Platform for African – European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development

Friday, September 24, 2021

WEBINAR: Can organic agriculture improve yields and incomes for smallholder farmers in Africa?

24 September 2021. Can organic agriculture improve yields and incomes for smallholder farmers in Africa?

Organic agriculture has the potential to improve both crop yields and incomes of smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa substantially – this is shown in a unique collaborative study from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and its partners that has just been published in the renowned journal Global Environmental Change. This study further demonstrates that in real smallholder farm setting, the potential mentioned is difficult to exploit fully and requires sound implementation. 

  • The now published study delivers new scientific evidence on the potential of organic agriculture and assesses different kinds of organic agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in different real farm settings. 
  • It has enough sample size (1645 farms), detailed data over a two-year time horizon and a scientifically sound comparison with a comparable conventional control group. 
  • This study clearly showed how different forms of organic agriculture performed in different real farm settings in SSA and to what extent they can contribute to sustainable development
  • In conclusion, organic agriculture has the potential to substantially boost productivity and farm incomes while contributing to sustainable development in Africa if implemented well. 
  • But organic agriculture is certainly not a silver bullet for solving food insecurity issues in SSA. In particular, the implementation of organic agriculture in smallholder settings is complex and might fail if farmers don’t have the capacities to implement good organic management practices like crop rotations, compost making, mixed cropping systems. 
  • This study revealed the many different forms of organic agriculture practices in sub Sahara Africa and will help to develop policies and targeted support for sustainable agriculture and food security in SSA.
Speakers:
  • David Bautze. Department of International Cooperation FiBL
  • Christian Schader FiBL Head Sustainability Assessment · Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau (FiBL)
  • David Amudavi, Director of Biovision Africa Trust (BvAT)
  • Gabor Figecsky, IFOAM Organics International

Resources:

No comments:

Post a Comment