The Partnership to Create an EverGreen Agriculture in Africa

An Update

Dennis GarritySenior Board Research Fellow

World Agroforestry Centre

UN Drylands Ambassador

Perfect Storm of Challenges • Rainfall is becoming more erratic and extreme. • Inorganic fertilizers are increasingly expensive.• Soil fertility is further declining in many regions.• Temperatures are increasing, intensifying crop stress.• Population growth rates remain high and farm sizes are rapidly declining. Farming is expanding into more marginal lands.

National recommendations for maize in Malawi & Zambia: Faidherbia fertilizer trees at 100 trees per ha

Aerial view of a parkland dominated by Faidherbia in Niger

Major agroforestry regions in West Africa and directions of expansion

Malawi National Agroforestry Food Security Programme

December 2011: Ethiopian Prime Minister announces national programme to establish 100 million

Faidherbia trees in farmers’ fields

Kenyan Farmlands: Bold policy to achieve >10% tree cover on farms through a

National Agroforestry Programme

Climate Smart AgricultureTriple Win  

• Raise productivity create food security,

• Build resilience to climate shocks: droughts,

hotter temperatures• Make agriculture a strong carbon sink, rather

than being an major emitter

Tree cover on agricultural land by farming system

Wheat production with walnut trees France

Wheat production with Paulownia trees > 8 m acres in China

17 Countries are engaged in EverGreen Agriculture

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration

Conservation Agriculture with trees

Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration +

Trees interplanted in conventional tilled cropland

EverGreen Agriculture Partnership Communities

Take home messages• A fresh low-cost approach to land regeneration

and food security has taken root in Africa, and is spreading across the continent.

• Millions of smallholders are adopting effective low cost land regeneration methods

• EverGreen Agriculture can be embedded in many types of sustainable intensification initiatives

• Many nations are creating the policy and institutional environments to favor adoption

• The EverGreen Agriculture Partnership is accelerating the process of widespread adoption

Getting engaged

Evergreen Agriculture Partnershipwww.evergreenagriculture.net

World Agroforestry Centre www.worldagroforestry.org

Email contacts:d.garrity@cgiar.org

– d.garrity@cgiar.org