By, Jean-Marc Boffa, Chris Auricht, John Dixon and Dennis Garrity

1. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
A Farming Systems Approach to Support
Planning and Investment
in Agriculture
Jean-Marc Boffa, Chris Auricht, John Dixon and
Dennis Garrity
16 April 2015, Bingu International Conference Centre,
Lilongwe, Malawi

2. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Opportunities and challenges for agriculture in Africa
• Growth from agriculture at least twice as effective
in reducing poverty compared to other sectors
(WB 2008)
• Opportunity – economic take off, needs
consolidation to address increasing food needs
• Existing systems are expected to continue to
accommodate
• large increases in population
• increasing urbanisation
• rising demand for plant and animal products
• competition for land and water and
• climate change impacts
• Transition from land expansion to intensification
needed with closure of land frontier
• Go beyond ‘business-as-usual’ investments in
agriculture to deliver sustainable solutions

3. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Why a farming systems lens?
• Low productivity and rural food insecurity and poverty persist
after many years of interventions
• Large diversity of farming systems and farm households’
potentials and needs (population, crop-livestock ratios,
market access, poverty prevalence).
• Top-down propositions and/or co-learning? Grasping the
complexity of farm household decision-making is key to
fostering innovation and accelerating adoption

4. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Do we understand farm household decision-making?
Connecting resources, production, consumption and investment in farm context
Multiple enterprises

5. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Farming systems approach and evolution
• Interdisciplinary
• Participatory (diagnosis, design, evaluation,
learning)
• On-farm research
• Modelling
• Applications
• Research, extension (technology generation and
adaptation)
• Typologies for scaling out, planning, policy

6. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Focus: WB Rural Devt Strategy,
capacity to speak to Finance Ministers
2001 2015

7. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Simplifying complexity
• Investment planning needs simplified broad patterns, key trends
and major opportunities
• Large populations of farm systems have broadly similar patterns
of livelihood (crop/livestock) and consumption patterns, as well
as constraints and opportunities.
• Policy-making relevance: Similar development strategies and
interventions apply.
• Farms are systems. Interactions between farm components.
• Workable number of systems for effective targeting (max 12-15)
• Recognizable internal heterogeneity (sub-systems)

8. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Approach
• Central tendency concept
• Core criteria for classification:
– Agro-ecology (LGP)
– Socio-economics (especially market access)
– Key commodities (crops, livestock, trees, fish)
• Expert knowledge
• Large data providers e.g. IFPRI – Harvest
Choice, UN-FAO, ILRI, ICRAF, IIASA, CGIAR
others
• Iterative system delineation process

9. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
ElevationSlope, aspect, drainageSettlements, ports, marketsRoad, rail, river, ICT networksMarket travel times & costs
Underlying information
Port travel times & costs
Terrain,
Demography,
Infrastructure,
Admin Units
Production
Environment &
Constraints
Production
Systems &
Performance
Interventions/
Responses
Agroecological ZonesCropland extent & intensityPests & Diseases (Maize Stem Borer)Drought Incidence & SeverityRunoffAdministrative Units Farming SystemsCrop Suitability: Rainfed WheatCrop Distribution & YieldsValue of Production per Rural Person
NA
0
10
20
30
40
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
100
80
60
40
20
0
Irrigation
Threshold
% of Available
Soil Water
Maize
Yield
Potential
t[DM]/ha
Fertilizer Application Rate
kg[N]/ha
Yield Responses to Inputs, Management, CCProfitability of small scale irrigationQuantity of Nutrients RemovedFertilizer ProfitabilityDistribution of Welfare Benefits
Linkage to
Macro
Models
Aggregate to FPUs
Source: HarvestChoice 2010

10. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Regional-level farming systems classification

11. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Highland Perennial FS and subsystems
High population density
High agricultural potential
Permanently cultivated systems
Market-orientation as a way to intensify systems
Central Highlands
Commercializing
Western Highlands
Diversifying
Population density +++ ++++
Farm size +++ ++
Market infrastructure ++ +
Poverty 30% poor >60% poor
Farm area 35% maize
17% tea
17% coffee
More high value crops
42% maize
8% tea
10% coffee
% of improved cattle 95%
22% of crop area in
fodder
Zero-grazing increasing
67%
11% in fodder
Value of production 102K KSh/household 44K KSh/household
Use of fertilizers 122 kg/ha
74 manure bags
51 kg/ha
26 manure bags
SYSTEM LEVEL
SUB-SYSTEM LEVEL
Differentiate

12. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Occurrence of rainfed crops by farming system (%)
**Total year 2000 harvested area. Source: Van Velthuizen et al. 2013

13. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Central Tendency for Farming systems
Length of Growing Period
13

14. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Drivers of farming system change
• Population, hunger and poverty
• Natural resources and climate
• Energy
• Human capital and information
• Technology and science
• Markets and trade
• Institutions and policies
Drivers shape farming systems evolution and their relative importance differs by farming system

15. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Relative importance of poverty escape pathways across FS
Farming system Intensification Diversification Increased farm
or herd size
Off-farm
income
Exit from
agriculture
Maize Mixed 2.5 3 1 2.5 1
Agropastoral 3 2.5 1 1.5 2
Highland Perennial 1 2 0 3 4
Root and Tuber Crop 3 2.5 2 1.5 1
Cereal Root Crop
Mixed
3.5 1.5 2 1.5 1.5
Highland Mixed 3 2 1 1 3
Pastoral 3 2 0 2 3
Forest-based 2.5 2.5 1.5 1 2.5
Large-scale Irrigated 4 2 1.5 2 0.5
Urban and Peri-
Urban 3 2 2 2 1

16. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Informing planners
• Where are the main poverty/production deficits /
exploitable yield gaps in each farming system?
• What are the pathways to elimination of rural
poverty (intensification, diversification, farm size
increase, off-farm employment, exit from
agriculture) specific to each FS?
• What combinations of farm gate prices,
technologies and institutional innovations would
be effective in each farming system?

17. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Applications
• Scaling up strategy development of NEPAD-INGO
African Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture -
Vision 25 by 25
– Differentiation of CSA practices by farming systems
– Priority setting by farming systems
– Quantifying targets (number of farmers, cultivated land
area, crop/livestock volumes produced, etc)
– A structural level for M&E and reporting frameworks

18. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
FORUM FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN
AFRICA
SCIENCE AGENDA FOR AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA
(S3A)
“CONNECTING SCIENCE”
A SCIENCE AGENDA FOR TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURE IN
AFRICA

19. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
National level FS classification: Ethiopia

20. Agricultural Commercialization Clusters
February 2015
Address systemic
bottlenecks in the ag.
sector by strengthening
capacity of MoA and
other actors

21. What is an Agricultural Commercialization Cluster?
“ An agro-based cluster is simply a geographic concentration of
producers, agribusinesses and institutions engaged in the
same agricultural or agro-industrial sub-sector, that
interconnect and build value networks when addressing
common challenges and pursuing common opportunities. ”
- FAO Study on Agro-Clusters in Developing Countries
21
Objectives of ACC in Ethiopia
• Drive specialization, diversification and commercialization for priority
value chains
• Enhance production, quality, aggregation, value addition and market
linkages
• Provide an integrated platform to implement multiple interventions
• Improve focus and coordination among actors

22. 22
Common methodology, criteria and metrics have been used to identify and
prioritize clusters in four regions
1. Production potential and
smallholder farmer coverage by
commodity
2. Size of export / import
substitution and domestic
market opportunity
3. Ethiopia’s comparative
advantage in the international
market by commodity
4. Strategic drivers by commodity
at regional or national level
Step 1 - Prioritize commodities
Step 2 - Identify candidate clusters
for each commodity
Step 3 - Prioritize clusters by
commodity and prioritize overall
1. Woredas with high production
potential for primary and
secondary commodities
2. Woredas with sufficient natural
resource endowment
3. Groups of woredas that meet
cluster size and initial scale
requirements
1. Potential production by
commodity
2. Basic infrastructure by cluster
3. Value addition capacity by
cluster, including aggregation
and storage, processing, and
transport links and proximity to
urban centers or other hubs
4. Access to markets by cluster
5. Presence of institutions and
ongoing initiatives by cluster

23. 23
Example: Clusters and Commodities Prioritization
Exercise in Oromia

24. 24
Clusters and commodity-value chain prioritized in
Oromia for upcoming season (testing and learning)
• Driven by market demand and requirements
• Planning at Cluster level and harmonized at Woreda level

25. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
Potential added value
• Differentiate strategic priorities and targeting investment according
to farming context
• Common platform for planners with various interests and
intervention priorities
• Effective focus in targeting “people and their FS” rather than, or in
addition to sectoral or commodity aspects
• Efficiency and impact of programs in addressing opportunities and
challenges over targeting organized by administrative or agro-
ecological zones
• Regional spillover of approaches / technologies from neighbouring
countries with similar systems
• Alignment and consistency of planning among regional, sub-
regional and national programs and partners

26. Farming Systems and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Priorities for Science and Policy
• THANK YOU!