Agriculture is the largest productive sector in Africa employing between
70 and 90 per cent of the total labour force, and supplying up to 50 per cent of household food requirements and household incomes. The general increase in the sector’s output since 2000 is
attributed to an increase in arable agricultural space. Despite this fact, Africa remains the worst-performing continent in achieving food security for its people, with the region suffering the highest prevalence rate of severe food insecurity in the world between 2014 and 2015. During that period, the
Food Insecurity Experience Scale reports adverse effects on 26 per cent of Africans aged above 15 years, representing 153 million people.
Climate change is already hindering people from feeding themselves. Globally, the climate-related economic losses stemming from decreased crop and livestock production exceeded
US $80 billion over the period between 2003 and 2013, and more so in sub-Saharan Africa, where 95 per cent of overall crop production is rainfed. According to Aga Khan University Vice Provost
Dr. Alex Awiti, the last 30-60 years have shown frequent and extreme precipitation changes over eastern, southern and western Africa, thus proving that “climate change is inevitable and will amplify existing stress on water and food systems, especially in semi-arid areas.”
The
International Food Policy Research Institute indicates that global food production will need to grow by 80 per cent by 2050 in order to meet demand. The plea to build resilience into agricultural systems is thereby crucial to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on agricultural production.
Over the years, significant investments in research and innovation have led to the development and testing of a wide range of agricultural technologies and innovations that could potentially achieve the region’s food security goal if widely adopted across key food value chains. These include stress-tolerant crops, use of apps and drones, solar-powered irrigation, and soil health management. Such innovations allow for low carbon and climate resilient food production in the region’s farming systems.
Unfortunately, existing efforts have been unable to effectively scale-up these technologies, innovations and best practices beyond their localized pilot levels. According to the
World Bank, effective scaling-up would entail expanding, adapting, and sustaining successful policies, programmes and projects in different locations and over time to reach a greater number of people. Among the
reasons for failed scale-up include lack of participation by users in technology development and decision-making, and precarious policies and legislation such as those on land tenure and intellectual property ownership. Consequently, this has led to insufficient food production and high commodity prices across Africa.
Unsustainable land management practices together with climate change have resulted in increased poverty and negative impacts on food security. On the other hand, sustainable land management practices present a low-hanging fruit antidote with potential to increase average productivity, consequently reducing seasonal fluctuations in yields, and underpinning diversified production and improved incomes. Through such practices, people can integrate coexistence with nature over the long-term and preserve land for both the present and the future.
In order to achieve climate resilient agriculture and food systems in Africa, the following potential strategies and modalities for scaling-up farming innovations and technologies are recommended.
Firstly, it is vital to identify scalable best practices, technologies and innovations and match them with given agricultural systems.
Secondly, it is important to have an enabling environment where effective scaling-up may take place. Complex and holistic in nature, these spaces ideally encompass financial mechanisms that stress domestic funding sources, capacity building for involved individuals and institutions, presence of relevant policies and implementation, and relevant markets and supporting institutions that are inclusive of gender and youth roles.
Thirdly, it is important to
foster strong stakeholder partnerships around innovation platforms. Local stakeholders who possess indigenous knowledge on local farming systems, and who are to benefit from the scaling-up, should be facilitated to interact with non-local stakeholders who are well informed on the role and impact of technology. Together, they may interact and learn from their diverse knowledge systems and create innovative, context-specific solutions that work for local agricultural systems.
Fourthly, embracing a learning culture through a strategic monitoring and evaluation framework is necessary for successful scaling-up. This involves evaluating the original pilot level to determine success factors, then evaluating the new site scaling-up process. Lessons learnt in the process would then be used to iteratively adapt strategy.
Lastly, leadership and process facilitation are critical in overseeing the scaling up process. Also referred to by some
scholars as an “innovation broker,” this could be an individual scale-up consultant or organization to guide the scaling-up of best practices and innovations. Roles could include mobilizing key stakeholders through the innovation platform, inter-level (local, national or international) coordination, as well as coordinating the decentralized scale-up governance framework with new groups in new locations as the scaling-up process advances.
It is imperative, therefore, that if food and nutritional security is to be achieved in sub-Saharan Africa, food planners and policymakers embrace the aforementioned gender-inclusive, climate-smart and systems-based approaches.
Dr. Evans Kituyi is the Director of the East Africa Institute at the Aga Khan University.