Increasing agricultural productivity through Evergreen Agriculture: Key advances in farming systems in Eastern and Southern Africa

1. Creating an EverGreen Agriculture
in Africa
Recent advances & Future opportunities
Dennis Garrity
Distinguished Board Research Fellow
World Agroforestry Centre
Drylands Ambassador, UN Convention to Combat Desertification
U

2. Faidherbia albida is commonly found in cereal crop
systems in Ethiopia

3. December 2011: Ethiopian Prime Minister announces
national programme to establish 100 million
Faidherbia trees in farmers’ fields

5. Ngitili: Community-Based Regeneration of agroforestry
now cover about 500,000 ha in 934 villages

6. Major rivers
Major farming systems in
Major Lakes Subsaharan Africa
National Boundaries
Regional Programme
Countries
#
Major Farming Systems
1. Irrigation
2. Tree crop
3. Forest based
Uganda
4. Rice-tree crop Kenya
Rwanda
5. Highland perennial
6. Highland temperate mixed Tanzania
Malawi
7. Root crops
8. Cereal-root crops mixed
e
iqu
Zambia
9. Maize mixed
mb
za
Mo
11. Agro-pastoral millet/sorghum Zimbabwe
10. Large commercial and smallholder
12. Pastoral N
13. Sparse (arid)
900 0 900 Kilometers
14. Coastal artisanal fishing

7. Kenyan Farmlands: Bold policy to achieve
>10% tree cover on farms through a
National Agroforestry Programme

8. Types of Agroforestry
• Agroforests: combinations of perennial
species on arable land
• Home gardens with perennials
• Woodlots or farm forests
• Trees on field and farm boundaries
• Sylvopastoral systems: Trees in pastures
• EverGreen Agriculture: Trees
intercropped with field crops
• Productive landscape systems

9. What is EverGreen Agriculture?
A form of more intensive farming that
integrates trees with annual crops.
EverGreen farming systems are often
‘double- story’ systems that feature
both perennial and annual species (food
crops and trees).

10. Types of EverGreen Agriculture
1. Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration
(FMNR) on cropland
3. Conservation agriculture with trees
(CAWT)
3. Conventional agriculture interplanted
with trees

11. National recommendations for maize in Malawi & Zambia:
Faidherbia Fertilizer Trees at 100 trees per ha

12. Central Zambia
2009 Trials

13. Faidherbia Trial Results in Zambia
Maize yield - zero fertiliser
2008 2009 2010
----- Tons/ha -------
With Faidherbia 4.1 5.1 5.6
Without Faidherbia 1.3 2.6 2.6
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Number of trials 15 40 40

14. Small-scale Conservation Farming with Faidherbia
in Zambia

15. Typical onfarm nursery of 125 air-pruned seedlings

18. Long-term maize yield without fertilizer
in a Gliricidia system
P addition
resumed
Flood Drought Drought
P stopped

19. Malawi National Agroforestry Food Security
Programme

20. Impact of fertilizer trees on maize yield
under farmer management
_______________________________________
Plot management Yield (t/ha)
Maize only 1.30
Maize + fertilizer trees 3.05
____________________________________________________________
2011 Survey of farms in six districts (Mzimba,
Lilongwe, Mulanje, Salima, Thyolo and Machinga)

21. Classes of Trees
in EverGreen Agriculture
• Trees providing direct cash or nutritional
benefits
For example:
Timber - Grevillea,
Oil – Shea
Fruits – Uapaca
• Trees providing indirect benefits
For example:
Fertilizer trees – Faidherbia, Gliricidia
Fodder trees -- Caliandra

22. 16 Countries are engaged in EverGreen Agriculture
Farmer Managed Natural
Regeneration
Conservation Agriculture with trees
Trees interplanted in conventional
tilled cropland
Farmer Managed Natural
Regeneration +
Trees interplanted in conventional
tilled cropland

23. EverGreen Agriculture: Opportunities
• Policy, Technical, and Scaling-up Support to
Countries and Communities of Nations that are
implementing or launching evergreen agriculture
scaling-up programmes
2. Support mainstreaming of evergreen
agriculture into the community of UN
Organizations and Development Banks,
building support for greater impact
UNCCD, IFAD, World Bank, GEF, FAO, UNEP
World Food Program

24. Indian Evergreen Agriculture Programme
being launched by the Prime Minister and
Prof M S Swaminathan

25. Evergreen Agriculture: Opportunities
• Support mainstreaming of evergreen
agriculture into regional and
subregional organizations
NEPAD/CAADP/Africa Union
ASARECA and CORAF/WECARD
COMESA and ECOWAS
Horn of Africa Drylands Programme

27. EverGreen Agriculture: Opportunities
4. Help build partnerships with International
NGOs and strengthen their technical
capacity to achieve CRP impacts
World Vision
OxFam
CARE
Concern Worldwide
5. Support scientific communities and
exchanges to help build research
partnerships to tackle key issues and
overcome barriers to scaling-up

28. Take home messages
• A fresh low-cost approach to land
regeneration and food security has taken root in
Africa, and is spreading across the continent.
• Millions of smallholders are adopting effective
low cost land regeneration methods
• Poor households should be targeted over
large areas to end hunger in Africa
• Many nations are implementing or launching
national scaling-up programmes
• An EverGreen Agriculture Network could
accelerate the process of widespread adoption

29. For More Information
World Agroforestry Centre
www.worldagroforestry.org
Evergreen Agriculture page
www.evergreenagriculture.net