Organic agriculture has the potential to improve both crop yields and incomes of smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa

Farmers in Kenya. Photo by Juliet Wanjiku (ZEF).

Christian Borgemeister co-author of collaborative study from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) 

References: Schader, C., Heidenreich, A., Kadzere, I., Egyir, I., Muriuki, A., Bandanaa, J., Clottey, J., Ndungu, J., Grovermann, C., Lazzarini, G., Blockeel, J., Borgemeister, C., Muller, A., Kabi, F., Fiaboe, K., Adamtey, N., Huber, B., Niggli, U., Stolze, M. (2021) How is organic farming performing agronomically and economically in sub-Saharan Africa? Global Environmental Change, 102325.

Organic agriculture has the potential to improve both crop yields and incomes of smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa substantially – this is shown in a unique  collaborative study from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and its partners that has just been published in the renowned journal Global Environmental Change. This study further demonstrates that in real smallholder farm setting, this potential is difficult to exploit fully and requires sound implementation.

(Frick, 01.09.2021) In the past, the political and scientific discussion on organic farming was ideologically-driven as there was no or contradicting evidence about how productive and profitable organic agriculture is for smallholder farms. The now published study is ground breaking as it

• assesses different kinds of OA in SSA in different real farm settings.
• allows to analyse both at the success of different initiatives for introducing organic agriculture and the success of organic farming as a management system.
• has enough sample size (1645 farms), detailed data over a two-year time horizon and a scientifically sound comparison with a comparable conventional control group.

Therefore, for the first time this study clearly showed how different forms of organic agriculture performed in different real farm settings in SSA and to what extent they can contribute to sustainable development.

Organic agriculture has the potential to substantially boost productivity and farm incomes while substantially contributing to sustainable development in Africa if implemented well. But organic agriculture is certainly not a silver bullet for solving food security issues in SSA. Especially the implementation of organic agriculture in smallholder settings is complex and often fails.

It is necessary to distinguish between different forms of organic agriculture:

• Highly knowledge-intensive systems which are able to increase productivity and profitability and
• other forms which may just do not use conventional inputs (i.e. organic by default)

This will inform debates better and help to develop policies for supporting sustainable development of agriculture and food systems in SSA.

Download the paper

The open access version of the article How is organic farming performing agronomically and economically in sub-Saharan Africa? is now available online: https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0959-3780(21)00104-7

FiBL contacts

• Christian Schader, Group Lead Sustainability, FiBL Switzerland
  Phone +41 62 865 04 16, e-mail christian.schader(at)fibl.org
• Irene Kadzere, Scientist, FiBL Switzerland
  Phone +41 62 865 72 76, e-mail irene.kadzere(at)fibl.org
• Seraina Siragna, Head of Corporate Communications, FiBL Switzerland
  Phone +41 62 865 63 90, e-mail seraina.siragna(at)fibl.org

Ghana contacts

Irene S. Egyir, Professor, Department of Agriculture Economic and Agribusiness, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Phone +233 240932768, e-mail ireneegyir(at)yahoo.com

Kenya contacts

Anne W. Muriuki, Centre Director, Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Food Crops Research Centre, Kabete (NARL), Nairobi, Kenya, Phone +254 20 2464435, e-mail muriukianne(at)gmail.com

Links

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378021001047

Video

Short version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9t-1-OZHIA

Long version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JbfkXf4DKs

This media release online

This media release and pictures can be accessed online at www.fibl.org/en/info-centre/media.html.