I have begun my adventure exploring the effects of drought on agriculture in the southwestern U.S. In Gallup, New Mexico, I heard about a dried-up windmill-powered well on the Navajo Nation. The parched well is part of a long-standing family operation, and it has certainly dried up before. What is striking is that this is the second year in a row that it has dried up-- and that this is the rainy season here in New Mexico. The family corn patch that usually supplies much of the family's food will not be producing anything but dried stalks.
In Gallup I also got to hear a little about the local agriculture scene. The town has a CSA (community supported agriculture) of the innovative style that I have seen popping up in a lot of larger cities. A variety of growers are linked through a single CSA coordinator, giving a broader reach to the growers and increasing the fresh veggies available to residents of Gallup. While not all the produce is from Gallup itself, it is all from the local foodshed. What I found most exciting is that some of it is even being grown on urban plots in Gallup itself. Seeing urban farming blossoming in such a small town seems like an encouraging sign of the groundswell of interest in regenerating local agriculture. It will be interesting to see how they will deal with drought. Check out Work in Beauty CSA.
Today I have been spending time in the USDA offices here in Albuquerque. Between talking to Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) folk, Farm Service Agency (FSA) loan providers, the FSA insurance program director and a brief chat with one of the APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) officials, I got quite a lot of sense of how agriculture is bearing up under the current drought in the state. Reservoirs are low, rivers are dry, and farming that depends on wells from the Ogalala aquifer in the eastern part of the state are dealing with ever-deepening wells (the Ogalala aquifer draw-down is probably less directly related to drought, but is affecting farmers in similar ways). Farmers in the southeastern part of the state are being forced to stop growing alfalfa and traditional chiles. With cotton prices high last year, many grew cotton instead. All over the state, many are being forced to fallow fields or to sell off their livestock. USDA staff told me that many people are settling into the idea that the state is becoming more desert-like for the foreseeable future. I am interested to see whether farmers say the same.
All in all, the farming situation here is reminding me a lot of what farmers are dealing with where I have worked in West Africa. While some have a lot more technology and are blessed with more technical know-how, there is often little they can do to stick strictly to their old systems when drought strikes. Also, most are working separate, off-farm jobs to keep their farm life-style alive. The Navajo woman who told me about her well is just one example; she works as a nurse in Gallup. I am left wondering if family farmers will only survive drought by spending a lot of time off the farm.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Closing Yield Gaps in the Sahel
My research interests in the U.S. grew out of my research interests in the Sahel-- the zone of sub-Saharan Africa that is just south of the Sahara. One of the most important issues in agriculture today is yield gaps: how can we increase on-farm yields to match the yields that can be achieved on research stations? It is surprisingly complicated question. Here is how I answered it for the Sahel.
The question of whether our crop production can sustain all of our needs for food, fiber and fuel has gained increasing urgency as biofuels have captured a significant share of world crop production in just the last few years. A substantial rise in world food prices in 2007-2008 combined with the growing presence of biofuels encouraged closer scrutiny of crop yields around the world. According to global scale analyses, a number of regions fall substantially behind their expected levels of production, among them, Sub-Saharan Africa’s Sahel, the belt of dry but still productive land south of the Sahara Desert. Some nations and corporations that have worked to acquire land in the region contend that the region’s under-productivity can be improved by outsiders bringing in new technologies.
Areas of Africa are long overdue for their own Green Revolution of the kind seen in Asia in the 1970’s, where campaigning researchers like Norman Borlaug were said to have prevented the deaths of millions by introducing new crop hybrids and their associated fertilization and pest-control techniques. Why do regions like the Sahel still lag behind in crop yields? Can outside investment alone overcome the barriers to higher yields? Analysis of the agricultural systems important to the region reveals that any changes in agricultural systems will have to overcome a unique set of barriers. Extraordinarily poor soils, lack of infrastructure like transportation and agricultural extension and inadequate crop research combine with a variety of socioeconomic constraints to make increasing yields a unique challenge. As climate change brings higher maximum temperatures and increasingly variable rainfall to the region, farmers will need more assistance from research and extension to make appropriate changes to their systems. More investment will therefore be part of the solution to improving yields in the Sahel, but the investment must be carefully targeted to the base causes of low yields.
Adding to the area’s difficulties is a long-term lack of crop research as compared to areas that have experienced Green Revolution production shifts. The predominant crops grown here-- millet, sorghum, cowpeas, cassava-- have never been the research priorities of global agricultural research. Since dryland India grows similar crops, research there has made major advances in producing new crop varieties that improve production. Few of the Indian innovations have made
their way to the Sahel, though, and even crops developed in Africa’s research stations have not been nearly as widely adopted by farmers as they have been in other world regions.
Soils and lack of research are only a part of the region’s agricultural challenges. Just as important are the socioeconomic constraints of farmers. Manufactured fertilizers are too expensive for most farmers to afford for their staple crops (Figure 1). Since most farmers cannot access credit, they cannot obtain capital to invest in fertilizers. Lack of crop price regulation causes crop prices to drop just when farmers are ready to sell their crops, further prohibiting them from investing in farm improvements. Those research innovations that have occurred often do not ever reach farmers’ ears due to an underfunded and inadequate agricultural extension system. Improved seed is difficult to access. Moreover, the most impoverished farmers often have the least secure access to land. Poor farmers, especially the region’s ubiquitous female farmers, often have to depend on others for access to land, and find that their access is denied if spouses or other powerful men want land to grow cash crops. Such insecure access means farmers have less ability and desire to invest in the future of the lands they farm.
Along with soil enhancements, improving the genetics of crops grown in the region is one of the central pieces of agricultural science that will be key for the Sahel. Improved understanding of the area’s variable rainfall and the ways in which farmers have adapted to it must combine with new crop varieties produced on research stations. Farmers typically plant genetically varied seed that is derived from their previous year’s harvest. The variety of plants that results ensures that farmers will have a harvest in almost any year, regardless of droughts or floods, because at least a portion of the plants in their fields will survive. Research station production, on the other hand, has often focused on producing single varieties that improve yields under ideal soil and water conditions. Farmers who grew only one or a few of such ideal varieties would risk complete crop failure, imperiling their food stores for an entire year. Yet, new varieties are needed to respond to the increases in maximum temperatures expected to occur in the region. Ideally, researchers and farmers can collaborate on improving existing varieties while creating mixes of crop varieties that minimize risks of failure due to rainfall variability. Such a joint effort would react to both of the expected climatic shifts predicted here.
An alliance between farmers and researchers-- as well as extension-- could help produce a wider adoption of improved varieties and farmer-friendly, risk-averse techniques like low-density plantings, seed combinations with both late and early-maturing varieties and more targeted applications of animal manure. The international community could assist with improved farmer and researcher communication by investing in training and expansion of agricultural extension. In addition to knowledge, farmers need more access to credit in order to purchase needed inputs, but the riskiness of credit can ruin farmers almost as thoroughly as can a poor harvest. Assistance should therefore also be targeted to research on appropriate ways to extend credit, potentially through joint farmer networks that build on existing (and growing) networks of social support.
Along with the challenges already mentioned, the need to incorporate transhumant (seasonally-migrating) pastoralists into the system will continue to be important. Livestock contributes substantially to the GDP of all of the area’s countries, and also supplies a large portion of the soil fertility for crops as animals drop their manure. Outsiders who have invested in land here have often invested in prime land, with high water availability from rivers or in the ground. Such areas are necessary to pastoral systems because they provide water that livestock need as they migrate. Therefore, investors’ land purchases are limiting pastoral mobility, and are therefore constraining one of the greatest contributors to soil fertility in the region. The cutting off of herder routes highlights the importance of understanding the full system as completely as possible in making policy and research choices.
As science and society become increasingly aware of the contributions of modern agriculture to climate change, appreciation of the need for low-input methods of improving agriculture is emerging. The Sahel, with its minimal current financial resources and susceptibility to continued climate change, will particularly benefit from low-input methods to decrease yield gaps. Yet developing and refining such low-input methods will require financial support from the international community. In addition, policy makers must build their knowledge of the system as they work to increase production in the region. The importance of the interactions of pastoralism with agriculture, for example, must be recognized. If the Sahel’s agriculture is to keep pace with its population growth and catch up with the rest of the world, researchers and policy makers have a steep learning curve ahead of them.
References
Aune, J.B. and A. Bationo. 2008. Agricultural intensification in the Sahel-- the ladder approach. Agricultural Systems 98: 119-125.
Bationo, A. and A.U. Mokwunye. 1991. Alleviating soil fertility constraints to increased crop production in Africa: The experience in the Sahel. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 29:95-115.
Deb, M.C.S. and U.K. Bantilan. 2003. Impacts of Genetic Improvement in Sorghum. Chapter 9 in Crop Variety Improvement and Its Effect on Productivity: The Impact of International Agricultural Research. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: CABI Publishing. Accessible at: http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/282053/9780851995496.pdf
Mazzucato, V. and D. Neimeijer. 2001. Overestimating land degradation, underestimating farmers in the Sahel. IIED Drylands Program Issue Paper no. 101.
Nin-Pratt, A., M. Johnson, E. Magalhaes, L. You, X. Diao and J. Chamberlin. 2011. Yield Gaps and Potential Agricultural Growth in West and Central Africa. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute.
Closing Yield Gaps in the Sahel
The question of whether our crop production can sustain all of our needs for food, fiber and fuel has gained increasing urgency as biofuels have captured a significant share of world crop production in just the last few years. A substantial rise in world food prices in 2007-2008 combined with the growing presence of biofuels encouraged closer scrutiny of crop yields around the world. According to global scale analyses, a number of regions fall substantially behind their expected levels of production, among them, Sub-Saharan Africa’s Sahel, the belt of dry but still productive land south of the Sahara Desert. Some nations and corporations that have worked to acquire land in the region contend that the region’s under-productivity can be improved by outsiders bringing in new technologies.
Areas of Africa are long overdue for their own Green Revolution of the kind seen in Asia in the 1970’s, where campaigning researchers like Norman Borlaug were said to have prevented the deaths of millions by introducing new crop hybrids and their associated fertilization and pest-control techniques. Why do regions like the Sahel still lag behind in crop yields? Can outside investment alone overcome the barriers to higher yields? Analysis of the agricultural systems important to the region reveals that any changes in agricultural systems will have to overcome a unique set of barriers. Extraordinarily poor soils, lack of infrastructure like transportation and agricultural extension and inadequate crop research combine with a variety of socioeconomic constraints to make increasing yields a unique challenge. As climate change brings higher maximum temperatures and increasingly variable rainfall to the region, farmers will need more assistance from research and extension to make appropriate changes to their systems. More investment will therefore be part of the solution to improving yields in the Sahel, but the investment must be carefully targeted to the base causes of low yields.
What are yield gaps?
Limits to crop production are often defined in terms of yield gaps. A yield gap can be defined as the difference between the yield potential, or maximum possible yield, and the average on-farm yield. Yield potential in the Sahel is often described as the yields obtained on the area’s research stations. The yield gap, by that definition, is usually quite high. Yields on research stations may be three to six times higher than average yields, or even greater.Why are yield gaps in the Sahel so large?
The region has some of the poorest soils in the world. In geological terms, the soils are among the oldest on Earth. Millions of years of wind erosion and leaching of soil nutrients by heavy seasonal rains have left the soils deficient in most of the substances necessary to sustain plant life. They contain very little phosphorous, one the most important plant nutrients, and insufficient amounts of other essential minerals and of organic matter. Further diminishing the soils’ productivity is the presence of large amounts of aluminum, which inhibits plants’ ability to absorb other nutrients. Comparable soils occur only in northern Australia, which sustains a population only four percent as dense as the Sahel’s.Adding to the area’s difficulties is a long-term lack of crop research as compared to areas that have experienced Green Revolution production shifts. The predominant crops grown here-- millet, sorghum, cowpeas, cassava-- have never been the research priorities of global agricultural research. Since dryland India grows similar crops, research there has made major advances in producing new crop varieties that improve production. Few of the Indian innovations have made
their way to the Sahel, though, and even crops developed in Africa’s research stations have not been nearly as widely adopted by farmers as they have been in other world regions.
Soils and lack of research are only a part of the region’s agricultural challenges. Just as important are the socioeconomic constraints of farmers. Manufactured fertilizers are too expensive for most farmers to afford for their staple crops (Figure 1). Since most farmers cannot access credit, they cannot obtain capital to invest in fertilizers. Lack of crop price regulation causes crop prices to drop just when farmers are ready to sell their crops, further prohibiting them from investing in farm improvements. Those research innovations that have occurred often do not ever reach farmers’ ears due to an underfunded and inadequate agricultural extension system. Improved seed is difficult to access. Moreover, the most impoverished farmers often have the least secure access to land. Poor farmers, especially the region’s ubiquitous female farmers, often have to depend on others for access to land, and find that their access is denied if spouses or other powerful men want land to grow cash crops. Such insecure access means farmers have less ability and desire to invest in the future of the lands they farm.
Closing the Sahel’s Yield Gaps
With such extraordinary challenges, improving agriculture in the Sahel requires novel thinking and an understanding of the region’s complexity. For example, the fertilization solutions for Asia’s Green Revolution, if used in isolation, would not be appropriate because: 1) the lack of organic matter in soils here means that fertilizers are only useful if more organic materials (e.g crop residues) are added to soils with fertilizers; 2) farmers can’t afford to purchase fertilizers without assistance; 3) the solutions that led to improvements in Asia also led to some significant problems with water pollution, a problem we should be reluctant to replicate elsewhere and 4) we are now aware of the contribution of manufactured fertilizers to global warming, so massive investments in them have the potential to worsen the overarching problems of the region’s agriculture. Helping farmers improve their soils in the Sahel therefore means helping farmers find green manure crops to grow alongside their main crops. Appropriate green manure crops would include trees that do not substantially decrease yields, and whose branches and leaves can be cut and placed on the soil after harvest to increase organic matter enrichment. At the same time, international assistance aimed toward both decreasing prices of manufactured fertilizer and teaching farmers effective techniques of micro-fertilization would be necessary to round out soil improvement measures. Micro-fertilization, in which tiny amounts of fertilizer are placed in a planting hole along with the crop’s seeds, has had success in research contexts. It also allows for a much smaller amount of fertilizer to be purchased than in conventional techniques, and has a far lower likelihood of contributing to environmental problems like water contamination.Along with soil enhancements, improving the genetics of crops grown in the region is one of the central pieces of agricultural science that will be key for the Sahel. Improved understanding of the area’s variable rainfall and the ways in which farmers have adapted to it must combine with new crop varieties produced on research stations. Farmers typically plant genetically varied seed that is derived from their previous year’s harvest. The variety of plants that results ensures that farmers will have a harvest in almost any year, regardless of droughts or floods, because at least a portion of the plants in their fields will survive. Research station production, on the other hand, has often focused on producing single varieties that improve yields under ideal soil and water conditions. Farmers who grew only one or a few of such ideal varieties would risk complete crop failure, imperiling their food stores for an entire year. Yet, new varieties are needed to respond to the increases in maximum temperatures expected to occur in the region. Ideally, researchers and farmers can collaborate on improving existing varieties while creating mixes of crop varieties that minimize risks of failure due to rainfall variability. Such a joint effort would react to both of the expected climatic shifts predicted here.
An alliance between farmers and researchers-- as well as extension-- could help produce a wider adoption of improved varieties and farmer-friendly, risk-averse techniques like low-density plantings, seed combinations with both late and early-maturing varieties and more targeted applications of animal manure. The international community could assist with improved farmer and researcher communication by investing in training and expansion of agricultural extension. In addition to knowledge, farmers need more access to credit in order to purchase needed inputs, but the riskiness of credit can ruin farmers almost as thoroughly as can a poor harvest. Assistance should therefore also be targeted to research on appropriate ways to extend credit, potentially through joint farmer networks that build on existing (and growing) networks of social support.
Along with the challenges already mentioned, the need to incorporate transhumant (seasonally-migrating) pastoralists into the system will continue to be important. Livestock contributes substantially to the GDP of all of the area’s countries, and also supplies a large portion of the soil fertility for crops as animals drop their manure. Outsiders who have invested in land here have often invested in prime land, with high water availability from rivers or in the ground. Such areas are necessary to pastoral systems because they provide water that livestock need as they migrate. Therefore, investors’ land purchases are limiting pastoral mobility, and are therefore constraining one of the greatest contributors to soil fertility in the region. The cutting off of herder routes highlights the importance of understanding the full system as completely as possible in making policy and research choices.
As science and society become increasingly aware of the contributions of modern agriculture to climate change, appreciation of the need for low-input methods of improving agriculture is emerging. The Sahel, with its minimal current financial resources and susceptibility to continued climate change, will particularly benefit from low-input methods to decrease yield gaps. Yet developing and refining such low-input methods will require financial support from the international community. In addition, policy makers must build their knowledge of the system as they work to increase production in the region. The importance of the interactions of pastoralism with agriculture, for example, must be recognized. If the Sahel’s agriculture is to keep pace with its population growth and catch up with the rest of the world, researchers and policy makers have a steep learning curve ahead of them.
References
Aune, J.B. and A. Bationo. 2008. Agricultural intensification in the Sahel-- the ladder approach. Agricultural Systems 98: 119-125.
Bationo, A. and A.U. Mokwunye. 1991. Alleviating soil fertility constraints to increased crop production in Africa: The experience in the Sahel. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 29:95-115.
Deb, M.C.S. and U.K. Bantilan. 2003. Impacts of Genetic Improvement in Sorghum. Chapter 9 in Crop Variety Improvement and Its Effect on Productivity: The Impact of International Agricultural Research. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: CABI Publishing. Accessible at: http://www.fao.org/docs/eims/upload/282053/9780851995496.pdf
Mazzucato, V. and D. Neimeijer. 2001. Overestimating land degradation, underestimating farmers in the Sahel. IIED Drylands Program Issue Paper no. 101.
Nin-Pratt, A., M. Johnson, E. Magalhaes, L. You, X. Diao and J. Chamberlin. 2011. Yield Gaps and Potential Agricultural Growth in West and Central Africa. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
How can we help counter global warming?
In working with the students in my environmental studies class a few weeks ago, I realized how many of them were unsure about how we should go about constructively reacting to global warming. They all had ideas about how we as individuals can reduce our footprints, but many had trouble seeing how to change the larger system. All of us who are concerned about the effects of global warming experience that struggle. I think it is important to remember though, that there are many actions we can take that will help turn the tide and decrease our global carbon emissions. I start with the personal, but if you are ready to move beyond that and take more action, I also offer suggestions for larger scale action.
Personal actions
Starting with your personal actions is important. What each of us does affects how much carbon is released into the atmosphere. Also, changing your own habits can make you more aware of some of the larger issues. Where does your electricity come from? Can you change that? Do you have to drive a car to work? Why? Is there any way to change that?There are a number of sites with recommendations on how you can change your own habits. For example, this American Public Media site offers tips on everything from buying local and with less packaging to carbon-friendly entertainment. The EPA also has some great recommendations on "What You Can Do" to decrease emissions. What I especially like about the EPA site is that is goes beyond personal recommendations to considering education. It offers suggestions for administrators as well as educators and students.
Ultimately, building houses that use passive solar systems and building cities that we can easily navigate without cars are key to making our home lives more carbon friendly. Immediate changes can make a big difference, though:
- Buy less: do you really need the newest gadget? Can you do with fewer clothes? Can you buy more food in bulk to decrease packaging?
- Choose different transport
- carpool
- take the bus
- ride your bike
- walk
- take the train instead of a plane on a longer trip
- Reduce home emissions
- turn down your thermostat (when it is cold outside)
- update your home's insulation
- open a window instead of using air conditioning
- buy EnergyStar appliances when you update
- install compact fluorescent bulbs
- Choose food that you know has a lower carbon footprint: Knowing how "your" farmer grows food is important. Be aware of whether they minimize use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, that they grow close to your home, that they are not growing in a heated greenhouse but just using the power of the sun-- all of these make a difference. Farmers markets are a great choice when they are in season, as are Community Supported Agriculture Systems.
- Recycle what you can
Beyond the personal: What else can you do?
Here is where many of us struggle the most. The big changes really need to affect whole cities, states and countries, right? What can I possibly do about that?Education
Are your schools teaching about climate change and the positive actions we can take? Ask teachers you know. If they are not explicitly teaching about global warming, encourage them. Go to school board meetings. Discuss it with your child's teacher. Write to the big textbook manufacturers. For example, call the McGraw Hill customer service representatives and tell them you want to sample their best texts on climate change-- ask them what they have. They just got rated a "green" company; do their books live up to that? Organize a petition to encourage your school district or textbook manufacturers to improve.Local government
Local governments in the U.S. have been among the most active in combating climate change. The U.S. Conference of Majors has been taking action. Mayors are working on decreasing their city's emissions while also preparing for more severe heat waves and rising oceans. Cities like Seattle and Chicago are already changing practices. Is your city taking part? Write to your mayor's office if they are not. Find out why. Organize a petition to encourage decreased emissions. Ask that city planning decrease the need to use a car-- one vital part of decreasing our carbon emissions. Help make it happen.State government
How do your state's policy makers measure up? Are they helping to make long-distance mass transit possible? Wisconsin's governor turned down funding for a major long-distance, high-speed rail system that would have linked Chicago to Madison to Minneapolis. That is only one of many reasons that a major segment of the state has organized a recall election against him. But it is an important one. How our state governors and legislators prepare for climate change will have a long-term impact on our efforts to minimize emissions.Shouldn't our U.S. governors be organizing the same way that the mayors are? Write to your governor and to the National Governors Association. Write to your state-level representatives. Vote, organize petitions and make your voice heard.
National government
The United States is among the few developed nations that did not sign the Kyoto Protocol agreement that requires countries to limit their carbon emissions. Countries in Europe are already making significant strides toward reducing emissions, with emissions reduced 17% over 1990 levels (see "Climate Change" under "Key Findings and Recommendations). Why has that not happened in the U.S.? Hold your state's senators and representatives accountable: Are they working to bring better climate policies to the table? Will they encourage the country to participate in new rounds of climate talks? Again, write letters, organize petitions. Write to the President, too.
What else?
Do you have other ideas on how we should go about decreasing global warming? I look forward to your suggestions!Saturday, April 21, 2012
Where do we grow our food? How do we grow it? How much do we know about what farmers have to do to survive on the farm today? Which environmental choices will ensure long-term food production?
I want to address these questions and others. Our lives depend on agriculture, but we often know far less about how our food is produced than we would like.
Farming is one of the most complex of human systems, and that is why I find it a fascinating topic to study. It calls on our science knowledge, ranging from chemistry to entomology to ecology. Understanding how it varies across the landscape also requires us to analyze why people make different decisions than their neighbors and how those decisions change over time.
I plan to use this blog to examine our approaches to agriculture as well as the environment. My perspective as a geographer will influence what I write, but so will my past as a science teacher, Peace Corps volunteer and farmworker. I look forward to hearing back from all of you as I write.
I want to address these questions and others. Our lives depend on agriculture, but we often know far less about how our food is produced than we would like.
Farming is one of the most complex of human systems, and that is why I find it a fascinating topic to study. It calls on our science knowledge, ranging from chemistry to entomology to ecology. Understanding how it varies across the landscape also requires us to analyze why people make different decisions than their neighbors and how those decisions change over time.
I plan to use this blog to examine our approaches to agriculture as well as the environment. My perspective as a geographer will influence what I write, but so will my past as a science teacher, Peace Corps volunteer and farmworker. I look forward to hearing back from all of you as I write.
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