Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution

Denning, Glenn; Kabambe, Patrick; Sánchez, Pedro A.; Malik, Alia; Flor, Rafael; Harawa, Rebbie; Nkhoma, Phelire; Zamba, Colleen; Banda, Clement; Magombo, Chrispin; Keating, Michael; Wangila, Justine; Sachs, Jeffrey D.

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000023

Cited by 417 publications

(287 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The Malawi government is exploring adding legume seed to the portfolio of subsidized inputs (8). There are, however, challenges to this strategy, as shown by our experimentation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Africa faces declining agricultural capacity just as anthropogenic-driven reductions in rainfall are enhancing risk (7). A hopeful exception is underway in Malawi where the first African green revolution has been hailed (8). To address chronic food insecurity in this impoverished population of 13 million, the government has subsidized N-fertilizer and improved maize seed (90% of cost), and enhanced access by over a million farmers annually since 2006.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Snapp

Blackie

Gilbert

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

301

194

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The Asian green revolution trebled grain yields through agrochemical intensification of monocultures. Associated environmental costs have subsequently emerged. A rapidly changing world necessitates sustainability principles be developed to reinvent these technologies and test them at scale. The need is particularly urgent in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields have stagnated. An unprecedented opportunity to reverse this trend is unfolding in Malawi, where a 90% subsidy has ensured access to fertilization and improved maize seed, with substantive gains in productivity for millions of farmers. To test if economic and ecological sustainability could be improved, we preformed manipulative experimentation with crop diversity in a countrywide trial (n = 991) and at adaptive, local scales through a decade of participatory research (n = 146). Spatial and temporal treatments compared monoculture maize with legume-diversified maize that included annual and semiperennial (SP) growth habits in temporal and spatial combinations, including rotation, SP rotation, intercrop, and SP intercrop systems. Modest fertilizer intensification doubled grain yield compared with monoculture maize. Biodiversity improved ecosystem function further: SP rotation systems at half-fertilizer rates produced equivalent quantities of grain, on a more stable basis (yield variability reduced from 22% to 13%) compared with monoculture. Across sites, profitability and farmer preference matched: SP rotations provided twofold superior returns, whereas diversification of maize with annual legumes provided more modest returns. In this study, we provide evidence that in Africa, crop diversification can be effective at a countrywide scale, and that shrubby, grain legumes can enhance environmental and food security.ecosystem services | nitrogen | rural development | sustainable agriculture

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“…The Malawi government is exploring adding legume seed to the portfolio of subsidized inputs (8). There are, however, challenges to this strategy, as shown by our experimentation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Snapp

Blackie

Gilbert

et al. 2010

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

301

194

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This resulted in a doubling of cereal yields in developing countries between 1960 and 1990 [6]. Fifty years on, and the benefits of this revolution appear to have peaked: the global population since the 1960s has more than doubled, fresh water shortages hinder large-scale irrigation, and further fertilizer application would be damaging in both crop yield and environmental terms (as well as being economically unfeasible in many third-world countries without considerable subsidies) [7]. The demand for biofuels (in such circumstances where the production of such fuels directly competes with arable land) can also reduce the area of arable land that can be dedicated to food production [8].…”

Section: Why Bother?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Root system architecture: insights fromArabidopsisand cereal crops

Smith

Smet

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

373

289

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Roots are important to plants for a wide variety of processes, including nutrient and water uptake, anchoring and mechanical support, storage functions, and as the major interface between the plant and various biotic and abiotic factors in the soil environment. Understanding the development and architecture of roots holds potential for the exploitation and manipulation of root characteristics to both increase food plant yield and optimize agricultural land use. This theme issue highlights the importance of investigating specific aspects of root architecture in both the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and (cereal) crops, presents novel insights into elements that are currently hardly addressed and provides new tools and technologies to study various aspects of root system architecture. This introduction gives a broad overview of the importance of the root system and provides a snapshot of the molecular control mechanisms associated with root branching and responses to the environment in A. thaliana and cereal crops.

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“…The country of Malawi introduced a national subsidy program in 2005, providing vouchers for one bag of urea and one bag of diammonium phosphate fertilizers-for one acre of land. Within a few years, there was dramatic increase in food production, primarily maize (Denning et al 2009). Although there is not yet conclusive evidence that this has led to decreased undernutrition in Malawi, a study of several sites in Africa showed increased food security and diet diversity three years after a fertilizer subsidy program was introduced (Remans et al 2011).…”

Section: Socio-economic Impediments To Adopting the 4rsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrients in the nexus

et al. 2016

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Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has enabled modern agriculture to greatly improve human nutrition during the twentieth century, but it has also created unintended human health and environmental pollution challenges for the twentyfirst century. Averaged globally, about half of the fertilizer-N applied to farms is removed with the crops, while the other half remains in the soil or is lost from farmers' fields, resulting in water and air pollution. As human population continues to grow and food security improves in the developing world, the dual development goals of producing more nutritious food with low pollution will require both technological and socioeconomic innovations in agriculture. Two case studies presented here, one in sub-Saharan Africa and the other in Midwestern United States, demonstrate how management of nutrients, water, and energy is inextricably linked in both small-scale and large-scale food production, and that science-based solutions to improve the efficiency of nutrient use can optimize food production while minimizing pollution. To achieve the needed large increases in nutrient use efficiency, however, technological developments must be accompanied by policies that recognize the complex economic and social factors affecting farmer decision-making and national policy priorities. Farmers need access to affordable nutrient supplies and support information, and the costs of improving efficiencies and avoiding pollution may need to be shared by society through innovative policies. Success will require interdisciplinary partnerships across public and private sectors, including farmers, private sector crop advisors, commodity supply chains, government agencies, university research and extension, and consumers.

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Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution

Abstract: Recent hikes in food prices have created economic and social turmoil in many African countries. But in Malawi, fertilizer and seed subsidies have enabled small-scale farmers to improve maize productivity and achieve food security.

Cited by 417 publications

References 14 publications

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa

Root system architecture: insights fromArabidopsisand cereal crops

Nutrients in the nexus

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