"Africa upland farming system"
Development of soil and crop management technologies to stabilize upland farming systems of African smallholder farmers

Related Research Program
Food

2023-04-12

Background

The food demand in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase significantly due to rapid population growth. At the same time, there is growing concern about stable food production in the savanna region, Africa's main field crop area, due to frequent extreme weather events and progressive land degradation. The development and dissemination of stable and sustainable land and cultivation management technologies are urgent issues directly related to food and nutrition security. Savanna areas are broadly classified into wet savanna with relatively high agricultural production potential, and dry savanna with low potential potential due to progressing soil degradation and serious agro-climatic risks. 

Objectives

Using northern Ghana and Burkina Faso as model areas, this project aims to develop soil and cultivation management technologies that improve productivity, profitability and sustainability, and to recommend measures that promote technology dissemination, in order to stabilize small-scale farming systems in wet and dry savannas in Africa.

Research Themes

•    Development of sustainable crop and field management technologies and evaluation of their combined applications
•    Development of technologies for diversification of farming options in wet savannas
•    Development of soil conservation standards and soil conservation technologies for dry savanna
•    Development of cultivation management methods to minimize agro-climatic risks in dry savanna
•    Evaluation and recommendation of region-specific technology dissemination strategies

Target Countries

Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique

Target Beneficiaries

Small-scale farmers and extension agencies in the target area, research institutions in the target country, Japanese companies

Project Leader

NAKAMURA Satoshi (Crop, Livestock and Environment Division)

Poster

JIRCAS Report

Researcher Nakagawa Wins Best Poster Presentation Award at the 254th Annual Meeting of the Crop Science Society of Japan

Dr. Andressa Nakagawa (Researcher,  Crop, Livestock and Environment Division) received the Best Poster Presentation Award for her research achievement titled “A simple evaluation method for soybean genotypic variation of seedling emergence  against soil crust” (Andressa Nakagawa, Kohtaro Iseki, Kenta Ikazaki) presented at the 254th Annual Meeting of the Crop Science Society of Japan (CSSJ) held at Fukushima University on September 20-21, 2022.

Senior Researcher Koide Junji Receives 18th Young Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Researcher Award for 2022

JIRCAS Senior Researcher, Dr. Koide Junji of the Social Sciences Division, received the Young Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Researcher Award for 2022 for his work on development of a versatile agricultural management planning model for small-scale farmers.

Former JIRCAS Fellow Du Zhumei Receives the 2022 Japanese Society of Animal Science Encouragement Award

Dr. Du Zhumei, a JIRCAS Fellow in FY2019-2020 from China Agricultural University and now a faculty member of Yangzhou University, received the 2022 Japanese Society of Animal Science Encouragement Award at the 130th annual meeting held at Tokyo University of Agriculture on September 14-17, 2022.

Press Release

Event, Symposium