Sustainable agricultural intensification in an era of rural transformation in Africa

March 26, 2019 - Thomas Jayne<jayne@msu.edu>, Sieglinde Snapp, Frank Place, Nicholas Sitko

T. S. Jayne, Sieglinde Snapp, Frank Place, Nicholas Sitko.  Sustainable agricultural intensification in an era of rural transformation in Africa, Global Food Security, Volume 20, March 2019, 105-113.

ABSTRACT
Drawing on Boserupian and induced innovation principles, this review explores how the farm technologies and practices associated with integrated soil management and sustainable intensification may vary spatially according to the heterogeneous ways in which economic transformation and population dynamics are influencing agricultural factor prices. Long-term trends in many areas are encouraging intensification of capital inputs, including fertilizer use. However, low agronomic efficiency of nitrogen poses a major constraint on fertilizer profitability and use. Integrated soil and agronomic management practices can improve the agronomic efficiency of fertilizer use, but achieving greater adoption of such practices will require greater understanding of best practices for the wide range of environmental conditions and farmer resource constraints in the region. Because sustainable resource management best practices are highly localized and knowledge-intensive, massively increased investment in localized adaptive farm-level research and extension systems will be required to catalyze sustainable intensification in Africa.

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Tag List
  • agrifood system transformation,
  • c4a,
  • c4b,
  • cross-country,
  • food security group,
  • fsp peer reviewed publications,
  • innovation lab for food security policy,
  • input use and market development,
  • land,
  • sustainable agricultural intensification
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