Agricultural intensification scenarios, household food availability and greenhouse gas emissions in Rwanda: Ex-ante impacts and trade-offs

Paul, Birthe K.; Frelat, Romain; Birnholz, Celine A.; Ebong, Cyprian; Gahigi, Aimable; Groot, J.C.J.; Herrero, Mario; Kagabo, Désiré M.; Notenbaert, An Maria Omer; Vanlauwe, Bernard; Wijk, Mark T. van

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2017.02.007

Cited by 62 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…When a sizable number of upgrades needs to occur concurrently, a system jump can be expected when reaching a certain threshold-or tipping point-of pressure to transform between alternative system states [61]. This study illustrates this for two scale levels: (1) semi-subsistence clusters transforming to more commercial intensive systems (dairy or horticulture) mentioned above; and (2) households shifting their milk supply from traders to wholesale chains.…”

Section: Positive and Negative Co-dependencies In Relation To System mentioning

confidence: 83%

Intensification and Upgrading Dynamics in Emerging Dairy Clusters in the East African Highlands

et al. 2018

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Based on farmer and value chain actor interviews, this comparative study of five emerging dairy clusters elaborates on the upgrading of farming systems, value chains, and context shapes transformations from semi-subsistent to market-oriented dairy farming. The main results show unequal cluster upgrading along two intensification dimensions: dairy feeding system and cash cropping. Intensive dairy is competing with other high-value cash crop options that resource-endowed farmers specialize in, given conducive support service arrangements and context conditions. A large number of drivers and co-dependencies between technical, value chain, and institutional upgrading build up to system jumps. Transformation may take decades when market and context conditions remain sub-optimal. Clusters can be expected to move further along initial intensification pathways, unless actors consciously redirect course. The main theoretical implications for debate about cluster upgrading are that co-dependencies between farming system, market, and context factors determine upgrading outcomes; the implications for the debate about intensification pathways are that they need to consider differences in farmer resource endowments, path dependency, concurrency, and upgrading investments. Sustainability issues for consideration include enabling a larger proportion of resource-poor farmers to participate in markets; enabling private input and service provision models; attention for food safety; and climate smartness.

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Section: Positive and Negative Co-dependencies In Relation To System mentioning

confidence: 83%

Intensification and Upgrading Dynamics in Emerging Dairy Clusters in the East African Highlands

et al. 2018

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“…Scenario work is widespread for developed countries (Bizikova et al, 2015) but remains rare in sub-Saharan Africa, with scarce quantitative information on likely changes in income and food self-sufficiency. Furthermore, beyond future changes in representative farms or farm types, only few studies assess changes in entire diverse farm populations Paul et al, 2017;Ritzema et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural intensification and policy interventions: Exploring plausible futures for smallholder farmers in Southern Mali

et al. 2018

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A B S T R A C TAssessing how livelihoods in rural sub-Saharan Africa might change given future trends in socio-economic and biophysical conditions helps to identify and direct effective efforts towards poverty reduction. Based on existing literature, hypothetical changes in farmer practices and policy interventions were described and used to build five contrasting scenarios towards the year 2027. A simulation framework was developed to assess food selfsufficiency and income per capita now and in the future for a representative village of 99 households in Southern Mali. In the current situation, 26% of the farms were food self-sufficient and above the 1.9 US$ day −1 poverty line. This percentage would fall to 13% in the "Business as usual" scenario. In the "Dairy development" scenario, with intensification of livestock production and support to the milk sector, 27% of farms would be food selfsufficient and non-poor. Additional policy interventions targeting family planning and job creation outside agriculture would be needed to improve both household food self-sufficiency and income per capita. In this optimistic scenario, 77% of the farms would be non-poor and food self-sufficient in 2027. Additional programs to promote Integrated Pest Management, small-scale mechanization and mineral fertilizer on traditional cereals could allow a drastic increase in productivity and would lift 94% of the farm population out of poverty. Considering the entire heterogeneous farm population was crucial to accurately assess pathways out of poverty. Our study stresses the need for a strategic and multi-sectoral combination of interventions to improve livelihoods.http://dx.

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“…The area under agricultural production has been increasing over time at the expense of pastures, natural forests, and fallows. The environment is consequently being affected by various forms of land degradation, soil erosion, reduction of organic matter, loss of soil nutrients, soil acidification, and loss of biodiversity mainly due to agricultural expansion [27,28].…”

Section: Agroforestry Systems In Rwandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Tree-Based Ecosystem Approaches (TBEAs) as Multi-Functional Land Management Strategies—Evidence from Rwanda

et al. 2018

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Densely populated rural areas in the East African Highlands have faced significant intensification challenges under extreme population pressure on their land and ecosystems. Sustainable agricultural intensification, in the context of increasing cropping intensities, is a prerequisite for deliberate land management strategies that deliver multiple ecosystem goods (food, energy, income sources, etc.) and services (especially improving soil conditions) on the same land, as well as system resilience, if adopted at scale. Tree based ecosystem approaches (TBEAs) are among such multi-functional land management strategies. Knowledge on the multi-functionality of TBEAs and on their scaling up, however, remains severely limited due to several methodological challenges. This study aims at offering an analytical perspective to view multi-functional TBEAs as an integral part of sustainable agricultural intensification. The study proposes a conceptual framework to guide the analysis of socio-economic data and applies it to cross-site analysis of TBEAs in extremely densely populated Rwanda. Heterogeneous TBEAs were identified across Rwanda's different agro-ecological zones to meet locally-specific smallholders' needs for a set of ecosystem goods and services on the same land. The sustained adoption of TBEAs would be guaranteed if farmers subjectively recognize their compatibility and synergy with sustainable intensification of existing farming systems, supported by favorable institutional conditions.

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Agricultural intensification scenarios, household food availability and greenhouse gas emissions in Rwanda: Ex-ante impacts and trade-offs

Cited by 62 publications

References 26 publications

Intensification and Upgrading Dynamics in Emerging Dairy Clusters in the East African Highlands

Intensification and Upgrading Dynamics in Emerging Dairy Clusters in the East African Highlands

Agricultural intensification and policy interventions: Exploring plausible futures for smallholder farmers in Southern Mali

Tree-Based Ecosystem Approaches (TBEAs) as Multi-Functional Land Management Strategies—Evidence from Rwanda

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