Yield Gap-Based Poverty Gaps in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa

Dzanku, Fred Mawunyo; Jirström, Magnus; Marstorp, Håkan

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.10.030

Cited by 94 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Successful efforts to supply sufficient food will include closing yield gaps in lower income countries, in part by increasing the use of better seeds and fertilizer, improving resource management, and enhancing the technology of crop production through advances in genomics and phenomics [9][10][11][12][13]. In addition, public officials must choose policies and investments that encourage increases in agricultural productivity on large and small farms, and in irrigated and rainfed settings [14][15][16].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Achieving Water and Food Security in 2050: Outlook, Policies, and Investments

Wichelns

2015

Agriculture

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Food production in 2050 will be sufficient, globally, but many of the poor will remain food insecure. The primary cause of food insecurity will continue to be poverty, rather than inadequate food production. Thus, policies and investments that increase the incomes of the poor will remain the best ways to extend food security to all. Investments that promote growth in sustainable agriculture and provide non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas of lower income countries will be most helpful. There will be sufficient water, globally, to achieve food production goals and sustain rural and urban livelihoods, if we allocate and manage the resource wisely. Yet, water shortages will constrain agricultural production and limit incomes and livelihood opportunities in many areas. Policies and investments are needed to extend and ensure access to water for household use and agricultural production. Challenges requiring the attention of policy makers and investors include increasing urbanization and increasing demands for land and water resources. Policy makers must ensure that farmers retain access to the water they need for producing food and sustaining livelihoods, and they must create greater opportunities for women in agriculture. They must also motivate investments in new technologies that will enhance crop and livestock production, particularly for smallholders, and encourage the private sector to invest in activities that create employment opportunities in rural areas.

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Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Efforts to extend improved methods of farming in rainfed conditions will improve incomes and enhance livelihoods in areas where poverty is correlated with low crop yields and inadequate use of fertilizer and modern seeds [11,124].…”

Section: Investing In Rainfed and Irrigated Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achieving Water and Food Security in 2050: Outlook, Policies, and Investments

Wichelns

2015

Agriculture

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“…Different approaches have been utilized to measure and define yield gaps for specific contexts (Lobell et al, 2009;Licker et al, 2010). This suggests that closing yield gaps in smallholder landscapes can contribute toward the multiple goals of reducing food insecurity, increasing levels of crop production without negative environmental side-effects (Foley et al, 2011), catching up with projected demand (Ray et al, 2013), and improving the livelihoods of smallholders and their capacity to access food (Enfors, 2013;Tittonell and Giller, 2013;Dzanku et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using data from household surveys across Sub-Saharan Africa, Dzanku et al (2015) highlighted the elasticity between yield gaps and rural poverty, indicating that as yield gaps close the associated poverty also reduces. The concept of closing yield gaps in smallholder settings to enhance food security and poverty alleviation outcomes fits with the theory of poverty traps and development resilience (Barrett and Constas, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Closing yield gaps among smallholder croplands holds significant potential for poverty alleviation and food security (Dzanku et al, 2015). However, the context-specific nature of smallholder environments means that large amounts of data on the location, the magnitude, and the causation of yield gaps are required to effectively target responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The potential of satellite-observed crop phenology to enhance yield gap assessments in smallholder landscapes

Duncan

Dash

Atkinson

2015

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Many of the undernourished people on the planet obtain their entitlements to food via agricultural-based livelihood strategies, often on underperforming croplands and smallholdings. In this context, expanding cropland extent is not a viable strategy for smallholders to meet their food needs. Therefore, attention must shift to increasing productivity on existing plots and ensuring yield gaps do not widen. Thus, supporting smallholder farmers to sustainably increase the productivity of their lands is one part of a complex solution to realizing universal food security. However, the information (e.g., location and causes of cropland underperformance) required to support measures to close yield gaps in smallholder landscapes are often not available. This paper reviews the potential of crop phenology, observed from satellites carrying remote sensing sensors, to fill this information gap. It is suggested that on a theoretical level phenological approaches can reveal greater intra-cropland thematic detail, and increase the accuracy of crop extent maps and crop yield estimates. However, on a practical level the spatial mismatch between the resolution at which crop phenology can be estimated from satellite remote sensing data and the scale of yield variability in smallholder croplands inhibits its use in this context. Similarly, the spatial coverage of remote sensing-derived phenology offers potential for integration with ancillary spatial datasets to identify causes of yield gaps. To reflect the complexity of smallholder cropping systems requires ancillary datasets at fine spatial resolutions which, often, are not available. This further precludes the use of crop phenology in attempts to unpick the causes of yield gaps. Research agendas should focus on generating fine spatial resolution crop phenology, either via data fusion or through new sensors (e.g., Sentinel-2) in smallholder croplands. This has potential to transform the applied use of remote sensing in this context.

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Optimizing maize–bean cropping systems for sustainable intensification in southern Ethiopia

et al. 2022

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Declining productivity and scarcity of cultivable land in smallholder systems call for exploring sustainable intensification options to increase productivity. Field experiments were conducted at five sites (Sites 1-5) of the Sidama region, southern Ethiopia, in 2018 and 2019 to determine the effects of cropping systems on maize (Zea mays L.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) productivity. The intercropping of common bean with maize at varying planting times (simultaneous, relay) and number (frequency) of legume intercropping (once or twice) per growing season were compared with monocultures of the components in randomized complete block design with four replications. Cropping system affected the agronomic parameters (pod number plant −1 and 100-seed weight) of common bean, more so than maize.Specifically, the results revealed that cropping systems affected both maize and bean yields, although the magnitude of the effect varied with sites. The highest maize yield was recorded in fertilized monoculture maize at Sites 1, 2, and 5, and in relay and sequential bean intercropping at Sites 3 and 4, respectively. Moreover, the highest bean yields were obtained in double common bean monoculture whereas, the lowest yields were recorded in relay intercropping. The total land equivalent ratio (LER) ranged from 1.2 to 1.8 and partial LER of maize was higher than that of the common bean. Sequential intercropping (Sites 1, 2, and 5) and relay intercropping (Sites 3 and 4) were economically more beneficial than the other cropping systems.Therefore, farmers could benefit more from maize-bean intercropping systems than monocultures in areas where maize is a staple crop.Abbreviations: 100-SW, hundred seed weight; ATER, area time equivalent ratio; Bn, common bean monoculture; Bn+Bn, double common bean monoculture; LER, land equivalent ratio; M+Bn, simultaneous common bean intercropping with maize; M+Bn+Bn, sequential common bean intercropping with maize; M+BnR, relay common bean intercropping with maize; M+F, maize monoculture with fertilizer; MAI, monetary advantage index; M-F, maize monoculture without fertilizer.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Yield Gap-Based Poverty Gaps in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa

Cited by 94 publications

References 45 publications

Achieving Water and Food Security in 2050: Outlook, Policies, and Investments

Achieving Water and Food Security in 2050: Outlook, Policies, and Investments

The potential of satellite-observed crop phenology to enhance yield gap assessments in smallholder landscapes

Optimizing maize–bean cropping systems for sustainable intensification in southern Ethiopia

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