As a victim of global warming, despite being marginally responsible, the African agricultural sector faces a double challenge: improving the technical and economic performance of farming systems while simultaneously preserving its natural resources. Additionally, with the onslaught of a global pandemic, this dual challenge is becoming increasingly important. Here, agroecology could be posited as a potential response to these challenges.
Agroecology is an alternative to specialised, often intensive, industrial agriculture based on the use of inputs and fossil fuels. It is ‘the science of applying ecological concepts and principles to manage interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment for food security and nutrition’ (FAO, 2021). It aims to reduce the use of inputs (chemical fertilizers, pesticides, water), and to consider biodiversity and climate change. In the framework of agroecology, agricultural practices should be adapted to each territory.
Africa and the agricultural emergency
From the 1970s to the end of the 20th century, various policies emerged to support, and eventually jeopardize, Africa's agricultural sector. This coincided with a rural exodus in Europe due to the modernisation of its agricultural system and the industrial development of its urban areas. On the contrary, in Africa, poverty and food insecurity in rural areas were the catalyst for mass exodus to the cities.
In response to this disparity, the beginning of the millennium was marked by regional and continental policies aimed at harmonising the agricultural policies. This common framework was based on four main pillars: sustainable land and water management, inclusive access to markets, food security, and research in agriculture. However, twenty years on, progress remains insufficient: 250 million Africans still suffer from starvation (FAO, 2021) and 33 of the 46 least developed countries in the world are African (United Nations, 2021). These figures are topped off by the arrival of the unprecedented health crisis, making the threat to these vulnerable countries even greater.
Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the African review meeting and the Great Green Wall Investment Forum, agroecological intensification is in vogue more than ever. FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, when addressing Rome's Lincei Scientific Institute on 25 February, stated that the transformation of our food systems would be one of ‘the most powerful ways to change course and make progress towards all 17 SDGs and ‘‘build back better’’ from COVID-19’. Meanwhile, the International Agroecological Movement for Africa (I AM Africa) was established on 11 January during the above-mentioned Forum, with the aim of building a new partnership for agroecology in Africa.
Agroecology : an answer to agricultural intensification in Africa?
At first glance, one might think that agroecology is a feasible opportunity for Africa. Especially when we consider that a Green Revolution is yet to begin, that Africa contains 65% of the world's arable land, and that the use of fertilizers in Africa’s least developed countries is the lowest in the world (an average of 15 kg/ha with a world average of 140 kg/ha in 2016). Contrary to developed countries that need to rethink the agricultural sector in the context of the Green Revolution, most African countries do not have to do so.
However, Africa faces technical and financial constraints that make it difficult to implement these agroecological techniques. Indeed, ecologically intensive agriculture is based on crop associations and crop rotations. It demands the combination of cultivation and animal husbandry to maximise carbon and nitrogen fixation along with resources conservation. The technique of seeding under vegetative cover is one of the sustainable solutions for resource conservation and element fixation, but it requires efficient services: innovation diffusion, technical expertise and advice, and an efficient network for input distribution. These conditions are far from being fulfilled in Africa and this requires both public and institutional investment, following the good example of ProIntensAfrica project. Moreover, it is a long-term task because the expected effects are often slow to take hold.
Boundaries to agroecological patterns
Due to the lack of financial, technical and institutional prerequisites, African governments have so far shown little receptivity to ecological transition. An example could be the following one: in 2006, in Abuja, governments were in favor of increasing subsidies for fertilizer use. In 2011, the Istanbul Programme made agriculture and the fight against climate change priority actions for developing countries. One can note that there is a clear paradox between the desire to fight against climate change and the willingness to increase the use of inputs.
This paradox might come from the legitimate African desire to develop itself. But, in this context, the following question arises: wouldn't a green revolution in Africa be too much of a burden from an environmental, economic, and social perspective? The future of family farming would be in danger: widespread use of fertilizers and mechanisation would lead to a strong increase in labour productivity, and as a result, small producers would give up their land and migrate to the city. This would be dramatic, especially when we know that this sector employs more than half of the working population in Africa.
Contrary to the Green Revolution, ecological intensification would be much more appropriate and would respond to African challenges. With lower cash flow requirements and less hard work (suppression of soil preparation and reduced weed control), small farmers are not penalised from the outset at the expense of larger ones.
Conclusions
Consequently, addressing the technical, institutional and financial constraints to agroecology is more than a necessity, especially in times of COVID-19. Since January 2021, a constitutional charter for the I AM Africa movement has committed African and European companies, organisations and institutions to join forces and respond appropriately to the major challenge of the development of agroecology. Will the investments finally be large enough to prevent Africa from reproducing inappropriate Western development patterns? This may be utopian, but I want to believe it, and it is also the desire of the Agenda 2063, which fights for: ‘A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development’. So, let us make this mission a reality.
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