Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T08:46:44.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

ARE FARMERS SEARCHING FOR AN AFRICAN GREEN REVOLUTION? EXPLORING THE SOLUTION SPACE FOR AGRICULTURAL INTENSIFICATION IN SOUTHERN MALI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

MARY OLLENBURGER ,
TODD CRANE ,
KATRIEN DESCHEEMAEKER  and
KEN E. GILLER
MARY OLLENBURGER*
Affiliation:
Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700AK, Wageningen, the Netherlands
TODD CRANE
Affiliation:
International Livestock Research Institute, 30709 Naivasha Rd, Nairobi, Kenya
KATRIEN DESCHEEMAEKER
Affiliation:
Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700AK, Wageningen, the Netherlands
KEN E. GILLER
Affiliation:
Plant Production Systems, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 430, 6700AK, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Development actors, including the African Union, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa and bilateral donors, promote a technology-driven sustainable intensification of agriculture as a way to feed a growing world population and reduce rural poverty. A broader view of smallholder agriculture in the context of rural livelihoods suggests that technological solutions alone are unlikely to meet these goals. Analysis of the solution space for agricultural interventions in a high potential area of southern Mali shows that intensification can lift most farm households out of extreme poverty and guarantee their food self-sufficiency. However, the most effective options do not fit the usual definition of sustainable intensification, increasing production per unit land while protecting the natural environment. Cropland expansion combined with the good yields seen in on-station experiments can nearly eliminate extreme poverty, while the biggest impact may come from taking advantage of peak seasonal prices for crops like groundnut. Other profitable alternatives can include meat production with small ruminants or sales of milk from cows. However, off-farm employment opportunities like gold mining outperform currently attainable agricultural options in terms of profitability. Options for rural households should fit within the households’ socio-ecological niches and respond to their priorities in order to be successful. Given the relatively low impact of (sustainable) intensification technologies alone, a rethinking of the role of agricultural research in development is needed in order to align interventions with farmer priorities and meet development goals.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 55 , Special Issue 2: Themed Issue: Contested Agronomy , April 2019 , pp. 288 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2010). Why is Africa poor? Economic History of Developing Regions 25 (1):21–50.Google Scholar
Africa Fertilizer. (2017). AfricaFertilizer.org information portal. Retrieved April 11, 2017 from http://africafertilizer.org/prices_detailed.html.Google Scholar
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) (2015). Progress Report 2007–2014. Nairobi, Kenya: AGRA.Google Scholar
Bhattacharyya, S. (2009). Root causes of African underdevelopment. Journal of African Economies 18 (5):745–180.Google Scholar
Blaikie, P. (1989). Explanation and policy in land degradation and rehabilitation for developing countries. Land Degradation & Rehabilitation 1:23–37.Google Scholar
Blaikie, P. (1995). Changing environments or changing views? A political ecology for developing countries. Geography 80 (3):203–214.Google Scholar
Boserup, E. (1965). The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure. New York: Aldine Pub Co.Google Scholar
Brush, S. B., Corrales, M. B. and Schmidt, E. (1988). Agricultural development and maize diversity in Mexico. Human Ecology 16 (3):307–328.Google Scholar
Carr, E. R. and Onzere, S. N. (2017). Really effective (for 15% of the Men): Lessons in understanding and addressing user needs in climate services from Mali. Climate Risk Management. doi:10.1016/j.crm.2017.03.002.Google Scholar
Chambers, R. and Ghildyal, B. P. (1985). Agricultural research for resource-poor farmers: The farmer-first-and-last model. Agricultural Administration 20:1–30.Google Scholar
Christiaensen, L., Demery, L. and Kuhl, J. (2011). The (evolving) role of agriculture in poverty reduction-an empirical perspective. Journal of Development Economics 96 (2):239–254.Google Scholar
Collinson, M. ed. (2000). A History of Farming Systems Research. Wellingford: CABI.Google Scholar
Crane, T. A. (2010). Of models and meanings: Cultural resilience in social–ecological systems. Ecology and Society 15 (4):19.Google Scholar
Crane, T. A. (2014). Bringing science and technology studies into agricultural anthropology: Technology development as cultural encounter between farmers and researchers. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 36 (1):45–55.Google Scholar
Crane, T. A., Pronk, M., Lakerveld, R., Weiler, V., Maat, H., Springate-Baginski, O. and Udo, H. (2016). Research design and the politics of abstraction: Unpacking the environmentality of scientific practice in socioecological assessments. Human Ecology 44:665–675.Google Scholar
Crook, R. C. (2003). Decentralisation and poverty reduction in Africa: The politics of local-central relations. Public Administration and Development 23 (1):77–88.Google Scholar
Darnhofer, I., Gibbon, D., Dedieu, B., Darnhofer, I., Gibbon, D. and Dedieu, B. (2012). Farming systems research: An approach to inquiry. In Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century: The New Dynamic, 3–31. (Eds Darnhofer, I., Gibbon, D. and Dedieu, B.). Dordrecht: Springer Science.Google Scholar
de Ridder, N., Sanogo, O. M., Rufino, M. C., van Keulen, H. and Giller, K. E. (2015). Milk: The new white gold? Milk production options for smallholder farmers in southern Mali. Animal 9 (7):1221–1229.Google Scholar
Denning, G. L., Kabambe, P., Sanchez, P. A., Malik, A., Flor, R., Harawa, R., Nkhoma, P., Zamba, C. B., Magombo, C., Keating, M., Wangila, J. and Sachs, J. (2009). Input subsidies to improve smallholder maize productivity in Malawi: Toward an African green revolution. PLoS Biology, 7 (1):e1000023.Google Scholar
Descheemaeker, K., Ronner, E., Ollenburger, M. H., Franke, A. C., Klapwijk, C. J., Falconnier, G. N., Wichern, J. and Giller, K. E. (2016). Which options fit best? Operationalizing the socio-ecological niche concept. Experimental Agriculture. Epub ahead of print. doi:10.1017/S001447971600048X.Google Scholar
Fabinyi, M., Evans, L. and Foale, S. J. (2014). Social-ecological systems, social diversity, and power: Insights from anthropology and political ecology. Ecology and Society 19 (4). doi:10.5751/ES-07029-190428.Google Scholar
Falconnier, G. N., Descheemaeker, K., Van Mourik, T. A., Sanogo, O. M. and Giller, K. E. (2015). Understanding farm trajectories and development pathways: Two decades of change in southern Mali. Agricultural Systems 139:210–222.Google Scholar
Falconnier, G. N., Descheemaeker, K., van Mourik, T. A. and Giller, K. E. (2016). Unravelling the causes of variability in crop yields and treatment responses for better tailoring of options for sustainable intensification in southern Mali. Field Crops Research 187:113–126.Google Scholar
Falconnier, G. N., Descheemaeker, K., Van Mourik, T. A., Adam, M., Sogoba, B. and Giller, K. E. (2017). Co-learning cycles to support the design of innovative farm systems in southern Mali. European Journal of Agronomy 89:61–74.Google Scholar
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). (2001). Human energy requirements: Report of a joint FAO/WHO/UNU expert consultation. FAO Food and Nutrition Technical Report Series 1, 96pp.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2017). FAOSTAT Database. Rome, Italy: FAO. Retrieved April 11, 2017 from http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data.Google Scholar
Frake, C. O. (1962). Cultural ecology and ethnography. American Anthropologist 64 (1):53–59.Google Scholar
Frelat, R., Lopez-Ridaura, S., Giller, K. E., Herrero, M., Douxchamps, S., Djurfeldt, A. A., Erenstein, O., Henderson, B., Kassie, M., Paul, B. K., Rigolot, C., Ritzema, R. S., Rodriguez, D., van Asten, P. J. A. and van Wijk, M. T. (2015). Drivers of household food availability in sub-Saharan Africa based on big data from small farms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113 (2):458–463.Google Scholar
Giller, K. E., Cadisch, G., Ehaliotis, C., Adams, E., Sakala, W. D. and Mafongoya, P. L. (1997). Building soil nitrogen capital in Africa. In Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa, 151–192 (Eds Buresh, R. J., Sanchez, P. A. and Calhoun, F.). Madison, WI: SSSA and ASA.Google Scholar
Giller, K. E., Rowe, E., Deridder, N. and Vankeulen, H. (2006). Resource use dynamics and interactions in the tropics: Scaling up in space and time. Agricultural Systems 88 (1):8–27.Google Scholar
Giller, K. E., Tittonell, P., Rufino, M. C., van Wijk, M. T., Zingore, S., Mapfumo, P., Adjei-Nsiah, S., Herrero, M., Chikowo, R. and Corbeels, M. (2011). Communicating complexity: Integrated assessment of trade-offs concerning soil fertility management within African farming systems to support innovation and development. Agricultural Systems 104 (2):191–203.Google Scholar
Godfray, H. C. J., Beddington, J. R., Crute, I. R., Haddad, L., Lawrence, D., Muir, J. F., Pretty, J., Robinson, S., Thomas, S. M. and Toulmin, C. (2010). Food security: The challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327 (5967):812–818.Google Scholar
Groot, J. C. J. and Rossing, W. A. H. (2011). Model-aided learning for adaptive management of natural resources: An evolutionary design perspective. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 2 (6):643–650.Google Scholar
Haggblade, S., Hazell, P. and Reardon, T. (2010). The rural non-farm economy: Prospects for growth and poverty reduction. World Development, 38 (10):1429–1441.Google Scholar
Haile, B., Azzarri, C., Roberts, C. and Spielman, D. J. (2017). Targeting, bias, and expected impact of complex innovations on developing-country agriculture: Evidence from Malawi. Agricultural Economics (United Kingdom) 48 (3):317–326.Google Scholar
Harris, D. and Orr, A. (2014). Is rainfed agriculture really a pathway from poverty? Agricultural Systems 123:84–96.Google Scholar
Hope, K. R. (2000). Corruption and development in Africa. In Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Country Case Studies, 17–39 (Eds Hope, K. R. and Chikulo, B. C.). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.Google Scholar
Howard, P., Azzarri, C., Haile, B., Comanescu, M., Roberts, C. and Signorelli, S. (2016). Africa RISING Baseline Evaluation Survey (ARBES) Report for Mali. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.Google Scholar
ILRI (2011). Gestion Durable du Betail Ruminant Endemique en Afrique de l'Ouest (PROGEBE): Etude de Référence, Mali. Nairobi: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund (IMF). (2006). Mali, Fourth Review Under the Three-Year Arrangement Under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility and Request for Waiver of Performance Criteria: Staff Report; and Press Release on the Executive Board Consideration. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Koenig, D. (2008). Rural development is more than commodity production: Cotton in the farming system of Kita, Mali. In Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization, and Poverty in Africa, 177–206 (Eds Moseley, W. G. and Gray, L. C.). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Koenig, D., Diarra, T. and Sow, M. (1998). Innovation and Individuality in African Development. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Koné, M. (2010). Analysis of the Cashew Sector Value Chain in Côte D ’ Ivoire. Eschborn, Germany: Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.Google Scholar
Lacy, S. M. (2008). Cotton casualties and cooperatives: Reinventing farmer collectives at the expense of rural malian communities? In Hanging by a Thread: Cotton, Globalization, and Poverty in Africa, 207–223 (Eds Moseley, W. G. and Gray, L. C.). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Laris, P. and Foltz, J. (2014). Cotton as catalyst?: The role of shifting fertilizer in Mali's Silent Maize revolution. Human Ecology 42:857–872.Google Scholar
Morris, M., Binswanger-Mkhize, H. P. and Byerlee, D. (2009). Awakening Africa's Sleeping Giant: Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Moseley, W. G. (2017). One step forward, two steps back in farmer knowledge exchange: “Scaling-Up” as fordist replication in drag. In Whose Agronomy Counts? The Politics of Knowledge in Development-oriented Agricultural Research, 79–90 (Eds Sumberg, J.). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Netting, R. M., Stone, M. P. and Stone, G. D. (1989). Kofyar cash-cropping: Choice and change in Indigenous agricultural development. Human Ecology 17 (3):299–319.Google Scholar
Ojiem, J. O., De Ridder, N., Vanaluwe, B. and Giller, K. E. (2006). Socio-ecological niche: A conceptual framework for integration of legumes in smallholder farming systems. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 4 (1): 79–93.Google Scholar
Ollenburger, M. H., Descheemaeker, K., Crane, T. A., Sanogo, O. M. and Giller, K. E. (2016). Waking the sleeping giant: Agricultural intensification, extensification or stagnation in Mali's Guinea Savannah. Agricultural Systems 148:58–70.Google Scholar
Pretty, J., Toulmin, C. and Williams, S. (2011). Sustainable intensification in African agriculture. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 9 (1):5–24.Google Scholar
Rietveld, A. (2009). Livelihood Strategies in a Globalizing World. Wageningen, The Netherlands: Wageningen UR.Google Scholar
Sanchez, P. A., Denning, G. L. and Nziguheba, G. (2009). The African green revolution moves forward. Food Security 1 (1):37–44.Google Scholar
Serra, R. (2014). Cotton sector reform in Mali: Explaining the puzzles. The Journal of Modern African Studies 52 (3):379–402.Google Scholar
Simoes, A., Landry, D., Hidalgo, C. and Teng, M. (2015). Observatory of economic complexity: Mali. Available at: http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/mli/ [Accessed September 5, 2016].Google Scholar
Sumberg, J. (2005). Constraints to the adoption of agricultural innovations: Is it time for a re-think? Outlook on Agriculture 34 (1):7–10.Google Scholar
Sumberg, J., Thompson, J. and Woodhouse, P. (2013). Why agronomy in the developing world has become contentious. Agriculture and Human Values 30 (1):71–83.Google Scholar
Tilman, D., Balzer, C., Hill, J. and Befort, B. L. (2011). Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108 (50):20260–202604.Google Scholar
Tittonell, P. and Giller, K. E. (2013). When yield gaps are poverty traps: The paradigm of ecological intensification in African smallholder agriculture. Field Crops Research 143:76–90.Google Scholar
Toenniessen, G., Adesina, A. and DeVries, J. (2008). Building an alliance for a green revolution in Africa. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1136:233–242.Google Scholar
United States Agency for International Development (USAID). (2011). Feed the Future: West Africa FY 2011–2015 Multi-Year Strategy. Washington, DC: USAID.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. T. (1986). Livestock Production in Central Mali: Long-Term Studies on Cattle and Small Ruminants in the Agropastoral System. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: International Livestock Centre for Africa.Google Scholar