate fertiliser to maize, and legumes follow in the rotation. Fertiliser was not available this year, so farmers switched to legumes.

PANEL DISCUSSION

The presentations were followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Prof. Jeremy Haggar. Participants in that discussion were some of the speakers (Prof. Regis Chikowo, Dr Chanyalew Aweke, Grace Kangara), Prof Alex de Pinto from NRI, the chair (Prof. Jonne Rodenburg) and seminar participants (e.g. Prof. John Morton, Prof. Adrienne Martin, Prof. Ben Bennett, and Dr Gideon Onumah).

The discussion centred around the following questions:

‘To achieve food security, improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture (SDG2),
(1) is doubling of agricultural productivity and incomes of smallholders by 2030 (SDG2.3) still a relevant and/or realistic goal for Africa

(2) (how) can it be reconciled with environmental and ecological sustainability and climate change adaptation goals (SDG 2.4)?’

The discussion was broken down into sub-questions including:

1. Are you aware of any examples of crop/field/farm-scale solutions/innovations that have shown potential – at scale?
2. Beyond the crop/field/farm scale, what issues need to be addressed in your country/intervention area or beyond, and how (e.g. policy/institutional)?
3. Have you observed any cases that strongly suggest sustainable and climate-smart agricultural intensification can or cannot be achieved while safeguarding environmental/ecological integrity?

• The overarching emphasis was on bringing farmers out of poverty, increasing yields and food security, taking account of environmental constraints and planetary boundaries.
• There is a difference between average farmer yield and that of the best yields already obtained by farmers in the same areas. It was widely acknowledged among panel members that by applying relatively straightforward good agronomy, these farmer yield gaps in maize and rice systems in Africa could be closed. Current average farmer yield levels are around 2 t/ha for rice, the current farmer-based yield gaps range from 2 to 3 t/ha. By following good agronomy, we have shown that yields can increase to around 4 t /ha. This includes improved water conservation/management (1 t/ha), better weed management (0.7 t/ha), and application of inorganic and organic fertilisers (0.8-1.2 t/ha).
• Use of fertilisers can contribute to increasing production and yields but produces greenhouse gas emissions. There are promising alternatives and need for further exploration to tackle constraints, for example, in Integrated Soil Fertility (ISFM), how to increase availability of soil organic resources.
• Good agronomy should be combined with more targeted and coordinated (policy supported) identification and selection of crop production areas with high productivity potential versus locations that should be avoided for agricultural production purposes because of their low productivity potential or high (biodiversity) conservation value or environmental risks. An example that was mentioned in this respect are the inland valleys in Africa, comprising 190M ha, generally with high (rice) production potential. Most of these valleys also offer other ecosystem services and some of them represent biodiversity hot spots. Careful selection of where to grow rice (in this case) and where not, and then application of Good Agronomy in the highest potential valleys, could produce enough rice to feed the continent using only 10% of the inland valley area. Upland areas that are much less productive for rice, could then be used for crops and trees with higher environmental adaptability.
• One of the important discussion points was on agricultural extension services and how smallholder farmers in Africa can be better supported in making locally adapted, site-specific decisions on sustainable production practices. Coverage of public or NGO extension services are limited. The electronic decision support tools generated by the CGIAR are targeting this challenge. RiceAdvice (by AfricaRice) and Nutrient Expert (by CIMMYT) were mentioned as examples.
• There is potential to increase yields on existing farms, but much of the threat to sustainability comes from expansion of agriculture into forest land. It is difficult to protect tropical forest just by increasing productivity in agriculture. This depends on effective implementation of laws at all levels. The challenge is to address the global issue through solving localised problems.
• The potential tension between scaling up and out and achieving productivity gains was discussed, given the challenge of high spatial variability in farming conditions. Cases of sustainable agricultural intensification at scale were observed in Kenya around (agro-) forest conservation and also Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration in the Sahel (Niger and Burkina Faso). The latter had an important policy dimension relating to ownership of land and trees.

Biographical summaries of speakers

Prof. Sieglinde Snapp is Program Director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program at CIMMYT, El Batan, Mexico. She leads research on sustainable intensification and integrated development, supervising over 100 scientists and 400 staff, including a $100M portfolio of programs serving smallholder farmers across Latin America, Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. Sieg is also adjunct Professor of Soils and Cropping Systems Ecology at Michigan State University. Sieg Snapp is perhaps best known as the “mother” of the mother and baby trial design, used by crop scientists, plant breeders and agronomists around the globe. She has extensive experience on participatory action research and sustainable intensification assessments.

Prof Vernon Kabambe is Professor of Agronomy at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi and the vice president of the Water Harvesting Association of Malawi. Vernon is currently leading the Hub for Agro-Ecological Intensification in Malawi supported by McKnight Foundation, and previously he was manager of the Soil Health Consortium of Malawi, which spearheaded a group of over 90 members in synthesis and dissemination of information on Integrated Soil fertility management (ISFM). His research activities include research to mitigate against biotic and abiotic plant stresses, improving fertilizer use efficiency, and cropping systems for enhanced soil fertility and management of parasitic witchweeds on cereals and legumes.

Dr Chanyalew Seyoum Aweke is an Assistant Professor and Director for Research Extension and Publication at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. He served as Chair of the School of Rural Development and Agricultural Innovation for two years. He was a 2019 CICOPS Research Fellow at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia, Italy. Chanyalew is the co-founder of the Agricultural and Rural Innovation Incubation Hub at Haramaya University. He has more than 15 years of experience in teaching, research and community services and his research interests include: food security, agriculture and nutrition linkage, rural livelihoods, agriculture commercialization, climate change, and agricultural extension.

Rachel Chase is a PhD candidate at NRI, University of Greenwich and Kew Botanical Gardens, supported by the FaNSI programme. She is studying drought tolerance and resilience of Ensete ventricosum in Ethiopia. Rachel is employed by Bioversity and has been based at their Montpellier office since 2013. She manages the ongoing Field Verification exercise that aims to ensure the genetic integrity of banana germplasm from the Bioversity International genebank. Since 2020 Rachel has been the team leader for the Banana Networks Team of the Banana Program.

Dr Leonel Lara-Estrada is a fellow in agroforestry at NRI, under the Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI). He moved in 2020 from Germany, where he did his doctorate on evaluating the potential for adaptation and mitigation of agroforestry systems to climate change, at Hamburg Universität. He obtained an M.Sc. degree in Tropical agroforestry from The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica. Between his Master’s and his PhD, among a range of appointments, Leonel worked as R&D coordinator for ECOM-Coffee group in Nicaragua, validating and promoting the use of new coffee hybrids in agroforestry systems. He worked at CATIE on a pilot project to develop a Weather-Index Insurance for coffee in Nicaragua and Honduras and as a guest researcher at the Sustainability and Global Change programme of Hamburg Universität, where he worked in the development of a model to infer the quality of the coffee produced in Nicaragua.

Dr Marcos Paradelo Pérez is a fellow in soils at NRI, under the Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (FaNSI). He joined NRI in 2020, moving from Rothamsted Research where he was working on the strategic programme ‘Soil to Nutrition’ with a focus on understanding microorganisms’ interactions with the soil structure under different soil managements. He obtained his MSc and PhD degree from the University of Vigo, Spain. He pioneered the use of the colloid filtration theory to describe the transport and fate of colloidal pesticide formulations through soil that were widely used in Galician (NW Spain) vineyards. Before NRI and Rothamsted he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Denmark where he investigated how soil structure controls soil ecosystem functions, using X-ray CT scanning techniques to predict the movement of water, solutes and colloids through soil. He also studied the changes in soil microbial communities under different soil physical environments and anthropogenic factors.

Grace Kangara is a Soil Scientist in Climate- and Nutrient-Smart Agriculture at Rothamsted Research in the Department of Sustainable Soils and Crops. She conducted research on Integrated Soil Fertility Management and conservation agriculture for soil fertility, crop yields and crop nutrition improvement in smallholder farming systems. Before joining Rothamsted she worked at the University of Nottingham, where she coordinated a UKRI funded multi-disciplinary project on “Supporting policies to reduce mineral micronutrient deficiency in Zimbabwe” with partners in the UK, Malawi, and the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr Regis Chikowo is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences Department. He is also a Professor of Agronomy at the University of Zimbabwe. He has Soil Science training from University of Zimbabwe and Agroecology from Wageningen University. His interests are in the development of sustainable intensification technologies for positive outcomes on smallholder farms in Africa, aiming at building empirical evidence to inform best bet approaches to keeping soils healthy and productive. He has worked and is still working with a number of the previous speakers. He is well known for his research work on agroecology.

Professor Jeremy Haggar is a Professor of Agroecology at NRI, University of Greenwich. He joined in 2011. He was previously head of the tree crops programme at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE) in Nicaragua where he worked for 11 years co-ordinating coffee research and development projects across Central America. He managed projects around the development of sustainable agricultural practices for coffee production, business capacity in co-operatives, and assessment of the ecosystem services from coffee agroforestry systems. The projects contributed to improvements in the livelihoods of approximately 10,000 coffee producing families across Central America. Prior to CATIE Jeremy was research co-ordinator in Mexico for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) leading participatory research on the design of agroforestry systems as alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture in the Yucatan Peninsula. He has a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, and his PhD study was on the effects of legume trees on nutrient availability to associated crops.

Prof. Alessandro (Alex) De Pinto is a Professor of Climate Change and Food Security at NRI, University of Greenwich having joined in July 2020. He is an environmental and natural resource economist with more than 20 years of experience working in economically depressed areas. Alex has a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Consumer Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA with a specialization in agricultural policies and environmental and resource economics. He has conducted research in Latin America, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on climate smart agriculture, risk management, resilience and low emissions development strategies. Prior to NRI, Alex was a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C. and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Redlands in California.

Prof. Jonne Rodenburg is a Professor of Agronomy at the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, and leader of NRI's development programme on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification. Prior to joining NRI, Univ. of Greenwich, Jonne worked as agronomist at the Africa Rice Center (2004-2017) working mainly on weed problems in rice. He has worked on selection and characterisation of food crop varieties and agronomic management practices for the control of weeds and parasitic weeds, exploring weed competitiveness, parasitic weed resistance and tolerance, drought tolerance, yielding ability etc. He currently studies how improved soil fertility and plant nutrition can enhance host plant resistance and tolerance against parasitic weeds. Jonne is also an Associate Editor of the Elsevier journal, Field Crops Research, a subject editor of the Wiley journal, Weed Research and the Vice-President of the International Parasitic Plants Society (IPPS).

Programme