Jonathan Muriuki: Evergreen Agriculture in East Africa #BeatingFamine
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Evergreen Agriculture in East Africa
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Jonathan Muriuki: Evergreen Agriculture in East Africa #BeatingFamine
- 1. EVERGREEN AGRICULTURE IN EAST AFRICA Jonathan Muriuki Presentation at the Beating Famine Conference ICRAF, Nairobi 11 April 2012
- 2. Presentation summary • Farming as usual – is it sustainable? • CAWT • Evergreen agriculture • Characterisation • Germplasm supply • Extension approaches • Knowledge management
- 3. HUMID Eastern Africa DRYLANDS HIGHLANDS Main features 81 % of total land High Pop. Density mass (Home to > 50 % of region’s pop) Significant in Kenya (75 %); Supply > 50 % of regions staple & cash Tanzania & crops Ethiopia (50 %) Important water Pastoralism / Agro- towers pastoralism Rainfed & irrigated Irrigated and agriculture rainfed agriculture Major crops: Maize, Major crops: potato, banana, Sorghum, millet & wheat, coffee, tea, cassava, cotton arrow roots
- 4. Conventional Farming – This is how we produce food Trees are kept off cropland and soil is turned over leading to :- - Disruption of soil life - High surface area for moisture loss
- 5. Intensive Tillage destroys the biological and ecological integrity of the soil system. Before After After Primary Primary Secondary Tillage Tillage Tillage “Earthworms are allergic to cold steel!” Credit: Mike Bell 15 July, 2003
- 6. Our high potential land is sloppy and vulnerable! Conventional farming on sloppy lands without conservation leads to • Huge soil losses due to run-off • Quick degradation • Landslides and floods especially due to lack of tree roots
- 7. 81% of the land is semi-arid and cycles of floods and droughts together with overgrazing leads to massive degradation
- 8. Permanent Minimum Soil Soil Cover Disturbance CA is a Concept Conservation about Agriculture Inclusiveness and Integration Simultaneous Application of Practices Crop Rotations and Associations
- 9. True Conservation is carbon management. Conservation Agriculture provides beneficial ecosystem services: 1. Food, fiber and biofuels 2. Less erosion, less pollution, clean water, fresh air, healthy soil, natural fertility, higher production, carbon credits, beautiful landscape, sustainability etc., etc. …… Soil carbon is a priceless key to the planet’s health and our environmental quality.
- 10. A collective name for land use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or animals on the same land management unit either in a spatial Agroforestry mixture or in a temporal sequence resulting in both ecological and economic interactions between woody and non-woody components.
- 11. Types of Agroforestry 1. Agroforests: combinations of perennial species on arable land 2. Home gardens with perennials 3. Woodlots or farm forests 4. Sylvopastoral systems: Trees in pastures 5. Trees on field and farm boundaries 6. Evergreen Agriculture: Trees intercropped with field crops
- 12. What is Evergreen Agriculture? A form of more intensive farming that integrates trees with annual crops, maintaining a green cover on the land throughout the year. Evergreen farming systems are ‘double- story’ systems that feature both perennial and annual species (food crops and trees).
- 13. Trees incorporation into crop fields and agricultural landscapes may contribute to i. maintaining vegetative soil cover year-round (Boffa,1999), ii. bolstering nutrient supply through nitrogen fixation and nutrient cycling (Barnes and Fagg, 2003), iii. enhanced suppression of insect pests and weeds (Sileshi et al. 2006), iv. improved soil structure and water infiltration (Chirwa et al. 2007), v. greater direct production of food, fodder, fuel, fiber and income from products produced by the intercropped trees (Garrity, 2004), vi. enhanced carbon storage both above-ground and belowground (Makumba et al. 2007), vii. greater quantities of organic matter in soil surface residues (Akinnifesi et al. 2007), and viii. more effective conservation of above- and belowground biodiversity (Scherr and McNeeley, 2009).
- 14. Types of Evergreen Agriculture Regeneration Conventional Conservation method / agriculture agriculture practice Deliberate Planned CoAWT Planned CAWT planting Assisted natural Managed Managed CAWT regeneration CoAWT
- 15. Some examples of Evergreen Agriculture in EA • Fodder shrubs for balanced dairy nutrition (eg Caliandra in the East African Dairy Project) • Mango and other fruits intercropped in maize systems • Grevillia robusta intercropped in maize for timber, fodder & fuel • Faidherbia albida in maize production systems (CA being tested) • Intercropped coppicing leguminous trees in maize (eg Gliricidia in Malawi tested in Western Kenya and KIbwezi) • Relay-cropped leguminous species managed as annual green manure (eg Tephrosia) –
- 16. When integrated with CA, trees ensure 1. Minimum soil disturbance. The roots of tree/shrub species and the soil fauna take over the tillage function, soil nutrient mobilization and balancing 2. Adequate soil cover. The trees add biomass, which protects the soil and feeds the soil biota (i.e. biological plough). This also ensures better carbon storage than CA alone 3. Trees in the rotation/ intercrop reduce weeds, insect pests and diseases; Thus increasing savings from inputs such as fertilizer and herbicides
- 17. For successful scaling up, an Evergreen agriculture programme needs Germplasm Practices Right species, Characterization Tree management Seeds, and seedling of typologies spacing, niches, CA, systems tree crop interactions, etc Knowledge to Action with further research (Rural resource centers) Support for Favorable policies, national scaling extension networks, up programmes capacity building at all levels Enabling environment
- 18. What have we learned from the impacts already achieved, and about the key farmer incentives for adoption? 1. There are multiple benefits and repercussions on crop productivity, yield resilience, fodder production, fuelwood availability, timber as an income source, and systems sustainability. 2. Scaling-up models will differ across agro- ecological zones and countries
- 19. A portfolio of projects in EA 1. Sida funded CAWT – Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Ghana 2. IFAD funded scalign up evergreen agriculture – Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Lesotho 3. IFAD funded through CIMMYT - Enhancing total farm productivity – Building on SIMLESA - Kenya and Ethiopia
- 20. Characterizing typologies Large heterogeneity in performance of any particular AF technology, and hence the need to understand that ‘technology x context’ interaction • Socio-economic baselines • Land health baselines • Tree diversity surveys • Characterizing seed/seedling supply systems including testing potential of FMNR
- 21. Characterizing typologies Machakos Mbarali Small farms average size of 1ha and 60% Bigger farms average size of 3ha but 41% experience food deficit at some point in experience food deficit at some point in the year the year Farmers plant exotic species Farmers protect indigenous species but Little knowledge of fertilizer trees many trees are old Half of seedlings sourced from own or Few exotic species planted for fruits and private nursery and one-fifth of trees fuelwood naturally regenerated Indigenous knowledge on F. albida as Demand for seedlings of some species fertilizer trees is common but not many outstrips supply and purchases are other species common The few planted trees mainly sourced Farmers lack knowledge on CA and little from project and school nurseries on AF Farmers lack knowledge on CA and little Several private nurseries recorded on AF and few have attended training on Farmers in collective action groups but farming technologies more focused on rural finance than Few private nurseries recorded and agriculture seedling purchase not common
- 22. Traditional practices tempered with science
- 23. Approaches for germplasm supply • Rural resource centres • Satelite nurseries and demonstrations in schools – healthy learning approach • Group nurseries • Individually operated nurseries (pseudo- extension) • FMNR approaches
- 24. Approaches for extension Government as the default and most sustainable – ministry of agriculture (not forestry?) NGOs network – KENDAT, World Vision, others in Tanzania Approaches – Landcare, rural resource centres, satelite nurseries (with healthy learning), farmer field schools Demonstrations Innovative farmers and nursery operators
- 25. Demonstrations and participatory trials • At rural resource centres, satelite nurseries, ATCs • At least one per demonstration per intervention village • Also serve as participatory on-farm trials to test acceptance of technology • High replication to allow biophysical measurements with sufficient precision
- 26. Knowledge management and communication • To enhance scaling up and out • Conducting knowledge needs assessment, designing information sharing tools like print, electronic/digital and live folk media. • Developing appropriate knowledge and information sharing products (KISP) - include, print media; electronic/digital media to enhance information flow, learning and sharing at different levels of governance • Facilitating promotion of rural resource centres at district levels to enhance cross regional knowledge and information sharing. • Setting up of web pages within the ICRAF and other partner organizations websites and interactive sites such as phone- web system. • Communication strategy developed with all stakeholders
- 27. DRIVERS OF CHANGE Ecosystem degradation can rarely be reversed without actions that address one or more indirect drivers of change: – public participation in decision-making – cultural factors – technological change Collectively these factors influence the level of production and consumption of ecosystem services and sustainability of the production base.
- 28. AHSANTE Creating an Evergreen Agriculture