Sustainable Intensification: - Workspace - Imperial College London

32
In Conclusion
In short, Sustainable Intensification can be relevant as a new paradigm for African smallholder farmers as
long as suitable, sufficient resources and practices are supported and delivered at scale.
Often success can be achieved on a small scale – a plot or a farm – but often with only one or two of the
economic, social and environmental objectives attained. The challenge lies in meeting all the objectives
and in scaling up success to a regional or national production system.
African smallholders face many barriers to sustainably intensifying their incomes, their production and
their nutrition, not least their physical access to the inputs of intensification, which may be limited for a
variety of reasons. Land tenure must also be assured if smallholder farmers are to invest in Sustainable
Intensification. Aside from security of rights to land, by women as well as men, intensification also requires
a demand for the increased output, greater and more accessible financial investment (whether on a large
scale or in the form of microcredit), available labour, better knowledge and skills and access to both input
and output markets.
Although the concept of Sustainable Intensification is relatively simple, experience suggests it is difficult
to achieve, especially in its entirety – namely, using a more sophisticated set of inputs of all kinds while
increasing outputs. One such difficulty is the responsible and efficient use of inputs. For farms in the
developed world this may mean a decrease in their application, but for many farmers in SSA, who use
virtually none of these inputs, a prudent and precise increase in their use can intensify production without
forfeiting resilience and sustainability.
The challenges are complex as are the technologies and processes required to find appropriate solutions.
The paradigm of Sustainable Intensification shows the way forward. What is needed is research into
appropriate innovations (technological and socio-economic), targeted financial investments and publicprivate
partnerships, active participation in the process by smallholder famers and, above all, political
leadership.
© Flickr ‘Africa Renewal’