Bringing evidence to bear for negotiating tradeoffs in sustainable agricultural intensification using a structured stakeholder engagement process

Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) has the potential to increase food security without detrimental effects on ecosystem services. However, adoption of SAI practices across sub-Saharan Africa has not reached transformational numbers to date. It is often hampered by lack of context-specific practices, sub-optimal understanding of tradeoffs and synergies among stakeholders, and lack of approaches that bring diverse evidence sources together with stakeholders to collectively tackle complex problems. In this study, we asked three interconnected questions: (i) What is the accessibility and use of evidence for SAI decision making; (ii) What tools could enhance access and interaction with evidence for tradeoff analysis; and (iii) Which stakeholders must be included? This study employed a range of research and engagement methods including surveys, stakeholder analysis, participatory trade-off assessments and co-design of decision dashboards to better support evidence-based decision making in Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. At the inception, SAI evidence was accessible and used by less than half of the decision makers across the three countries and online dashboards hold promise to enhance access. Many of the stakeholders working on SAI were not collaborating and tradeoff analysis was an under-utilized tool. Structured engagement across multiple stakeholder groups with evidence is critical

Agriculture extensification and associated socio-ecological trade-offs in smallholder farming systems of Zambia

One of the main drivers of deforestation in Zambia is the expansion of agricultural land for increasing production areas and for shift cultivation due to poor crop management practices. Land expansion was also echoed by farmers in Northwestern province as they aim to increase yield via land expansion. It was therefore important to understand possible associated socio-ecological trade-offs in agricultural extensification and identify pathways to improve ecosystem services delivery and reduce trade-offs. We used the Tradeoff Analysis model for Multi-Dimensional (TOA-MD) and Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) to assess trade-offs in both current and future farming systems under extensification (CP) and sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI). Thirty-year simulations showed that agricultural extensification will lead to loss of soil organic carbon) and total soil nitrogen of about 23% and 22%, respectively leading to yield reductions of about 35% and increased poverty levels. However, SAI approach results showed that poverty can be reduced by about 20% for farmers with land holdings of 3 ha while those with 2 and 5 ha can be reduced by 10% and 5% respectively. The proposed SAI has potential to reduce poverty, maintain good current and future crop production, and potentially aid farmers to reduce opening new fields