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Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

African Agriculture and the Environment

Leopard in a Cornfield III Leopard in a Cornfield III, by Nigerian artist Bruce Onobrakpeya.

“Most of the trees have been cut down. They have been cut down due to the people growing tobacco. Most of the hills are bare and the soil is eroded, just washed away. So farmers are not able to grow enough food for themselves, unless they get fertiliser. We are trying to address these problems through the community. We are advising that if you cut down one tree, please plant another in place of that. Wild things grow slowly. When we cut down the trees, we make the land bare.”
Mrs. Dinnah Kapiza, farmer and agro-dealer, Mponela, Malawi, 2007

Small-scale farmers across Africa face a bitter reality: successful farming depends on a healthy environment—rich soils, adequate water, biodiversity on and off the farm—but much of that environment is already degraded. Therefore, farmers have the challenging but essential job of raising farm productivity while also protecting and enhancing the environment. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is committed to helping Africa’s small-scale farmers reach this goal.

As stated in the Action Plan of the Environment Initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD, June 2003), “Throughout Africa, poverty remains the main cause and consequence of environmental degradation and resource depletion...” Therefore, Africa’s small-scale farmers need sustainable farming practices that increase productivity and conserve natural resources.

AGRA believes that pro-poor and pro-environment agricultural development requires:

  • Conserving African crop biodiversity, and using that diversity to develop resilient new crop varieties that are high-yielding, stress tolerant and naturally resistant to pests and diseases;
  • Providing Africa’s small-scale farmers with access to a balance of organic and mineral fertilisers to restore soil health and increase farm yield;
  • Farm management techniques that integrate livestock and crops to the benefit of the environment;
  • Low-cost water management systems that make efficient use of available water, getting “more crop for each drop”;
  • Providing small-scale farmers with knowledge of safe and environmentally sound use of farm inputs that will protect human health and restore soil health;
  • Monitoring and evaluation of new farming practices, using environmental sustainability as a benchmark of success;
  • Evaluating results for small-scale farm households and families;
  • Helping small-scale farmers gain access to markets.

Taken together, these efforts will ease the pressure to clear more land for cultivation, thus saving forests and savannahs from destruction and protecting wildlife habitats. Today, too often, resource-poor farmers end up farming the same land continuously, until the soil is mined of the nutrients that plants need to grow. Such soil nutrient mining causes erosion, and massive sediment runoff from agriculture is now clogging waterways, from streams to lakes and coastal estuaries. Soil nutrient mining also leads to the clearing of yet more land for cultivation. This contributes to desertification and a rate of deforestation in Africa that is 200% of the global average. That is not a sustainable way to produce food.

The great diversity of African environments and agriculture highlights the need for African agricultural expertise—expertise that can help Africa’s farmers ensure that advances in production are sustainable over the long-term. Therefore, AGRA is committed to strengthening Africa’s agricultural research, education, and farmer training services.

And, AGRA will establish teams of African experts who will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of AGRA efforts, including through tracking environmental impacts. Such monitoring can help detect and prevent any unintended consequences that can occur as farmers adopt new tools and techniques. For instance, over- or mis-use of fertilisers can lead to nutrient run-off that pollutes water; and over-irrigation can lead to groundwater depletion. But this need not happen.

Working closely together, African agricultural experts and small-scale farmers can rely on each other’s knowledge to develop and implement ecologically sound farming techniques matched to the diversity of Africa’s soils, crops, rainfall patterns and cropping systems.

Looking toward the future, whenever farmers restore a patch of depleted land or increase harvests using sustainable farming practices, they will at once improve their own incomes and relieve pressure on the environment. Ending poverty, revitalising small-scale farming, and protecting the environment go hand-in-hand.