The Role of Sustainable Land Management for Climate ... - CAADP

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2001). Similarly, high percentages of energy are met from fuelwood and charcoal in most
African countries such as The Gambia (85 %), Niger (90 %), Uganda (96%) and Kenya (75%)
(Broadhead et al 2001). !
Many case studies have shown that the rate of adoption of soil fertility, soil conservation,
and water management practices is low in SSA, although substantial numbers of farmers do use
particular practices. Within SSA, there are at least 167,000 certified organic farms operating a
total organic area of about 231,000 ha (Willer, Yussefi-Menzler and Sorensen 2008). According
to UNEP-UNCTAD (2008), at least 1.9 million farmers in Africa use practices that could be
classified as “near organic” on nearly 2 million hectares; i.e., traditional sustainable land
management practices that apply similar principles as those applied in organic agriculture. This
estimate is based on a review of nearly 300 interventions promoting such practices in developing
countries (Pretty et al. 2006; Pretty et al. 2003). In East Africa, Kruseman et al (2006) show that
fewer than 5% of farmers in Tigray practice long fallows, improved fallows, mulch, or apply
green manures and only 7% plowed crop residues back into the soil. Benin (2006) finds
similarly low percentages of plots having been improved by farmers in the Amhara region of
Ethiopia. Pender et al. (2004) found in Uganda that fewer than 20% of plots had received
inorganic fertilizer, manure, compost, or mulch and only one quarter incorporated crop residues.
In the Sahel, some technologies, such as contour ridging and zai pits are becoming widespread.
But still, many practices, especially in terms of adding nutrients to soils, remains low (Shapiro
and Sanders, 2002). In a study in central Malawi, Place et al (2001) found that just 21% of
farmers invested in water management. Wyatt (2002) found terracing investment in the past five
years on just 33% of plots, despite the hilly terrain.
On the other hand, there have been a few land management practices where adoption
rates have expanded noticeably. The expansion of the zai pit system in Burkina Faso and Niger
has been well documented (e.g. Shapiro and Sanders 2002; Franzel, et al. 2004). Stone terracing
was found to be practiced by almost half of farmers in Tigray (Kruseman et al 2006) and
Deininger et al (2003) estimated that 47% of all Ethiopian farmers had built or maintained
terraces between 1999 and 2001. Rainwater harvesting methods is another that has been found
to be widely used, e.g. in semi-arid Tanzania (Hatibu et al 2001). 4 Various other conservation
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' !It should be noted that adoption rates of relatively recently developed technologies are often bolstered by
significant investment in dissemination.!!!
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