Sustainable farming and small holdings in sub-Saharan Africa: Towards resilient food systems

The challenges of the past few years— including the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, conflicts, climate change and natural resources degradation - are reversing decades of progress in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and exacerbating food insecurity and malnutrition. If Africa does not transform its food systems towards greater sustainability and resilience and build its capacity to achieve zero hunger, the continent is unlikely to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, the continent is expected to face unprecedented high temperatures earlier in this century, emphasizing the urgency of climate change adaptation. Most importantly, agricultural productivity per capita has been already reduced by 35% since the 1960s due to climate change, more than any other region, and future warming would negatively affect food systems by shortening growing seasons, increasing the frequency of extreme events and harboring new pests and diseases. 

In addition to other topics, this Collection will focus on addressing the following research questions, which are constraining the employment of sustainable farming solutions in SSA: 

• Evidence on the costs of the transition towards sustainable farming systems, including costs of biomass, costs of rehabilitation of degraded farms and landscapes, costs of regenerative approaches including costs of additional labour, seed sourcing, mechanization, market linkages and other barriers of adoption. 
• Incentives and entry points to develop multi-functional landscapes, combining the elements of farmer innovation with elements of modern ecological, economic, social and agronomic science, creating a collective action and dialogue for designing and managing productive and resilient landscapes.
• Strategies, methods to enhance Soil Health of smallholding farms, particularly those who have limited access to critical inputs and finance.  
• Innovations that would enhance rainwater management and small-scale irrigation efficiency, as well as increasing water use efficiency and profitability of smallholders while reducing climate risks
• Success stories on combined use of the traditional and improved risk management strategies, including crop diversification, conservation tillage and ridging, varietal mixtures and other drought management practices. 
• Policies and institutions that would facilitate transition to sustainable farming and how these practices could be better employed along with context-specific climate information and prediction tools to mitigate drought, flood and other extreme event.

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3, SDG 13, and SDG 15.