Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern Africa

Dixon, Jami; Mulenga, Brian P.; Ngoma, Hambulo

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2014.09.005

Cited by 34 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…There is good reason for the resurgence of systems thinking within agriculture and food policy and research (Thompson and Scoones, 2009). In addressing the urgent need to build resilient, sustainable, and just food systems capable of feeding a growing population, a systems approach calls on us to think, for example, about the globally interlinked nature of local production, consumption, and waste (e.g., through markets and trade); the dependency and impacts of food provision on changing ecological and climatic systems and services; and the role and movement of knowledge, information, and values across nodes of decision making at a variety of scales (Darnhofer et al, 2012;Whitfield et al, 2015b). Some of these systems link the local to the global (e.g., where agriculture is considered as playing a key role in climate change mitigation), individuals to market forces and regulations, and current activities to future impacts.…”

Section: The Importance Of Systems Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontiers in Climate Smart Food Systems: Outlining the Research Space

Challinor

Rees

2018

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Food systems, from the local to the global, face a complex set of challenges in the twenty-first century. As recognized in the latest round of the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change talks, it is clear that global targets for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions cannot be met without major alterations to agriculture and supply chains. At the same time, these systems must adapt to changing and uncertain climatic conditions. Across national and international agendas, agriculture plays a further central role in achieving food security, driving economic growth, alleviating poverty, and sustaining ecological functions and services. In reality, food and agriculture intersect with every one of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), underlining growing global concern for, sometimes highly contested debate over, sustainability in food systems.It is in food systems, perhaps more than anywhere else, that we have the clearest illustrations of the contemporary realities of climate change. If evidence were needed that the challenges of a changing climate are not just those of the future, but of today, then, recent food price shocks, crop failures, and famine crises should suffice (FSIN, 2017). These events are not, of course, determined by weather alone, but are the manifestation of complex and cross-scale social, political, economic, and ecological processes, and should serve as a warning against simple and deterministic interpretations of contemporary food systems. Grappling with these complex issues is essential, if we are to understand how climate change contributes toward risks to the food system, thereby enabling targeted coordination of policies within and across governments.In this short paper, we briefly discuss the burgeoning approach of climate-smart agriculture, which seeks to integrate complex issues and set out a direction for change in contemporary systems. Only broad systemic perspectives, as advocated and advanced in this journal section, positions us (as a broad and diverse academic community) to engage with the grand challenges of providing healthy diets for a growing population, avoiding unsustainable land use change, and adapting to and mitigating climate change. The primary aim of this piece is, therefore, to set out our call for journal contributions from interdisciplinary, cross-scalar, and systemic approaches to the goal of designing climate-smart food systems. We argue here that these designs include and necessarily transcend climate-smart agriculture.

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Section: The Importance Of Systems Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontiers in Climate Smart Food Systems: Outlining the Research Space

Challinor

Rees

2018

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

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“…As rural households worldwide increasingly participate in urban economies and global economies amid urbanization and globalization, researchers in both land use and farming system research communities recognize an urgent need to examine individual farming systems within broader social, environmental, economic, and institutional contexts at multiple scales (Giller, 2013;Seto and Reenberg, 2014;Müller and Munroe, 2014;Whitfield et al, 2015;Tian et al, 2015). Because ABMs can represent the behavior of individual farming systems that have heterogeneous characteristics embedded within local social and environmental settings and broader development contexts, they are potentially useful for examining interconnections between urban and rural development and interactions between local and global contexts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and economic impacts of subsidy policies on rural development in the Poyang Lake Region, China: Insights from an agent-based model

Qing

Holland

Brown

2016

Agricultural Systems

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“…Maize is a staple food crop in many developing countries (Shiferaw et al, 2011; De Groote et al, 2013) and a major staple and cash crop for more than 300 million smallholder farmers in SSA (Mathenge et al, 2014). Although maize is widely adapted to a wide range of climatic conditions (Ureta et al, 2013), yields in SSA range from 1.1 to 1.7 Mg ha −1 (Smale et al, 2011) which is much lower than the global average of 4.5 Mg ha −1 (Khonje et al, 2015; Whitfield et al, 2015). These low yields are attributed to biotic and abiotic stresses (Vivek et al, 2010; Aylward et al, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

On‐farm Performance and Farmers’ Perceptions of DroughtTEGO‐Climate‐Smart Maize Hybrids in Kenya

et al. 2019

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Maize (Zea mays L.) productivity in the sub‐Saharan Africa is constrained by biotic and abiotic stresses that reduce yield. In the region, one of the most serious abiotic factor is frequent intermittent droughts, which has been attributed to climate change. The purpose of this paper was to use on‐farm demonstration studies and farmer field days to demonstrate new drought mitigation technology and provide information on how small farmers can reduce yield losses. A total of 4814 demonstration plots of 39 DroughtTEGO maize hybrids and 19 commercial check hybrids were established in 17 counties across the low‐to‐mid‐altitude maize‐growing agroecologies of Kenya between 2015 and 2017. A total of 246 field‐day workshops were conducted. Combined analyses across years and locations showed that top five DroughtTEGO hybrids increased maize yields 33 to 54% (5.5–6.3 Mg ha−1) relative to conventional hybrids. The highest yield advantage of DroughtTEGO hybrids over commercial checks was observed in the drier lower eastern region in Kenya. Farmers particularly women, preferred the DroughtTEGO hybrids because of the stay‐green character, whiteness of flour (milling quality), root lodging resistance, drought‐tolerance and shelling percentage. Results from this study suggested that smallholder farmers can reduce the impact of drought by seeding drought‐tolerant maize hybrids. Core Ideas High yields and farmer‐preferred traits determine adoption of new varieties. Conducting on‐farm demonstrations can overcome adoption barriers. Planting of drought‐tolerant hybrids mitigates drought stress for smallholder‐farmers.

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Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern Africa

Cited by 34 publications

References 23 publications

Frontiers in Climate Smart Food Systems: Outlining the Research Space

Frontiers in Climate Smart Food Systems: Outlining the Research Space

Social and economic impacts of subsidy policies on rural development in the Poyang Lake Region, China: Insights from an agent-based model

On‐farm Performance and Farmers’ Perceptions of DroughtTEGO‐Climate‐Smart Maize Hybrids in Kenya

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