Toward Solving Food Security Challenges in Africa
―Symposium on the Potential of Regenerative Agriculture―

The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) and JIRCAS will hold a symposium titled “Healthy Soils and Food Security in Africa: Potential of Regenerative Agriculture” as a side-event for the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8) to be held in Tunisia from August 27 to 28, 2022. The symposium will be held in an online format.

Agriculture in Africa has been severely impacted by soil and ecosystems degradation, driven by chronically low soil fertility, resulting in low productivity and food insecurity. African agricultural development requires ‘a healthy soil producing a healthy crop’. At the same time, with growing imperatives to address climate change, African agriculture is no exception to pursue soil fertility management solutions contributing to regenerative development pathways.

Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is an approach which is currently attracting global attention with its focus to restore soil health and reduce soil degradation. RA proposes practices that increase organic matters into the soil to promote microbial activity. It assumes that promoting biological, physical, and chemical improvement of the soil enhances crop productivity and helps optimizing the use of chemical fertilizers and argo-chemicals thus helping increased biodiversity and soil environmental health. It is further expected that improved cultivation methods such as reduced tillage and mulching will maintain soil organic matter, especially when combined with afforestation, reduce carbon emissions, and thus contribute to climate change mitigation.

On the other hand, in African smallholder contexts, Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI) has been long advocated. SAI prioritizes improving productivity through integrated soil fertility management which may necessitate the judicious use of organic as well as inorganic fertilizers along with some tilling practices depending on local edapho-climatic and socioeconomic conditions. 

Under these circumstances, the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) aims to establish sustainable and resilient agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa, with RA as its main focus. Through many years of international collaborative research in Africa, JIRCAS has also developed technologies that contribute to soil fertility management and improved food production in oligotrophic soils, taking into account local climatic, soil, and socioeconomic conditions.

Realizing the vision of RA in African contexts requires its compatibility with SAI practices to achieve both improved soil health and food security. This event aims at offering a forum for research and development communities to exchange their experiences and insights on RA in different spatial/temporal scales and which technology portfolio and extension approaches would suit in the context of smallholder farmers in Africa.

Healthy Soils for Food Security in Africa - Potential of Regenerative Agriculture

1. Date & Time：5 August (Fri), 2022  19:30 ～ 22:15 (JST)
2. Format：Online（Live streaming via Zoom）
3. Registration：Please register at https://www.saaticad8.com/healthy_soills.html（Deadline: August 4 (Thu) 17:00 (JST））
4. Language：English (with simultaneous interpretation in Japanese)
5. Registration fee : Free (Open to general public) 
6. Organizer : Sasakawa Africa Association 
7. Co-Organizer : JIRCAS 
8. Supported by the Nippon Foundation 

JIRCAS（Headquarters: Tsukuba, Ibaraki）
Press Coordinator：OMORI Keisuke (Head, Information and Public Relations Office)    
　　　　　　E-mail：koho-jircas@ml.affrc.go.jp

Reference

Symposium Poster