Recently, I watched the documentary Kiss The Ground and subsequently organised a discussion with Executive Producer John Roulac and the Co-Founder of Soil4Climate Seth Itzkan. We focused on regenerative agriculture and the pressing threat desertification has on our climate and food supply. This discussion influenced the contents of today's post.
Today we will discuss agroforestry in Ghana and Ethiopia. We have discussed the challenges these countries are facing - famine, locust swarms and food and water insecurity. This led me to ask whether there are any sustainable methods viable to reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture and also improve Africa’s food security. So, now we are going to look at sustainable alternatives and the potential future for the nations.
Agroforestry could alleviate challenges that the current agricultural industry is facing.
What is agroforestry?
Agroforestry is defined as “agriculture with trees” by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Based on indigenous practises, agroforestry is a sustainable agricultural system holding the ability to solve the challenges faced by modern farming practises. Such challenges include desertification whereby by 2050 an estimated 1 billion people will be refugees of soil desertification alone. Moreover, agroforestry bears the potential to increase production in ways that are resilient to future environmental change.
Figure 1 demonstrates the advantages of agroforestry systems comparatively to conventional agriculture. The figure evidences the positive impact of agroforestry systems comparatively to conventional agriculture, with the majority of the arrows pointing away from the centre. Locally, agroforestry systems enrich soils and prevent soil erosion amongst offering many other ecosystem services. Globally, it has been labelled a greenhouse gas mitigation strategy in the Kyoto Protocol, and also improves biodiversity. Importantly, agroforestry systems can potentially reduce the risk of droughts by improving water security. They reduce the rate of evaporation and subsequently reduce the need for irrigation. More than this, such systems have proven to increase yields, in some cases by over 100%.
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| Figure 1: The impacts of Agroforestry (blue arrows) and conventional agriculture (red arrows) for intensive farmers, global society and smallholders. |
Ghana
It is estimated that Ghana has lost 80-95% of its forests since 1955, resulting in unpredictable weather patterns and rainfall loss. For Ghana, and other nations leading in cocoa production, agroforestry can help increase rainfall and restore some tree cover. In this context, agroforestry, refers to the plantation and management of companion trees with cocoa to strengthen and sustain cocoa productivity (Figure 2). There are large numbers of benefits to this technique, including improvement of soil health, household food security, reduction in pest outbreaks and diversifying farmer income.
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| Figure 2: An example of an agroforestry system in Ghana, in this case the system is a cocoa monoculture. |
There is current discourse within the cocoa industry surrounding the perspective agroforestry in cocoa stems from. Many argue that the burden for environmental restoration should not be left with subsistence farmers alone, and should be taken from a wider external standpoint. Thus, for some, present efforts by the cocoa sector in promoting agroforestry are insufficient and risk being unsuccessful.
Ethiopia: The Great Green Wall (GGW)
The GGW is 8000km of trees along the Sahara, from Senegal to the Horn of Africa. It represents a holistic project that promotes sustainable farming practices across the African drylands belt. It would not have occurred without an impressive number of donors, including the FAO and WB. I strongly recommend watching this video to gain an understanding of the project and how GGW has been a success for Senegal.
For Ethiopia the GGW extends from Sudan to Djibouti, covering 58 woredas (districts) across 3 national regional states. The initiative, like in Senegal, has also experienced a wealth of benefits. Including:
- 96,774 ha of restored land.
- 893,706 ha watershed management and forest.
- 62,759 people trained on food and energy security and maintenance of biodiversity.
- 218,405 jobs created.
A key objective for Ethiopian agroforestry alongside land restoration, is to ensure rural communities have access to a water supply all year round for drinking and small-scale irrigation practices. Therefore there are activities in place such as introducing solar-powered water pumps for small scale irrigation and the management of degraded lands around water sources.
For Ethiopia the GGW is aligned with national development and land restoration priorities, contributing to the nation's success so far.
Overall
Africa has over 1550 million hectares of land that could be used for agroforestry, meaning the continent has the capacity to expand its current systems.
The examples of Ghana and Ethiopia evidence that agroforestry systems require minimal external inputs and are a cost-efficient approach for both smallholder and subsistence farmers across Africa. For me, agroforestry systems provide a low-cost transition to a sustainable agriculture system that encompasses multiple sustainable development goals
You have taken up yet another complex task, agroforesty, food insecurity, climate change and water in Africa. I can appreciate the challenge of piecing this together in a blog and you have done a good job presenting the detials. The case study of Ghana is good but the conversation was based mainly on cocoa production, and was wondering what is the implicaiton of agroforestry from stable crops like maize and rice production as cocoa is a cash crop produced mainly for export (but i could be wrong about this). In the case study of Ethiopia there were less details about Ethiopia specifically, and would like to learn more. In general, your posts have been well presented with good engagement with literature and interesting ideas.
ReplyDelete
DeleteHi Clement, thank you for your comment. I made the decision to focus on cocoa due to the growth of the crop being a primary interest of mine and finding the implication of agroforestry in the cocoa industry particularly fascinating. Agroforestry also has a large impact on staple crops. In Ghana, agroforestry has significantly improved. Maize grain yields, and subsequently has improved food security amongst local communities.
In the case of Ethiopia, agroforestry systems are used particularly by subsistence farmers. In a nation where the majority of the rural poor depend on subsistence agriculture this is significant. It is interesting that these small-scale projects are often run without government support. Whilst there are successful small and medium scale projects throughout the nation that have agroforestry can restore degraded lands and improve food security in Southern Ethiopia, Tigray, Oromia and Amhara, among other parts of Ethiopia, there is still a long way to go before the nation sees the true benefits of large-scale, government supported agroforestry systems. I recommend that the government must scale up such systems across the country.
Another interesting post! As you say, it seems agroforestry could offer real potential in raising yields and agricultural productivity moving forwards.
ReplyDeleteI see you mention that agroforestry could also enable the transition to a sustainable agriculture system that addresses multiple SDGs. Do you know which ones in particular it would best address?
Thank you again for commenting!
DeleteI will outline how sustainable agroforestry systems address multiple of the sustainable development goals.
- SDG 1: No poverty and SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Dependence on one crop can cause greater vulnerability and risk for food shortages if the crop fails. In particular for smallholder farmers who usually lack insurance and alternative sources of income. Instead, agroforestry allows for people to have multiple crops and diverse income sources when combining crops, trees and livestock.
- SDG 5: Gender Equality. In agroforestry where gender equality is considered, gender inequality can be reduced and positively affect women's empowerment, participation and rights to economic and natural resources. Agroforestry can also give women a central role in food production meaning they are less likely to spend time looking for firewood and so can be more engaged with income-associated activities.
- SDG 13: Climate Action. Agroforestry contributes to climate adaptation and mitigation. For example, agroforestry systems store carbon in trees and soil, give shade for crops, animals and also humans, which can improve the microclimate and cool the air.
- SDG 15: Life on Land. Agroforestry can help increase the biodiversity in farming landscapes, and contribute to important habitats for plant and animal species, such as for pollinating bees. Agroforestry can also contribute to creating ”ecological corridors”, where species can spread in the landscape, which is crucial for their survival.
Alongside the main SDGs outlined above agroforestry systems also address: SDG 3: Good health and well-being; SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation; SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy; SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth; and SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production. Overall, my research allows me to believe that agroforestry as a land use system can contribute to achieving at least nine out of the17 sustainable development goals.