Presentation by Bob Winterbottom (Director, Ecosystem Services Initiative, WRI) at the May 15, 2013 event "Natural Resource Management and Food Security for a Growing Population". For more information visit: http://www.wri.org/event/2013/05/natural-resource-management-and-food-security-growing-population

1. Bob Winterbottom
ESTABLISHED 1982
ROUNDTABLE ON NRM AND FOOD SECURITY:
KEY BARRIERS AND PATHWAYS TO SCALE UP
PROVEN SUCCESSES

2. The African Sahel in the 1970s and 1980s

3. Niger: A rural landscape transformed
Photo: L. Mahamane (AFF)

4. Niger: Then and now
1970s
• State ownership of trees
• State forest agents: “Police”
• Focus on law enforcement by forest
agents
• Plantations of fast-growing exotic
species promoted for fuelwood
• Clean-field agriculture
From 1990’s
• Management rights devolved to
farmers
• State forest agents: “Trainers”
• More farmer-to-farmer visits
• Native species used for fuelwood,
nitrogen fixation, fodder and more
• Agroforestry via “farmer managed
natural regeneration”

5. Burkina Faso: National Workshop on FMNR, climate
change adaptation and food security
Photo: L. Mahamane (AFF)

6. Key barriers to replicate re-greening successes
• Insecure tenure (#1 issue cited in Burkina Faso AF workshop)
• Land grabs – by elites and powerful – seeking short term gains from
crop production
• Forestry laws – ambivalence about ownership and rights to manage
trees on farms
• Counterproductive regulations - designed to protect natural forests
and control forest products trade
• Weaknesses in institutional mandates and priorities:
• Agriculture overlooks soil conservation, agroforestry
• Forestry focused on tree planting, protecting natural forests

7. Recent positive developments
• Improved practices of innovative
farmers are relatively low-cost
• Making a difference among the
poorest households
• Champions are emerging to
support replication and scaling up
• Growing recognition of the
relevance of sustainable land
management to resilience,
adaptation as well as food security

8. Agroforestry (Niger): Grain yields increase as tree density increases
No trees
Source: Adapted from Mahamane, L. (AFF). Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in Niger.
Presentation to the United Nations, February 2011.

9. Barriers being addressed by smallholder innovations
Rainfall variability
Weathered soils
Fertilizer cost
Source: McGahuey, M. “Africa’s Regreening: Its Integral Role in Increasing Agricultural Productivity and Strengthening Resiliency”;
Reij, C. “Climate Smart Agriculture, Food Security and Water in Africa’s Drylands: Lessons from Experience”. Both are presentations
at WRI Symposium on Regreening, March 1, 2012.
• Using stone lines, zai, ridge tillage to
harvest rainwater, reduce runoff and
erosion
• Replenishing soil organic matter to
increase soil moisture
• Increasing use of manure, compost
• Increasing density of trees on farms
• Increasing incomes through
intensification and diversification
• Increasing fertilizer use efficiency
through ISFM

10. Effects of soil and water conservation practices and microdosing on sorghum yields
in Burkina Faso (2009 - 2011 averages)
Average kg/ha
Sources: Sawadogo 2012
375
750
1125
1500

11. Sources: Sawadogo 2012.
Effects of NRM and micro-dosing on sorghum crop yields in
Burkina Faso (2009-2011)
Average kg/ha
Without micro-dosing
With micro-dosing

12. What hurdles remain to scaling up?
• Preference for large investments in top-down
conventional approaches to “modernize”
(agricultural mechanization)
• Poor appreciation of land degradation costs and
missed opportunities to address root causes
(declining soil organic matter)
• Simplistic emphasis on external inputs to
increase crop production

13. What are conditions for success?
• Motivate farmers to change behaviors
• take stock of drivers, reduce barriers and reinforce incentives
(enabling legislation for decentralized NRM)
• target areas with favorable conditions: high population density, low
tree cover, sandy soils, +400 mm rainfall, secure rights, market
access, innovative farmers / producer groups
• Facilitate and support
• access to information – menu of options to intensify and diversify
• empowerment of village institutions – locally enforced rules
• awareness raised and “case made”

14. Potential for scaling up
Source: WRI analysis using the following datasets. Population: AfriPop http://www.afripop.org/. Precipitation isohyets: UNEP/DEWA/GRID-
Geneva. Protected areas: World Database on Protected Areas (UNEP/WCMC). Croplands – IIASA/IFPRI (Cropland for sub‐Saharan Africa:
A synergistic approach using five land cover data sets. Fritz et al.

15. Pathways for scaling-up
Work at the grassroots with farmer innovators:
- Support farmer to farmer visits, peer to peer learning to innovate, adapt,
adopt improved practices (intensification)
- Support associated enterprises (diversification)
- Strengthen local institutions (governance)
- Promote community / producers organizations (gender)
- Reinforce economic benefits (strengthen AF value chains)
- Recognize achievements with awards
- Encourage networks of local experts
- Stimulate a movement of champions

16. Working at the grassroots to scale up
Photo: L. Mahamane (AFF)

17. Pathways for scaling-up (2) Top-down meets Bottom-up
- Field visits for decision makers; dialogue
with local champions
- Mobilize evidence of innovation, impacts
and benefits, and present at national
workshops
- Identify needed policy, legal and
institutional reforms (secure
management rights, market access,
changes in extension messages)
- Advocate for shifts in program strategies
and priorities (integrated approaches,
mainstream agroforestry, NRM, SLM,
Climate smart EverGreen Agriculture)

18. Pathways for scaling-up (3)
Expand Communication and Outreach
- Investigate what’s working, where, how,
lessons learned
- Build content – expand access to knowledge
platforms / hubs
- Support radio coverage, TV documentaries
- Enable voices of local champions,
innovators, producer groups (W4RA)
- Mobilize local and international media
- Address knowledge gaps

19. Addressing knowledge gaps
• Increased monitoring and reporting
of farmer innovations
• Fuller accounting of benefits from
improved practices: impact on crop
yields, and more
• Improved understanding of
production system dynamics
• Contributions of trees and
shrubs to soil organic matter
and nutrients
• Impact on hydrology
• Resilience to climate change,
other shocks