1. Key Areas of Investment Needed to Support the
Upscaling of EverGreen Agriculture
1. Crop yield enhancement and integrated soil
fertility management
Published data on the degree of crop yield enhancement in
evergreen agriculture systems needs to be strengthened. Data
collection with uniform methodology across a range of subhumid
to semiarid farming systems. Optimal design of tree-crop systems
2. Analysis of integrated soil fertility management
systems combining tree biomass production with
inorganic fertilizers is needed on both
nonresponsive (low soil organic matter) and
responsive soils.

2. 3. Impacts on food security and livelihods
at the household and national level
• Recent study on the economic impact at the
household level of farmer-managed natural
regeneration across five Sahelian countries,
including food security, income, and drought
resilience benefits.
• Modeling needed on the aggregate impacts
on national food security in the Sahel.

3. 4. Mapping and monitoring the current practice
of EverGreen Agriculture and targeting up-
scaling
The USGS has published maps of the spread of FMNR
on over 5.5 m ha in Niger and Mali. Evergreen
agriculture systems may cover at least an additional
5-10 m ha in the Sahel and Guinea savanna ecozones.
Need to map the extent of tree cover and density in
the drylands to provide a basis for well-targeted
national scaling-up programs in which the spread of
the technology can be monitored rigorously.

4. 5. Climate buffering for resilience
• More research is needed on the degree to which
tree species, density, age, and management
practices, such as pruning intensity, affect the
ability of these systems to buffer the
microclimate (temperatures, moisture) for cereal
crops grown in association.
• New datasets need be generated on the
implications of adopting evergreen agriculture in
building smallholder farmer and agro-ecosystems
capacity to adapt to climate change and
variability.

5. 6. More effective methods of scaling-up and out
• The spread of evergreen agriculture has occurred on
a wide scale in some countries, particularly in Niger
and Mali, through farmer-to-farmer and village-to-
village diffusion, supported to some extent by NGO
and project efforts.
• As many more countries engage in the upscaling
process there is need to test and adapt a range of
integrated extension and upscaling approaches,
and evaluate their performance.

6. 7. Tree germplasm and tree seed and seedling
systems for enriching FMNR
8. Building a Monitoring & Evaluation Framework
• Development of a rigorous monitoring and
evaluation framework for evergreen agriculture is
needed in order to provide feedback to the
development community, and to the research
community on critical issues and questions that
need further investigation.

7. 8. Experimental designs for tree-crop
interactions
• Designing sound experiments to address
methodological difficulties of assessing the
parkland effect
• Accelerating modeling of processes.

8. 9. Participatory shrub-intercropped
observatory across the Sahel
• Monitor responses to optimized shrub-crop
systems

9. 10. Groundwater hydrology and tree-crop
interactions
• Practical significance and benefits of
hydrologic lift need to be quantified.
• Potential for designing more resilient
agricultural systems need to be explored.

10. 11. Optimization and design of
multifunctional landscapes and roles of
trees in them