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Improving the
performance of farming
systems through
Agroecological
intensification (AIE)
Hamado Tapsoba, PhD Regional Representative for West Africa
The McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) funds collaborative research between smallholder farmers, leading local researchers, and development practitioners to explore solutions for sustainable, local food systems.
Helping smallholder farmers feed their world www.ccrp.org
The McKnight Foundation (www.mcknight.org) The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations. Through grantmaking, collaboration, and strategic policy reform, we use our resources to attend, unite, and empower those we serve.
Collaborative Crop Research Program
Vision & Mission of the CCRP
The CCRP works to ensure a world where all have access to nutritious food that is sustainably produced by local people.
We do this through collaborative agroecological systems research and knowledge-sharing that strengthen the capacities of smallholder farmers, research institutes, and development organizations.
Andes CoP - Bolivia - Ecuador - Peru
West Africa CoP - Burkina Faso - Mali - Niger
Eastern Africa CoP - Ethiopia - Kenya - Uganda
Southern Africa CoP - Malawi - Mozambique - Tanzania
www.ccrp.org
4 Communities of Practice (CoP) Twelve countries on two continents where poverty and food
insecurity have created “hunger hot spots.”
Agroecological intensification (AEI)
Improving the performance of agriculture through integration of ecological principles into farm and system
management
Depending on the context, improved performance = any combination the following:
o increased productivity
o enhanced use of local resources
o maximized returns from external inputs
o improved stability and/or diversity of diets with associated increases in resilience
o environmental service provision from farmed landscapes
Agroecological intensification (AEI)
Characteristics of AEI
• Uses local and global knowledge to improve efficiency and effectiveness of crop, tree, livestock, pest and disease, and soil management
• Enhances soil health and fertility, increases functional diversity, and reduces pre- and post-harvest losses
• Contributes to the development of local value chains and diverse and nutritious human diets
• Is flexible and responsive to local conditions, including farmers’ access to inputs and markets
• Is based on evolving understanding of biophysical, socio-economic, cultural, gender, and other contexts
• Reduces risk and increases productivity through enhanced resilience and adaptation
• Requires cross-sector, multilateral collaboration
• Component improvement
• Agroecological pest management
• Systems diversification
• Risk management
• Improving farm resource-use efficiency
• Social/technical innovation – Building human and social capital, and collective action
• Improving functionality of value chains
• Influencing policy
• Cross-cutting capacities
AEI levers
Option by Context interactions (OxC)
One size does not fit all!
Very high level of social and biophysical heterogeneity
Environments
People Heterogeneous Widely adapted
technologies => Rare
Need for local adaptation, innovation
G x E x M x S
Farmers group themselves • Objectives • Gender • Interests • Constraints – what is limiting? • Resources – what is available?
Land size? • Opportunities – market?
Social factors
Farmers group their farms • Soil types • Altitudes • Slope • Whatever they think is
important
Environmental factors
Form sub-sets of farmers with shared contexts factors
Context analysis groups of farms (or groups of groups)
Option by Context interactions (OxC)
Farmer Research Networks (FRNs)
FRN
Farmers and Farmers’ organizations: Influence the agenda; contribute a bit of data and get a lot more
Extension/NGOs: Looking to empower communities and deliver benefits
Researchers: Like farmers, need bigger data to effectively match options contexts
FRN structure
A social innovation
A type of multi-environment trial
A way of linking social and technical innovation processes
Farmer Research Networks (FRNs)
FRN
Social capital: Farmer organizations; innovative intermediaries skilled in facilitation
Technical capital: Viable options meet important problem/opportunity
Methodological capital: Multi-Environment Trials (MET), participatory methods, adult learning
Ingredients for an FRN
Farmer Research Networks (FRNs)
Principles
1. Situational Analysis
2. Mutual Benefit
3. Knowledge sharing and co-creation
4. Use research to discover hidden social and technical patterns.
5. Ongoing engagement
6. Inclusion and equity
7. Embedded scaling