Key Areas of Investment Needed to Support the Upscaling of EverGreen Agriculture

1. Crop yield enhancement and integrated soil fertility management

Published data on the degree of crop yield enhancement in evergreen agriculture systems needs to be strengthened. Data collection with uniform methodology across a range of subhumidto semiarid farming systems. Optimal design of tree-crop systems

2. Analysis of integrated soil fertility management systems combining tree biomass production with inorganic fertilizers is needed on both nonresponsive (low soil organic matter) and responsive soils.

3. Impacts on food security and livelihodsat the household and national level

• Recent study on the economic impact at the household level of farmer-managed natural regeneration across five Sahelian countries, including food security, income, and drought resilience benefits.

• Modeling needed on the aggregate impacts on national food security in the Sahel.

4. Mapping and monitoring the current practice of EverGreen Agriculture and targeting up-scaling

The USGS has published maps of the spread of FMNR on over 5.5 m ha in Niger and Mali. Evergreen agriculture systems may cover at least an additional 5-10 m ha in the Sahel and Guinea savanna ecozones. Need to map the extent of tree cover and density in the drylands to provide a basis for well-targeted national scaling-up programs in which the spread of the technology can be monitored rigorously.

5. Climate buffering for resilience

• More research is needed on the degree to which tree species, density, age, and management practices, such as pruning intensity, affect the ability of these systems to buffer the microclimate (temperatures, moisture) for cereal crops grown in association.

• New datasets need be generated on the implications of adopting evergreen agriculture in building smallholder farmer and agro-ecosystems capacity to adapt to climate change and variability.

6. More effective methods of scaling-up and out• The spread of evergreen agriculture has occurred on

a wide scale in some countries, particularly in Niger and Mali, through farmer-to-farmer and village-to-village diffusion, supported to some extent by NGO and project efforts.

• As many more countries engage in the upscalingprocess there is need to test and adapt a range of integrated extension and upscaling approaches, and evaluate their performance.

7. Tree germplasm and tree seed and seedling systems for enriching FMNR

8. Building a Monitoring & Evaluation Framework

• Development of a rigorous monitoring and evaluation framework for evergreen agriculture is needed in order to provide feedback to the development community, and to the research community on critical issues and questions that need further investigation.

8. Experimental designs for tree-crop interactions

• Designing sound experiments to address methodological difficulties of assessing the parkland effect

• Accelerating modeling of processes.

9. Participatory shrub-intercropped observatory across the Sahel

• Monitor responses to optimized shrub-crop systems

10. Groundwater hydrology and tree-crop interactions

• Practical significance and benefits of hydrologic lift need to be quantified.

• Potential for designing more resilient agricultural systems need to be explored.

11. Optimization and design of multifunctional landscapes and roles of trees in them