So without any further ado kelly over to you please. Okay thank you. Uh michael um for um allowing me to present uh good morning uh colleagues everybody and thank you for uh coming to attend my my seminar presentation. Uh i’m going to speak about uh sustainable intensification uh the title of my presentation is the sustainable identification concept in agricultural research agricultural research council logo normative versus farmers perspectives. Okay so i’m going to follow. Uh the following sequence in my presentation first. I’ll uh briefly. Uh introduce uh some historical background about um a sustainable identification concept and uh then uh i’ll briefly describe the concept of sustainable intensification and after that i’ll have some review of empirical studies regarding technology evaluation within the lens of sustainable intensification. Uh after that. Um i’ll present sustainable intensification from farmers perspective based on two uh studies that we agricultural research council logoconducted in in west africa uh thereafter. I would have some concluding remarks and finally uh i have some statements on my chip regarding my uh research agricultural research council logo plan. Um since the second half of the 20th century uh the global strategy for agricultural development has shifted uh from a kind of using more land uh and a little uh capital to a kind of a system of using more capital and more uh scientific techniques that we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logocall just in intensification uh the shift from extensification to to intensification is because uh of uh increasing challenges to meet the food demand particularly in developing countries on the one hand uh population is growing fast in in several regions particularly in africa leading to accelerated full requirement. On the other hand farmlands are becoming a scale over time. Maybe just if we agricultural research council logosee this graph we agricultural research council logocan see that aggressor land per capita has been declining everywhere in the world however the rate of decline is very high in africa in africa the per capita land for the architectural land has declined from over 3.5 extras per person in 1960s.
Uh to less than one. Hectare per person in 2018 moreover farmers traditional matters of cultivation couldn’t increase yield as desire so this situation has resulted in chronic hunger and malnutrition in many developing countries mostly in africa uh so this has necessitated intensification strategies actually intensification aims to produce higher output per per unit of resources particularly the scarce ones than the traditional way it entails increasing input use such as fertilizers water and chemicals or increasing crop intensity for example growing two or more more crops per year or changing land use from low valley crops or just using a combination of these techniques. Um a good example as you also know is that that that of green revolution strategy that was mainly implemented in asia and latin america however intensification may may have adverse effects as it was observed during the agree revolution era specifically it resulted in depletion of groundwater pollution of rivers and the ecosystem due to intensive use of agrochemicals degradation or salination of farmland because of surface irrigation reduce crop biodiversity because of extreme focus on some staple crops such as rice and uh and maize and wheat. Uh it has also uh brought about um higher uh income disparity such adverse effects of the green revolution intervention have led to the concept of sustainable identification in fact uh the concept of sustainable identification emerged in the late 1980s to correct for the limitations of the green revolution. Sustainable intensification is a multi-dimensional concept. It has multi-dimensional outcomes including social dimension. Social outcomes manifested by for example social justice equity and cooperation ecological outcomes manifested by natural resource conservation different recycling and optimal use of external inputs and it is also one space by economic outcomes. Such as better human well-being uh better uh profitability of crop and livestock enterprises uh better uh resource use efficiency or cost effectiveness and this so uh there are several actually of this.
This kind of frameworks. Uh conceptual frameworks developed in the past two or three decades to capture the analysis of sustainable intensification the most recent um framework to analyze sustainable intensification. Uh has been developed by musumba and and colleagues within within africa rising uh program uh according to this uh framework sustainable intensification has um five dimensions five domains including uh productivity economic environment human and social damages each of these domains has a list of indicators or metrics the validity of each of the indicators depends upon local index that means research agricultural research council logoers can use different indicators or combinations of indicators depending upon the local context the common thought here is that assessment of sustainable identification. Should i tell you sorry i was muted. Uh for some time. I don’t know just like can you hear me. Um michael may yeah we agricultural research council logocan hear you. Yes i was muted for some time. Okay so uh the the comment thought is that assessment of sustainable intensification uh should be multi-dimensional. Uh relay sustainable intensification. Uh land soil and water should be managed properly uh external inputs such as fertilizer and improved seeds should be used efficiently and optimally farming areas will retain sufficient aggro biodiversity and the institutional and policy environment should enable farmers use economic opportunities through better market access and information while enhancing equity at different skills including intra household in the household and regional skills. So uh this was uh that and then it was actually. This concept was suggested to be included in the research agricultural research council logo designs as far as since the the late 1980s for instance uh linham and herd strongly suggested that the cgr would incorporate the sustainability concept into its research agricultural research council logo process. Not changing. I don’t know why okay.
Uh however although the sustainability identification concept uh started in the late 1980s it was only the beginning of the last decade that s.i began to receive widespread attention in the cdr and europe. For example. This figure shows the number of publications on sustainable intensification as you can see. The number of sustained publications on sustainable intensification on reputable journals was very small in the 1990s at the beginning and gradually it has increased in actually a geometric rate uh in the in the last decades uh you know the attention is very high and then the number of politicians has increased very much. So uh this shows you know uh that tension is increasing um on sustainable intensification um actually in the last decade s.i oriental projects were initiated in the cdr including for example africa writing led by iit and hillary a simplest led by sydney. These research agricultural research council logo initiatives promoted the sustainable identification concept and the evaluation of interventions from multiple dimensions for instance the africanizing program has adopted the chef the chef framework as i presented earlier and the research agricultural research council logoers have been encouraged to follow this approach in their research agricultural research council logo designs. However limited studies have followed the criteria of the multi-dimensional assessment with the si concept intense in fact most of the studies focused on one or two dimensions mainly productivity and economics while ignoring others for instance a recent study by rai and colleagues uh showed that uh long distance would remain in it to integrate the si concept into the global research agricultural research council logo system uh they reviewed more than 200 articles on sustainable intensification and they found that actually they assessed different studies that considered large number of sustainable intensification practices including those related to soil health and those related to diversification such as agro forestry crop livestock integration inter cropping compost or manure use conservation agriculture melting and others.
So the the results. Uh show that actually sustainable intensification practices have very positive impacts on on yield of main crops whether they are from soyuz or labor schedule they have very good impact in many many parts of the world. Particularly most of these studies were conducted in in africa in terms of economic indicators also they have very good impact they have a very good impact in most parts of the country. The world particularly africa. Uh we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logohave tried to also review some studies within africa rising funding so these studies in general when we agricultural research council logosee they have covered all of the sustainability domains. Uh however uh most of them focused on the productivity and economic aspects of sustainability while leaving others and most of them also didn’t cover um all of all of uh the dimensions and they they they didn’t also do some trade-offs between between the sustainability outcomes so however a few studies are considered multiple indicators recovering multiple s.i domains for instance uh snap and other colleagues considered agronomic practices in in which legumes are integrated into maize production. They evaluated new. Uh maze legume integration options namely pgmp maize intercom develop legume is rotation against two main solar. Cropping controls they used um different indicators. Uh covering all of the sustainable identification domains as uh stipulated by musumba and colleagues. They presented the results using a radar diagram covering all of the dimensions. As you can see no single treatment is superior over others in terms of all of the indicators for example the double up legume is superior over others in terms of returns to nitrogen fertilizer. But it’s not that much superior in terms of maize yield similarly the the maize the soul maze with nitro with inorganic. Fertilizer is superior over others in terms of maize yield but it’s not as such good in terms of indicators of soil health so this shows that there are trade-offs between different outcomes and these including all all of the it’s important to have a broader picture about the technology similarly abdul rahman evaluated different grounds spacing against the farmer’s practice they compared three new levels of planting densities against the farmer’s practice they used indicators from different s.
I domains and similarly they presented. You know the the results using this spider diagram. And does that as you see. Uh actually here. Uh in contrast to the previous one there is little trade-off anyway just uh we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logocan see a broader picture about that technology. They also tried to uh bring all the indicators into one a single um a single indicator in the sustainability index using a certain formula. I will not go into it and try to rank the the treatments according to this sustainability index. So so uh to summarize on this uh the reviewed studies showed that si interventions enhance productivity and income of small older farmers improve soil health and improve human wellbeing however most of these studies focused on one or two si indicators at the time a few studies analyze the existence of trade-offs between si options. Now the question is that uh. What do the farmers say about sustainable intensification up to now. I try to show you um the studies that which are based on you know. Pneumatic or scientific frameworks. Most of these studies were based on you know on farm on farm experiments and these on farm experiments participate. Sometimes they participate also farmers but not mainly. But we agricultural research council logohave to ask that. How do the farmers seize our concept of sustainable intensification as we agricultural research council logosee it’s uh scientifically or do they have some different versions so the question here is just. Are they interested in practicing sustainable intensification this is an important question. Because widespread technology adoption entails a full understanding of farmers interests and their willingness to invest in the technologies scientific.
Soundness is important but at the end of the day. Uh it’s the farmers who uh uh decide on with the taking out of the technology they take and which of the technology they they drop so to address this uh question uh. We agricultural research council logoconducted two studies one ghana and the other in mali to assess farmers preferences regarding si technologies. We agricultural research council logoconsider to step in serious maize and sodium. In evaluating farmers technology preferences the findings of one of the studies is already published and that the other is in the process. The studies were conducted in northern ghana in three regions of northern ghana and three districts of southern mali. We agricultural research council logoused um survey household survey focus group discussion and expert consultations to collect the data. Our research agricultural research council logo followed a discrete. Uh choice experiment research agricultural research council logo design. We agricultural research council logocovered 700 households in ghana and 600 households. In in money we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logoconsidered uh seven. Um attributes different attributes in in ghana and six are uh different attributes in mali. Uh these attributes uh cover different sustainable intensification domains specifically productivity economic environment and human domains. The social domain was indirectly captured through a disaggregated analysis based on gender in in ghana and uh based on social networking money. We agricultural research council logoused a choice card to elicit farmers preferences. Uh in the choice cards. We agricultural research council logopresented them to two options option. A hypothetical options option a and option b and uh each of uh option. Each of the options have different uh attribute levels uh which the farmers will consider and the attributes levels were randomly allocated to each of them so farmers were uh requested to choose between the two options and actually they could also opt out in favor of their current cropping practices we agricultural research council logoused our different econometric models including the basic multinomial logic mixed logic also we agricultural research council logoused also mixed logic controlling for attributes uh main attendance as erosion escape also we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logoused this the latter class so this is the result uh that we agricultural research council logofound in in ghana and mali as you can see uh the alternative specific constant is negative and highly significant which indicates that farmers are interested in changing their current practices in favor of a more sustainable maze and sorghum production practices most of the attributes that we agricultural research council logoconsidered were highly significant and they are with the expected signs um however farmers are actually different as indicated in the standard divisions there is heterogeneity uh between the farmers with respect to uh most of the attributes uh and also the the the results in in in both countries uh are qualitatively uh similar uh except in some cases in the case of a couple of attributes for example i guess in terms of risk the results are different in ghana farmers are risk-averse that means they are interested in technologies that reduce the risk of crop failure.
This could be maybe drought tolerant varieties or maybe some moisture conservation practices and those things. They are interested in that where the same inclination is there. But it’s not significant. Perhaps uh the difference may be um because of the differences in the in the in the crops that we agricultural research council logoconsidered when we agricultural research council logoconsidered in ghana and money in ghana we agricultural research council logoconsidered a maze which is relatively susceptible to moisture stress whereas in mali we agricultural research council logoconsider sodium which is relatively um more tolerant to uh moisture stress low moisture stress drought. Uh so um that’s maybe just this may make money farmers to assess not that much sensitive to risk uh in terms of labor also there are some differences. Although in both cases farmers are interested in labor saving technologies in money they are serious about it whereas in ghana uh so this may uh show some uh differences in terms of uh level constraint between the two countries uh we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logodid some disaggregation uh with respect to uh male and female uh we. We agricultural research council logowanted to know whether male and female have some different uh preferences in terms of technologies.
Uh in general uh we agricultural research council logosee that there are. They are interested in both of kids that are interested to change the current practices in favor of a more sustainable one and they are also now considering most of the attributes in in in we agricultural research council logoconsidered in our model. But the difference. Here is that with respect to a couple of attributes. One is male head. Householders are interested in um both maize and legume yield in the maize legume integration whereas uh female 8 households are interested in uh maze yield but not asset in in the legion. Maybe um female households head householders are interested to use the legumes for other purposes for example. They they may want to use them as the cover crop to for to improve the soy health or maybe for the livestock. They the second one is. There is also some uh differences in terms of soil fertility attributes. Uh in the case of male-headed householders. Uh they are interested in those uh in the technologies that either increase soil fertility or maintenance whereas a female head household design that is mainly on the technologies that increase soil fertility but they are neutral to the other baby because this may be because of the differences in the quality of land. They they they cancel it you know. Just women are cultivate less quality land and improving the soil fertility and imperatives. And you know maintaining it. Uh we agricultural research council logoalso did some degre disaggregated analysis without with respect to regions actually these regions capture also other ecological differences. Uh we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logosee differences. In most of the cases in both in all of the regions farmers are interested to changing the current practices in power of a more sustainable one but uh the difference is with respect to again. Uh maize yield and legume grid in terms of legume yield in terms of legumes. Pharmacies upper west and upper east are interested in both legume meal and measles while those in the northern region are interested in messi.
Maybe they want to use the legumes and the cover crop in the northern region. Uh in terms of soil fertility uh attribute also uh farmers in the northern region and upper west region are interested in those in technology that either increase or uh maintain soil fertility uh whereas in that of upper east region are interested in technology. That increase. Uh soil fertility. Uh maybe this could be because of the low soil fertility level in upper uh east region. So they may be highly interested in those improving soil fertility. Maybe okay so uh the the other one is there is also a difference in level uh requirement reactions with respect to the three digits in mali. We agricultural research council logodid a disaggregated analysis with respect to social network. Uh there are similarities. In terms of uh the preferences uh in most of the cases but in terms of risk and in terms of soil fertility. There are some differences as you can see we agricultural research council logodid also disaggregation with respect to agroecology in money where our our um study uh our locations cover um sudan savannah and the guinea savannah we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logouh segregated our analysis with respect to those agroecological zones. Uh in general in both of the other ecologies farmers are interested in changing the current practices into a more sustainable one but there are some differences with respect to risk. I mean farmers in students of savannah are more more risk offers. They are interested in technologies that reduce risk of propeller. This could be because you know said savannah is relatively drier and maybe it encounters more more uh shocks than that of guinea 7 and this result may uh shows those differences between the agroecologies uh in terms of labor difference uh labor requirements there are also some differences farmers in guinea savannah are more interested in labor saving technologies. Actually in that of guinness students havana are also the same but they are not that much strict about it. It means that even if the technology is labor consuming they can they can go for it.
As far as the technologies would in terms of other attributes so now uh to conclude um from these two uh different uh perspectives. Uh what we agricultural research council logocan learn. Is that the lessons from the studies. Based on the scientific frameworks uh that si practices have positive effects on productivity economic returns and other indicators however most of the studies are not comprehensive dominantly they consider productivity and economic domains of sustainable identification there are limited considerations of environmental and other indicators. Most of them didn’t consider trade-offs between si outcomes. There is also lack of long-term study to reveal long-term outcomes of sustainable identification as you know sustainable in some of the sustainable intensification outcomes. Uh uh takes some time longer. Time to reveal themselves and the studies should capture those things and a short term planned study may not capture long-term ones particularly the that which relates to the environmental indicators. The lessons from the studies on farmers preferences are that farmers preferences are aligned with the domains of sustainable intensification as conceptualized in in the year however farmers are not homogeneous in preferences and not all attributes are equally desirable among them. So asi is not just a part within the academic and research agricultural research council logo circles. But it’s something that farmers are interested in which require policy attention. It’s useful to adopt multi-dimensional assessment frameworks to identify best fitting si practices in in lieu of the conventional technology assessment approach which emphasized a single attribute at the time to address the current gaps in the si assessment mainstreaming si and the cgi centers will be useful mainstreaming allows an institutionalized coordination of studies on s.i to address multi-dimensional issues and investigate possible trade-offs between the s indicators. Actually the current research agricultural research council logo strategy of once a year is conducive to do that in uh there are five impact areas of the one cdr current research agricultural research council logo strategy.
This can be easily aligned with sustainable intensification domains. The an important issue is that how uh how to to to uh make this uh uh operational at higher higher level or how to cascade this alignment to down to the the specific research agricultural research council logo lab. Uh this is an important issue and maybe just operational guidelines and those things should be worked upon in order to implement these things otherwise just for example these impact areas are are there but just if they are not connected in a systematic way and maybe research agricultural research council logoers are designed to address all of them. Then this may be um have some some little impacts on sustainable issues uh so having said this. Uh let me say some a few statements on regarding my research agricultural research council logo plan iit africa. Rising has been developing and promoting sustainable identification technology since 2012. These are varieties of technologies. Actually out there. These technologies are expected to improve the well-being of smallholder farmers in the intervention areas in europe however impact studies have not been conducted partly because it was necessary to wait until visible impacts will happen. Uh in the land surveys have been conducted recently in some project countries such as ghana and malawi while they are planned in the remaining countries. Therefore it’s high time to plan for exa exposed impact studies. We agricultural research council logohave already planned three across three uh cross country or cross regional studies in this year. Uh these studies cover ghana and malawi while similar. Studies will be conducted in tanzania mali and zambia. One data collection are complement completed in this in these countries in addition to exposed impact studies. I will participate in studies related to the new one cgr initiative particularly the sustainable intensification of mixture farming system initiative. We agricultural research council logohave already planned to establish the business for simf initiative in 2022 or early 20th industry.
This will be followed by other studies. Such as ex-ante modeling and analysis of policy scenarios during the first cycle of the initiative. So this is what i have. Let me end my presentation with some acknowledgements my first acknowledgement. Thanks i just was to my africanizing program managers fred. Thank you so much for your support and guidance i would like to thank also idea management. Uh michael robert lillian and him for the the encouragement that they they give me and the support when i did whenever i needed i also. I’m also grateful to my africanizing colleagues namely julius murudin gondola felix carlo and others for sharing their experiences and and knowledge with me. I’ve learned a lot from them. I’m also thankful to our social economics team members including tahiru right for and others for the support that they give me. Yes whenever i need it. Uh finally lastly but not least i would like to thank iit ghana. National staff both admin team including summit. Um porsche avoir. And others and research agricultural research council logo associates benedict’s keeper drupal and others and all others other colleagues who directly and directly supported my work in the past three years. Thank you so much. Thank you for your attention. This is just what i have thank you okay mckenna. Thank you very much indeed for your presentation. I hope you can hear around the virtual applause. Uh so this now is open for for questions. Uh we agricultural research council logocan have questions. Uh you put you put your hand up or put something into the chat so questions please any questions. Okay kelly yes let me start okay. Can you hear me okay. Yes yes i can hear you let me start with these sustainable intensification indicators and show that uh you and definitely. I’m glad will not be surprised by my question which is to do with the time scale. I know you said that. There’s been some work on trade-offs and so forth but there’s an obvious difference in time scale between some of these indicators like profitability maybe you can measure that within a year or so but things like effects on cell fertility.
You know it may take much longer to actually measure you know something in terms of impact. So how do you factor that sort of thing in. And how does that really relate in terms of what the farmers are are preferring. I mean um yeah how do they also weigh these short-term and long-term effects. Yeah thank you uh for your uh question um yes you know. The trade-offs cannot be uh visible easily. Sometimes you know some outcomes may take a longer time particularly those related to the environment and some are can be easily visible for example the productivity and those things can be easily visible so uh with this fourth time actually. That’s just what i was suggesting so the long longer term studies are also required and they should be systematically integrated with the well within short term and uh studies. You know uh i i am. I know suggesting some institutionalization of s.i. Because of this this type of complications this type of complications of coordinating long-term studies with short-term studies requires some sort of a very good coordinated design at the beginning uh for example. Maybe some some person may design a short-term study which can be easily uh used and some studies may also take longer time and the short term studies can be taken as a monitoring study for for the longer time and they can be used as an input so this this kind of things required require some a sort of uh very good coordination research agricultural research council logo coordination from the picnic not not. It can’t come. You know if we agricultural research council logotreat individual studies at the time so that is just what i suggest and i have you know institutionally or mainstreaming uh these kind of things in iit or other figure centers is very much important to to actually capture. What what sustainable intensification requires let me. Just follow up before i bring bush let me just let me just follow up with kelly do you. Do you see any signs in the work.
Plans for the new initiatives. That what you’re suggesting is going to happen. Uh no actually just we agricultural research council logoare. We agricultural research council logohaven’t yet planned but uh it should be like that. I know it’s not only within within the one one initiative. That’s what it should be that it should be done. Um uh within within uh each of the cgr and so that i know the coordination should happen. Also between uh across the initiatives for example. The sustainable intensification may plan like that. It may also uh cross plan with with the excellence in agronomy and those things should happen together. Unless in other ways we agricultural research council logodo it such an institutionalization or mainstreaming at higher level. The treatment of each initiative may may not bring any any a big difference. Because you know we agricultural research council logowe agricultural research council logoassume. Also that this these initiatives cross-fertilize each other. They can be used. They can use the inputs of one another and those things should happen at higher level. Okay thanks so um yes a baby abuse please. Yeah thank you very much. Uh and uh thank you bakala for your nice presentation and i just would like to know. Uh the types of legumes that you that have been incorporated into the cropping system and and also would like to know uh the role of soybean in that cropping system in northern ghana. Because i know that there has been a lot of effort to promote soybean in ghana and also. What is the nature of your partnership with the national soybean program in tamale and uh and also are you also planning to partner with us with the soybean program of iita in making sure a good varieties and soybean varieties will be adopted in those agroecologies in the northern ghana. Part of your intervention. Thank you very much. Okay thank you so much. Uh yes uh actually just that i i in in the first studies that i reviewed in africa that the studies are very um many in number. Actually they consider different legumes including that of ghana include also swearing soybean was also included and the cow key there and ground.
These are the three important legumes in northern ghana. As you know so these are there. The studies covered those things. The studies that i reviewed with respect to the farmers preferences. We agricultural research council logodidn’t specifically mention a certain legume. But i know we agricultural research council logoindicated to them that any legume can be there because the purpose of integrating legume is to improve soil fertility and also actually there are different dimensions to it they had in mind these three important legumes particularly uh the groundnuts soybean and the copy in their mind when they were assessing the preferences so uh this is just what we agricultural research council logodid uh regarding the cooperation. Uh uh actually yes. Um cooperation is very much important. Uh up to now uh we agricultural research council logohave been working with. Uh sorry i know sorry. Savannah research agricultural research council logo institute in northern ghana. With respect to trials sari was part of africanized africanizing team and also we agricultural research council logohave been conducting also separate studies within iit and others so in the future yes. Cooperation is very much important. That’s just what uh uh is uh in this age in the in the in the future as well as one cdr uh is also interested to bring up local local research agricultural research council logo institutes and country teams should should include the local partners as well. That’s just what i’m expecting in the future. Yes okay thank you um any more questions please. Okay i’m not seeing any more hands. No okay so we agricultural research council logowill leave it there bikili. Thank you very much. Um we agricultural research council logowill start the next phase which is a panel discussion. Uh after uh after a five minute break so the panel can still remain on the link please and um everyone else thank you for your participation and have a good weekend thanks thank you so much.
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