A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.

In the last 20 years, there has been a remarkable emergence of innovations and technological advances that are generating promising changes and opportunities for sustainable agriculture, yet at the same time the agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges. Not only is the agricultural sector expected to produce adequate food, fiber, and feed, and contribute to biofuels to meet the needs of a rising global population, it is expected to do so under increasingly scarce natural resources and climate change. Growing awareness of the unintended impacts associated with some agricultural production practices has led to heightened societal expectations for improved environmental, community, labor, and animal welfare standards in agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. It also explores how those lessons learned could be applied to agriculture in different regional and international settings, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on a systems approach to improving the sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this book can have a profound impact on the development and implementation of sustainable farming systems. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies.

This book is the result of a collaborative research effort between the World Bank and the International Livestock Centre for Africa. It extends previous work on agricultural mechanization and the evolution of farming systems in Africa by seeking to answer a number of basic questions about the integration of crops and livestock in sub - Saharan Africa. Those questions include the role of mixed farming in promoting agricultural growth, the appropriate points at which to encourage the use of animals as sources of farm power, the contribution of animals to improving the poor fertility of African soils, the efficacy of different methods to better livestock nutrition, and the economic returns to incorporating livestock production on small farms. While many individual studies have analyzed such issues in the past, this book is the first comprehensive review of existing knowledge which offers general explanations of crop-livestock relations with respect to both economic and technical features of African agriculture. In doing so, experimental evidence is carefully synthesized and examined in light of field visits to thirty-three different sites through the major agroclimates of sub - Saharan Africa. The detailed empirical nature of the book permits specific conclusions to be drawn for different farming systems, while its comparisons across those systems allow broad explanations of contrasting crop-livestock interactions.

Knowledge of Africa’s complex farming systems, set in their socio-economic and environmental context, is an essential ingredient to developing effective strategies for improving food and nutrition security. This book systematically and comprehensively describes the characteristics, trends, drivers of change and strategic priorities for each of Africa’s fifteen farming systems and their main subsystems. It shows how a farming systems perspective can be used to identify pathways to household food security and poverty reduction, and how strategic interventions may need to differ from one farming system to another. In the analysis, emphasis is placed on understanding farming systems drivers of change, trends and strategic priorities for science and policy. Illustrated with full-colour maps and photographs throughout, the volume provides a comprehensive and insightful analysis of Africa’s farming systems and pathways for the future to improve food and nutrition security. The book is an essential follow-up to the seminal work Farming Systems and Poverty by Dixon and colleagues for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Bank, published in 2001.

Forward. A call for integrated soil fertility management in Africa. Introduction. ISFM and the African farmer. Part I. The principles of ISFM: ISFM as a strategic goal, Fertilizer management within ISFM, Agro-minerals in ISFM, Organic resource management, ISFM, soil biota and soil health. Part II. ISFM practices: ISFM products and fields practices, ISFM practice in drylands, ISFM practice in savannas and woodlands, ISFM practice in the humid forest zone, Conservation Agriculture. Part III. The process of implementing ISFM: soil fertility diagnosis, soil fertility management advice, Dissemination of ISFM technologies, Designing an ISFM adoption project, ISFM at farm and landscape scales. Part IV. The social dimensions of ISFM: The role of ISFM in gender empowerment, ISFM and household nutrition, Capacity building in ISFM, ISFM in the policy arena, Marketing support for ISFM, Advancing ISFM in Africa. Appendices: Mineral nutrient contents of some common organic resources.

The humid highlands in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are characterized by high population densities and require intensification. The Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) has set up a research for development platform in various mandate areas in DR Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, aiming to identify improved production, market, and nutrition options and facilitating the access for development partners to these options. This platform is supported by capacity building, multi-stakeholder dialogue, and monitoring and evaluation efforts. The conference, facilitated by CIALCA, aimed to (i) take stock of the state-of the art in agricultural intensification in the highlands of SSA and (ii) chart the way forward for agricultural research for development in the humid highlands of SSA, and more specifically in the recently launched Humidtropics Consortium Research Programme, through keynote, oral and poster presentations, and strategic panel discussions.

"Joint Publication with the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America."