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Africa is showing great promise, home to seven of the world’s fastest growing economies, with foreign domestic investment tripling in the last decade. But the continent is still haunted by unacceptably high rates of hunger and malnutrition that are hindering development processes. When we factor in that Africa’s millions of smallholder farmers, most of them women, are trying to grow their crops on famished soil, we may well be getting to the root of the problem.
It is estimated that 65 percent of Africa’s agricultural land is degraded, and that land degradation is costing sub-Saharan Africa approximately $68bn per year. Halting and reversing this will be fundamental to fostering Africa’s economic growth. We know that growth from agriculture is up to eleven times more effective at reducing poverty than growth in any other sector in Africa. Investing in restoring, conserving and enhancing Africa’s soils will certainly have a knock on effect on the overall development of the region through sustainable productivity increases.
With some 60 percent of the world’s unused agricultural land in Africa, the world and Africa stand to gain from investments to restore, conserve and enhance the fertility of Africa’s soils. That is why the Montpellier Panel is launching a new report this week that outlines concrete recommendations for donors and governments on what needs to be done to improve Africa’s soils.
This new report shows that the uptake of appropriate land management practices that would lead to healthier soils in Africa remains low. Too often, the choice is made to forego better practices in favour of more affordable, less labour intensive or alternative uses of resources. Traditional approaches to restoring and conserving soil health have been steadily abandoned by smallholder farmers as population increases have shortened or eliminated fallow systems, climate change takes hold on weather and rainfall patterns, and farm labour remains in short supply. Yet more modern approaches – involving herbicides, improved seeds and synthetic fertilizers for example – remain prohibitively expensive and unavailable in remote areas, leaving African soils in limbo.
Farmers must be equipped with the tools they need to adopt an integrated approach that combines traditional approaches such as water harvesting, erosion control, intercropping and the use of organic fertilizers with the appropriate use of necessary inputs like mineral fertilisers. Donors and governments must focus on investing in the training farmers need, as well as making the inputs they need more readily available and affordable.
The Soil Health Programme run by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been working towards these goals since 2009. AGRA has trained almost two million farmers in 13 countries in “Integrated Soil Fertility Management” (ISFM) and has reached out to another 3.5 million farmers through radio and other communication channels to promote for ISFM practices, such as fertiliser micro-dosing combined with the use of improved seed. In Tanzania, Malawi and Ghana, farmers participating in AGRA’s soil health initiatives are doubling and even tripling yields of maize, sorghum, pigeon pea and soybean.
Currently, donor and government strategies do not pay sufficient attention to land restoration and management. Where commitments have been made by donors to combat degradation of Africa’s soils, these are not aligned with investment plans already put in place by African governments in their Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Compacts, nor are these commitments easily quantified, monitored or evaluated.
Recommendations for action outlined in the report also advocate creating incentives for Africa’s smallholder farmers to invest in their land. Here, secure land rights through titling would be an important tool. This would encourage farmers to make long term investment decisions to enhance the fertility of their soils.
Encouraging political leaders to commit to a Zero Net Land Degradation target for halting land degradation will also be key. The Sustainable Development Goals – which will succeed to Millenium Development Goals as a framework for guiding global development policy in 2015 – are currently being formed. These debates present an ideal opportunity to bring the issue of land degradation to the fore at a high level.
Bridging gaps in data available on African soils through the use of advanced remote sensing systems, dense networks of local weather information and “citizens’ science” networks is critical. Soil mapping schemes are already underway in Ethiopia – such initiatives must be supported and replicated across the continent.
To similar effect, a new generation of African soil scientists must be nurtured so that they will have the capacity to carry out this continued analysis and implement soil health restoration programmes. Africa’s soils are as varied as the farmers who work them. Appropriate solutions for each region will only be found when local scientists and farmers work together.
Africa cannot afford to leave its land in limbo. A vibrant, agriculture-driven rural economy is the continent’s most promising exit route from poverty. This cannot be achieved with degraded soils.
Namanga Ngongi is a member of the Montpellier Panel and former president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.