What is the best agricultural system for Africa?

Generally, traditional African agricultural systems do not use many external agricultural inputs. Therefore, they are sometimes also termed 'organic-by-neglect'. However, the non-use of external agricultural inputs does not mean that a system is sustainable. Some of the shortcomings of traditional systems include the failure to implement soil fertility measures, prevent soil erosion, cutting down of forests and burning of biomass (e.g. slash and burn systems). In some areas, for example in perennial plantations like coffee or cocoa, no additional nutrient supplies are given or pest management strategies carried out, yet the crops are continuously harvested. While maintenance costs are low due to the lack of appropriate soil and crop management, soil fertility, plant health and productivity gradually decrease with time and the often-severe yield failures result in famine.

The other challenge is that in many African countries, population is increasing and traditional farming yields have been unable to meet the consumption demand of the population. Due to reduced fallow periods, overgrazing or exploitative cultivation, many traditionally farmed areas face severe degradation.

At the same time, traditional farming systems have selected and preserved numerous useful methods and techniques, which have been proven to be successful under specific local conditions. For example, the use of adapted and tolerant cultivars and breeds can be extremely useful in the pursuance of a sustainable agricultural system.

Conventional agriculture is not a clearly defined production system. In contrast to other production systems such as traditional or organic agriculture, it is usually referred to as a high external input agriculture. The conventional approach focuses on increasing yields and maximizing profit per cultivated area by the intensive use of external inputs such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, seeds that require high resource input and irrigation. This production system can easily lead to soil degradation, contamination of soil and water and finally results in the permanent loss of productive land, biodiversity and even the extinction of fauna and flora species. Furthermore, conventional practices such as monocultures make farmers dependent on a few crops or even a single crop and expensive external agricultural inputs, which increases costs and risks to production, particularly amidst the danger of decreasing prices for farm products.

The conventional approach can be successful in the short- and mid-term in areas where the natural soil fertility is high, water availability is not restricted and access to capital is easy. These favourable conditions, however, rarely come together for African small-holder farmers. It is, therefore, unlikely that conventional agriculture can help to resolve the challenges that affect African agriculture in a sustainable way. Conventional agriculture lacks the affordable, resilient and productive farming practices essential to addressing and meeting the needs of the local population and ecosystem.

Different philosophies and various trends claiming to promote ‘sustainable agriculture’ exist. They essentially all contain certain rules such as the ban of toxic inputs to avoid negative effects of the agricultural production to the environment, the consumer and the farmer. Among the ‘family’ of sustainable agriculture systems, organic agriculture is the only system which rejects the use of synthetic-chemical inputs. The relevance of organic agriculture for Africa and the requirements for labelling are described in Module 7.

Usually the modern sustainable production systems are branded, have a name and the producers are more or less strictly controlled and certified. Nowadays, to produce for the export market, it is a big advantage–sometimes even a must–to be a certified label producer. Independent certification and marketing-oriented labelling are comparative advantages of organic agriculture compared to other sustainable systems (details about certified production, standards and certification see module 7).

Among the ‘family’ of sustainable agriculture systems there are several ‘non-organic label production systems’ relevant for Africa. The following list, while not complete, serves as an overview:

• ‘Integrated Production’ (IP) does not refrain from using agrochemicals, but aims to reduce the quantities applied. For plant protection, if possible and economic, a combination of biocontrol methods and chemical pesticides is used (Integrated Pest Management). If infestation by pest or disease reaches pre-defined threshold levels, chemical pesticides are applied. For plant nutrition, chemical fertilisers can be used, but usually maximum amounts per crop are defined. Some IP-labels require regular soil analysis. IP-Labels are also relevant in Africa, such as the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), a voluntary environmental sustainability scheme established by the South African wine industry in 1998 (www.ipw.co.za). Other programmes are more production oriented and do not necessary target label marketing (e.g. the FAO-funded Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM) Programme in West Africa). The strength and novelty of such a programme lies in bridging the fields of epidemiology, public health, ecotoxicology, risk assessment, entomology, agronomy, economics, policy sciences and natural resource management (FAO 2008).
• Fair trade labels, such as Max Havelaar (www.maxhavelaar.be/international ) are highly relevant for African small-holder producers. There are two distinct sets of fair-trade standards, which acknowledge different types of disadvantaged producers. One set of standards applies to small-holders that are working together in cooperatives or other organizations with a democratic structure. The other set applies to workers, whose employers pay decent wages, guarantee the right to join trade unions, ensure health and safety standards and provide adequate housing where relevant. Fair trade standards also cover terms of trade. Most products have a fair-trade price, which is the minimum that must be paid to the producers. In addition, producers get an additional sum—known as the ‘fair-trade premium’—to invest in their communities. Fair trade standards do not include organic production regulations and, therefore, fair trade does not automatically imply an organic product. However, several fair-trade programmes have double certification for both fair trade and organic. Most fair-trade labels are members of the international umbrella organisation Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) (www.fairtrade.net).
• A certification that is increasingly required by importing retail companies is ‘Good Agricultural Practice’ (GAP) (www.globalgap.org). The GLOBALG.A.P standard is primarily designed to reassure consumers about how food is produced on the farm by minimising detrimental environmental impacts of farming operations, reducing the use of chemical inputs and ensuring a responsible approach to worker health and safety as well as animal welfare. For example, many supermarkets in the European Union require compliance with the GlobalG.A.P standard. In Africa, mainly exporters of fruit and vegetables are GlobalG.A.P-certified.
• Sustainable agriculture includes systems such as ‘Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture’ (LEISA) www.puttingfarmersfirst.ca/leisa/). LEISA is highly relevant in Africa and is promoted through many programmes. It partially renounces the use of agrochemicals and seeks to optimise the use of locally available resources by interlinking the components of the farm system, so that they complement each other and have the greatest possible synergistic effect. External inputs are only recommended to provide elements that are deficient in the ecosystem and to enhance available resources. LEISA practices go hand-in-hand with Conservation Agriculture (see below). LEISA, however, is not (yet) a controlled and certified system with a label for products.