Bruno Gerard presentation during the event "Conservation Agriculture: Overcoming the challenges to adoption and scaling-up" held by IFAD jointly with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

1. Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable
Intensification of cereal-based systems in sub-
Saharan Africa
Brief intro to CIMMYT’s research
Bruno Gerard
IFAD Meeting 13-14 January 2015, Rome

2. CIMMYT’s Mission
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
To sustainably increase the productivity of maize
and wheat systems to ensure global food security
and reduce poverty.

3. CIMMYT’s Background: Key Facts
• Headquartered in Mexico, CIMMYT is an international
organization with 22 offices worldwide.
• CIMMYT employs circa 250 IRS and 1,500 NRS.
• CIMMYT’s genebank holds 27,000 accessions of maize and
170,000 accessions of wheat.
• Annual budget in 2014: USD 175 millions.
• Sustainable intensification budget: USD 50 millions

4. Cereals production
Area changes
(1970-2010)
Production changes
(1970-2010)
Yields Increase
(1970-2010)
World 2.7 % 108.4 % 103.0 %
Africa 61.0 % 174.9 % 70.1 %
East Africa 73.3 % 216.8 % 82.7 %
West Africa 88.5 % 236.1 % 78.4 %
Niger 263.6 % 356.2 % 25.4 %
India -0.3 % 135.1 % 135.8 %
Mexico 2.4 % 132.7 % 127.3 %
Data Source: http://faostat.fao.org/

5. Intensification in SSA is challenging
• Access to land
• Present and future
contribution of farming to
rural livelihood
• Gender lens
• Market integration
• Multi-commodity (i.e. crops-
livestock)
• Strong multi-functionality of
smallholder farming systems
• Heterogeneity at various
granularities/levels/scales
• Institutions
• No silver bullet!

6. Why Conservation Agriculture?
• Sustainable intensification
• Profitability
• Land degradation (physical,
biological and chemical)
• Water and Nutrient Use Efficiency
and Risk Management
• Energy and Labor Use Efficiencies
• Mitigation and adaptation to CC
and climate variability

7. Grain yield long-term trial El Batán
Maize Wheat
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Grainyield(kg/ha)
Year
Farmer practice: monoculture, conventional tillage, remove all residue
Conservation agriculture: rotation, zero tillage, keep all residue
Monoculture, zero tillage, remove all residue
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Grainyield(kg/ha)
Year
Farmer practice: Monoculture, conventional tillage, remove all residue
Conservation agriculture: rotation, zero tillage, keep all residue
Monoculture, zero tillage, remove all residue

8. Conservation agriculture provides a viable means for
strengthening resilience in agroecosystems and
livelihoods that also advance adaptation goals (high
confidence).
A wide array of conservation agriculture practices, including agroforestry and farmer-
managed natural tree regeneration, conservation tillage, contouring and terracing, and
mulching are being increasingly adopted in Africa. These practices strengthen resilience of
the land base to extreme events and broaden sources of livelihoods, both of which have
strongly positive implications for climate risk management and adaptation. Moreover,
conservation agriculture has direct adaptation-mitigation co-benefits.
Addressing constraints to broader adoption of these practices, such as land tenure/usufruct
stability, access to peer-to-peer learning, gender-oriented extension and credit and
markets, as well as identification of perverse policy incentives would help to enable larger
scale transformation of agricultural landscapes.
IPCC Report: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (31 March
2014)

9. Adoptability/constraints to adoption and
CA in a broader context
• Knowledge intensive (not a single technology)
• Biomass tradeoff in mixed crop livestock systems
• Change in resource allocation and need for
investment (machinery, herbicides and other
inputs)
• Access to mechanization options
• Weeds
• Farm size?
• For some systems, performance in early years
• Adoptability limit regarding aridity

10. • Adaptive, participatory research with farmers
• Innovation systems approach involving multiple
players
• Biophyscial research on soil and plant
parameters
• Socio-economic research on feasibility, viability,
profitability, risk and adoption
• Knoweldge and capacity building
• Generation of evidence
How do we address critical
constraints?

11. Benefits and costs Incidence at various scales
Farm
Regional
National
Global
Benefits
Reduction in on-farm costs: savings in time, labour and mechanized
machinery
x
Increase in soil fertility and moisture retention, resulting in long-term yield
increase, decreasing yield variations and greater food security
x x
Stabilization of soil and protection from erosion leading to reduced
downstream sedimentation
x
Reduction in toxic contamination of surface water and groundwater x
More regular river flows, reduced flooding and the re-emergence of dried
wells
x
Recharge of aquifers as a result of better infiltration x
Reduction in air pollution resulting from soil tillage machinery x
Reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere (carbon sequestration) x
Conservation of terrestrial and soil-based biodiversity x
Costs
Purchase of specialized planting equipment x
Short-term pest problems due to the change in crop management x
Acquiring of new management skills x
Application of additional herbicides x x
Formation and operation of farmers’ groups x x
High perceived risk to farmers because of technological uncertainty x x
Development of appropriate technical packages and training programs x x
Source: Adapted from Knowler and Bradshaw (2007)

12. Scales matter and research at different
levels needs to be integrated
• Need to adopt/develop novel research methods and
widen our range of skills
• Time scale: understanding the dynamics, trajectories,
shocks, drivers. Innovation. Theory of change…
• Spatial scales/levels
• Field (data gaps, GxExM, weed control, adaptation,
mech., mitigation, nutrient and water use eff., …)
• Farm (resource allocation, gender, nutrient cycling…)
• Landscape (communal res., social cap)
• Country, region
• Multi-scale prospective/ex-ante analysis, foresight,
targeting and recommendation domains

13. Small farm
0
50
100
Gross Margin
Return to labor
Benefit/Cost
Soil Carbon
Balance
Soil Nitrogen
Balance
Soil losses
Gross margin variation with rainfall
Gross Margin
reduction in dry years
Gross Margin variation with prices of
outputs
Gross margin reduction with low
output prices
Monetary Costs
Dependence to
external inputs
0
50
100
Gross Margin
Return to labor
Benefit/Cost
Soil Carbon
Balance
Soil Nitrogen
Balance
Gross Margin variation with prices of
outputs
Gross margin reduction with low
output prices
Monetary Costs
Dependence
to external inputs
Soil losses
Gross margin variation with rainfall
Gross Margin
reduction in dry years
Large farm
Multi-criteria Farming systems analysis/ Recommendation domains
Surveys (resource endowment, crops/animals, management, ….x…)
Interviews (farm management, resource allocation, strategies)
Modeling (MCDM, farm flows, optimization)
FARMING SYSTEMS
Courtesy: S. Lopez-Ridaura

14. Gender Matters
In Farm Power -
Gender
dynamics in
small-scale
maize
mechanization
KIT – CIMMYT

15. SIMLESA Survey in Sussundenga (Mozambique).
Statistical typologies based on survey data
G1 (13 hh) G2 (32 hh) G3 (23 hh) G4 (19 hh) G5 (11 hh)
Small scale
subsistence crop
farmers
i.e. very small land
(1ha), high pop.
pressure, all land
cultivated(maize
and beans), no
animals, nothing
sold, no off farm
income (?). But
high yields of
maize (?)
Small scale maize
farmers (with small
livestock).
i.e. small land (2.5 ha),
average land pressure
but low livestock
pressure. Mainly maize
(80% of land), little sold
and little off(on?) farm
income. No large
livestock but some small
livestock (sheep or
goats), know more
trader than average (?)
Small scale livestock
farmers (with subsistence
crop production).
i.e. Average land size
(3.5ha), relatively large herd
(3 TLU) so high livestock
pressure. Diversified
cropping systems for
subsistence, some off (on?)
farm income, and some
income from livestock
activities (15%).
Large maize farmers
i.e. Large farms (6ha), low
livestock and population
pressure on land. Mainly
dedicated to maize
production (85%) with 40% of
production sold. Not all land
cultivated (not enough
workers or not arable or no
need?). Small herd (mainly
small livestock). Older farmer
than average, traditional (not
mechanized), not willing to
innovate or invest.
Commercial
livestock farmers
i.e. large family
with large land
(6ha), large herd (10
tlu), so high
livestock pressure,
mechanized
farmers, 75% maize,
25% legumes high
income, more
educated than
average
Development of rapid farm typology assessment tools at
community scale

16. Technology
generation
Community to
landscape system
HH farming systemField Institutions &
Markets
Process
research
Enabling &
analysis tools
Output target
- Water
‘Last mile providers’
Innovation systemsParticipatory co-innovation & learning
- System interactions:
- Livestock, cash
crops; trees- Weeds
- Pests & diseases
- Soil health
- Nutrients
HH typologies
(livelihood &
biophysical)
Trade-off analysis Bio-economic
models
Geospatial (domains,
impact)
- Knowledge products
- Identify inefficiencies
(markets, providers)
Outcome Increased productivity &
stability of farming systems
Increased income of
smallholder farmers
Scale
- Tillage
- Rotation
- Intercropping
- Systems for the future
Increased yield of
maize/wheat for
smallholder farmers
- System impacts
on NRM &
ecosystem services
- Mechanization
Business models
- Communication
products
Sustainable Intensification Framework

17. Technology
generation
Community to
landscape system
HH farming systemField Institutions &
Markets
Process
research
Enabling &
analysis tools
Output target
- Water
‘Last mile providers’
Innovation systemsParticipatory co-innovation & learning
- System interactions:
- Livestock, cash
crops; trees- Weeds
- Pests & diseases
- Soil health
- Nutrients
HH typologies
(livelihood &
biophysical)
Trade-off analysis Bio-economic
models
Geospatial (domains,
impact)
- Knowledge products
- Identify inefficiencies
(markets, providers)
Outcome Increased productivity &
stability of farming systems
Increased income of
smallholder farmers
Scale
- Tillage
- Rotation
- Intercropping
- Systems for the future
Increased yield of
maize/wheat for
smallholder farmers
- System impacts
on NRM &
ecosystem services
- Mechanization
Business models
- Communication
products
Sustainable Intensification Framework