Sub-Saharan Africa

This special of Agricultural Systems focuses on prioritising climate-smart agricultural (CSA) interventions at different scales. Currently, there are few tools that can comprehensively evaluate the range of potential technologies and practices and their possible impacts on food production, environmental sustainability, and mitigation in any context. Therefore, what remains is the prioritization of interventions for investment and broad dissemination. This special issue brings together nine papers describing a wide range of approaches and tools. »

This book provides a detailed explanation on optimizing fertilizer use within an Integrated Soil Fertility Management Framework in 13 African countries. The book shares the findings of the Optimizing Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA) project. The last chapter elaborates on enabling fertilizer use optimization, and how to maximize potential profits of fertilizer use while taking the farmer’s context into account and keeping risks low. At the farm level enabling fertilizer use optimization is in early stages for most countries but considerable experience has been gained from Uganda, as well as Kenya and Tanzania. »

This info-note by CGIAR, USAID and FAO presents the results on the decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the Rwanda Dairy Competitiveness Program II (RDCP). It was estimated to have resulted in a strong decrease in the GHG emissions intensity of milk production. The increase in milk output was proportionally much larger than the associated increase in GHG emissions. This increase in the efficiency of dairy production systems was the basis for a transformation to more sustainable production patterns in intensive and extensive dairy systems. »

This article analyses urban land take in cropland areas for the years 2000 and 2040, using a land systems approach. The results show that future urban expansion is primarily expected in areas that are also suitable and available for cropland, thus suggesting a continued competition for land between urban expansion and food production. »

This working paper analyses how cities and secondary towns affect agricultural practices in their rural hinterlands. While most of the population in sub-Saharan Africa resides in cities and secondary towns, this relationship is not well understood. »

This article in the Food Security journal explores the link between resilience and child malnutrition in Africa. Using detailed survey data from Mali, this paper examines whether the resilience capacity of households is a determinant of child malnutrition. The empirical evidence presented here demonstrates that higher resilience capacity is associated with both lower probability of having malnourished children. »