CIFOR-ICRAF collaborates with CGIAR initiative to increase farmer yields by improving soil health

Eighty percent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by smallholder farmers, who provide a similar proportion of the food supply in these regions. Out of the 2.5 billion people in developing countries living directly from the food and agriculture sector, 1.5 billion live in smallholder households.

With the global population projected to grow to 9.8 billion people by 2050, it is paramount to increase food production substantially. But this increase must be done in a sustainable manner, without negative impacts on the environment. Improvements in agronomic practices, especially in soil management, offer a great opportunity for closing yield gaps and enhancing sustainability. 

In this context, the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) has pooled its expertise with other CGIAR research centres to increase farmers’ yields in a sustainable way and build resilience against climate change. The work is being done through the Excellence in Agronomy 2030 initiative (EiA 2030), which aims to deliver agronomic gain at scale for millions of smallholder households in prioritised farming systems. The project emphasises supporting women and young farmers, to demonstrate measurable impact on food and nutrition security, income, water use, soil health, and climate resilience.

“Agronomic gain is increased productivity from targeted agronomic practices coupled with efficient resource use and minimised environmental degradation,” said Patricia Masikati, an agroforestry systems scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF who is based in Zambia. “It is very important as demand for food is growing while production is from finite and/or limited resources such as land.”

Scaling agronomy solutions

The four-year initiative supports agronomy at scale through four modules: Organise, Transform, Innovate, and Deliver, which “are essential for ensuring that all the activities are organised into areas of specialisation along the pathway the initiative envisages for taking agronomy solutions to scale,” said Mandlenkosi Nkomo, Chief Growth Officer at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

The ‘Deliver’ module specialises in originating the agronomy demand, from partners who are farmer-facing or support and enable farmer-facing ecosystems. This demand is organised into Use Cases that become the delivery mechanisms for agronomy solutions, wherein specific solutions – deployed within a defined geography and farming system – are co-developed, validated, piloted, and taken to scale. Assembling all these activities into one work package allows for the development of systems for the ‘discovery’ of demand, conception of minimum viable products (MVPs), and ultimately scaling these solutions.

The ‘Transform’ module builds common data analytics and decision support tool infrastructure, upon which minimum viable products (MVPs) are built and iteratively modified; it’s a specialised, data-science-driven function, which is essential for creating and sustaining scalable solutions. It enables rapid responses to new demands from the ‘deliver’ module through data, analytics, and turnkey solutions.

Colleagues organised under the ‘Innovate’ module seek to answer research questions that are significant for agronomy in general and go beyond single use cases. Building a cadre of new scientists, managing long term experiments, and supporting capacity building of NARS partners are unique roles this group of scientists provides to the initiative.

Finally, the ‘Organise’ module manages support functions such as monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment (MELIA), ensuring pursuit of an impactful agenda. “Seen as a group, these modules or work packages complement each other and make for a solid delivery mechanism for an initiative that seeks to positively disrupt how agronomy research and development has been done thus far,” said Nkomo.

CIFOR-ICRAF’s role in transformation

CIFOR-ICRAF’s Land and Soil Health theme is contributing towards the initiative’s Transform module, due to its expertise in spectral soil analysis and large, open-access soil database. Specifically, its researchers are enabling the creation of value from big data and advanced analytics through the assembly and governance of data and tools; application of existing analytics and solutions for specific use cases; supply of information on climate impacts, inclusivity and sustainability of agronomic solutions; and national agricultural research system capacity strengthening. 

Through EiA 2030, CIFOR-ICRAF is contributing to an integrated framework to identify, diagnose, and resolve yield limiting factors. This will be achieved by using data-driven agronomy solutions at scale for smallholder farming systems, in response to demand from the public and private sector investing in the sustainable intensification of these systems. “We are thrilled to bring in elements around building healthy soil ecosystems through the Soil Health Working Group,” said Leigh Winowiecki, Global Research Lead for Soil and Land Health at CIFOR-ICRAF. “EIA is articulating our niche in the soil health paradigm to ensure healthy food for a healthy planet.”

Expected impact

The project aims for poverty reduction, improved livelihoods and increase incomes. In addition, there is an aim for increased food quality in terms of protein, carbohydrate and micronutrient contents, benefiting 55.6 million people (9.3 million households) thus improving nutrition, health and food security.

Other results will be gender equality, youth and social inclusion; climate adaptation and mitigation; and improved management practices to restore soil health and associated ecosystem services for over 4.6 million hectares of land.

EIA is also a member of the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) which aims to scale healthy soil practices globally.