Tomorrow the 27th and the day after tomorrow the 28th, the 8th Tokyo International Conference on Agricultural Development (TICAD8) will finally be held. Although the African development agenda is not limited to agriculture, improving agricultural productivity is essential for providing nutritious food in rural and urban areas and for promoting economic structural transformation.

In this issue, we introduce the biggest challenge in sub-Saharan African agriculture—the challenge of increasing agricultural productivity, referring to a paper in Science by Prof. Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University and Prof. Pedro Sanchez of the University of Florida, leading experts in African agricultural research.　

According to the paper, agricultural production in Africa has expanded substantially since 2000. However, 75% of that expansion was due to an increase in crop production area, and only about 25% was contributed by crop productivity improvements. Cereal productivity in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 38% during the 38 years from 1980 to 2018, but only about half that of South and Southeast Asia.

There are several reasons why increasing agricultural production requires sustained productivity gains on existing farmland, rather than through an increase in cropland area.

First, the arable land area of most small farmers has shrunk over the past few decades. Across the continent as a whole, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 52% of the world's remaining arable land area, but this land is concentrated in just eight countries, and in the remaining 41 countries, much of the rural population is concentrated in small areas. In sub-Saharan Africa's arable land, where annual precipitation exceeds 400 mm, 20% of the land in relatively good conditions hosts 74% of the rural population. Many young rural populations have less and less land available for inheritance. Thus, even though Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole appears to have land, many rural populations are actually facing land scarcity, and with observed land price increases, it is inevitably important for rural Africa to improve the productivity of existing land.

In addition, relying on the expansion of arable land for agricultural expansion is not desirable in terms of protecting biodiversity, natural vegetation, and environmental conservation. In order to support Africa's growing population while protecting the earth's precious nature, it is important to increase productivity on existing land.

Technology is needed to improve agricultural productivity. The introduction of improved seeds and the application of chemical fertilizers and organic matter are prerequisites for increasing productivity in African agriculture. However, African soils are generally poor in nutrients, and not enough inorganic and organic fertilizers are replenished after crop harvest, resulting in a vicious cycle of soil fertility degradation.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, chemical fertilizer application averaged 8 kg per hectare in 2006; in 2018, this value was 17.9 kg, which is not enough to replenish the nutrients taken up by the harvested crops. Both crop fertilizer use efficiency and fertilizer application methods need to be improved, depending on the soil and crop conditions at each site. In particular, an extension system that enables two-way information exchange with farmers is important, and close collaboration among fertilizer companies and research institutes is also required.

In order to address the issues raised in the above paper, the role of agronomy in improving agricultural productivity in African development will be discussed at the TICAD8 official side event organized by JIRCAS scheduled on Tuesday, August 30.

Managing African Soil for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability: Opportunities and Challenges of Agronomy to Solve Low Fertility/Nutrient Bottlenecks

Date: Tuesday, August 30, 2022, 17:00-19:00 (JST)
Organizer : Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Supported by: Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency
Registration deadline is Aug 29 at 16:00 (JST).

Japanese：　https://www.jircas.go.jp/ja/event/2022/e20220830
English：　https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/event/2022/e20220830

Reference
Jayne TS, Sanchez PA. 2021. Agricultural productivity must improve in sub-Saharan Africa. The region must pivot from area expansion to increasing crop yields on existing farmland
SCIENCE. 4 Jun 2021. Vol 372, Issue 6546. pp. 1045-1047. DOI: 10.1126/science.abf5413

Contributor: IIYAMA Miyuki (Director, Information Program)