Plant Perennials to Save Africa's Soils

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hoda Mang’yana’s half-hectare farm in Malawi produces more maize (corn) than her extended family of Rseven can eat. Some of the extra crop she JIM RICHARDSON sells. Some she feeds to pigs and goats, which she also sells. With the money she makes, she can pay her grandchildren’s school fees and buy essentials, such as soap and salt, that she has provided for her family since her hus- band died 15 years ago. As well as maize, Mang’yana’s farm supplies firewood and other types of animal feed. It is also resilient, providing enough maize during good years to pull the family through leaner ones. Key to Mang’yana’s improved land is perenniation — the integration of trees and perennials (plants that live for two or more years) into fields of food crops. When Mang’yana acquired the farm in the 1990s, soil degradation limited its annual maize yield to less than 1 tonne per hectare — a common yield in Africa, but one-tenth of those seen in the Corn Belt of the US Midwest. To improve the soil, she began growing perennial pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan) and groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea), which require less fertilizer and add nitrogen to the soil1. She also began using ‘evergreen agriculture’, planting various nitrogen-fixing trees2 that each meet different needs. Fast-growing, short-lived plants such as Gliricidia sepium provided firewood and animal feed; slower-growing, longer-lived trees such as Faidherbia albida improved long-term soil fertility. After a few years, Mang’yana resumed growing maize. Better yields allowed her to invest in pigs and goats, and she began using the animals’ manure along with mineral fertilizer on the fields. Now she produces Rhoda Mang’yana grows maize near ‘fertilizer trees’ to improve her farm’s crop yield and soil fertility. four tonnes of maize per hectare in a good year. Most of Africa’s soils are naturally poor in nutrients compared with those of the younger landscapes found in North America, for example. Only about 16% of Africa’s lands Plant perennials to have the high-quality soils best suited to sup- porting livestock and crops; roughly 29% are marginal; and the rest are unsuitable for farming3. Farmers often worsen already poor lands by removing more nutrients than they save Africa’s soils 4 return to the soil . Integrating perennials with food crops could restore Population growth and erratic weather driven by climate change are exacerbating the soil health and increase staple yields, say Jerry problem5. Although cereal production grew D. Glover, John P. Reganold and Cindy M. Cox. by 2% a year in most African countries

Three perenniation systems are already doubling RESCUE REMEDIES or tripling yields of food crops across Africa. Maize Faidherbia albida Soya bean Pigeon pea Napier grass Silverleaf

YEAR YEAR 2 EVERGREEN AGRICULTURE DOUBLED-UP LEGUME SYSTEM PUSH–PULL Improves yields and provides feed, rewood Increases plants’ eciency of fertilizer use Helps to suppress insect pests and weeds Maintains vegetative soil cover year-round Improves yield of protein-rich grains Reduces need for external inputs Increases available water and nutrients in soil Decreases labour requirements Provides animal feed Enhances soil carbon stores Improves families' diets Reduces soil erosion

during 1961–2003, the population grew soil erosion, transferring organic inputs perennial pigeon pea along with annual leg- faster (2.6% annually), leading to an overall to soil microorganisms and increasing the umes such as soya beans (Glycine max) or 43.5% decline in per capita cereal production amount of carbon stored in the soil — a key groundnuts. After harvesting the legumes, over that period6. component of soil health8. These organic farmers plant maize in or beside the rows of About one-quarter of the world’s under- inputs and microorganisms then improve pigeon peas and then harvest both. Farm- nourished population — some 240 million soil fertility and structure as well as increase ers can use different types of pigeon pea, people — live in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the water infiltration and storage — all of which depending on how much grain they need for various factors needing urgent attention to increase the amount of water available to food and leaves and stems for animal feed increase agricultural productivity, scientists and used by crops7,8. Moreover, by supplying or manure. They can also change the timing from the region have identified soil quality as the soil with carbon, perennials can improve and arrangement of planting to favour a top priority5. We believe that perenniation the ability of food crops to use mineral ferti- the maize or the legume. Nutrient- and should be used much more widely to help lizers and, potentially, help farmers to adapt protein-rich, pigeon peas can persist into farmers to meet the challenge of improving to climate change1,2,8. the drier months, after maize stocks have soils while increasing food production. Here we highlight three perenniation been exhausted9, and they can substantially approaches that show particular promise improve families’ diets. DEEP ROOTS in sub-Saharan Africa: evergreen agri- Perennial plants can help to manage pests Many African farmers struggle to meet culture and doubled-up legume systems, and diseases. More than 30,000 farmers in the nutrient needs of their crops. Because such as those used East Africa have adopted push–pull sys- organic sources such as animal and plant by Mang’yana, tems to manage stem-borer moths (Chilo manure are often in short supply in Africa, and a technique “Without partellus) and African witchweed (Striga governments and development agencies for managing crop organic inputs, hermonthica), both widespread in sub- tend to promote mineral fertilizers as the pests called ‘push– mineral Saharan Africa. In this method, silverleaf solution to low soil fertility. But invest- pull’ (see ‘Rescue fertilizers can (Desmodium uncinatum), a perennial legu- ing in fertilizer can be risky — during a remedies’). worsen soil minous animal-feed crop, is interspersed drought year, for instance, farmers might Evergreen agri- conditions.” among maize plants. The silverleaf pro- not produce enough to cover the costs. And culture is the best duces chemicals that repel or ‘push’ pests without organic inputs, mineral fertilizers known and most widely adopted of the three. away, and perennial Napier grass (Pen- do little to improve soil conditions, and can Hundreds of thousands of farmers across nisetum purpureum) grown around the even worsen them by hastening the loss of the Sudano-Sahelian zone and into East and edges of the fields ‘pulls’ the pests in by soil carbon7. Southern Africa grow ‘fertilizer trees’ along providing attractive leaves for egg-laying. Perennials can gain access to more of the with maize, sorghum or millet on more than Push–pull systems can more than double soil’s nutrients and water, for a longer time 5 million hectares of cropland2. The legumi- maize yields by reducing pests10 and increas- than annual crops. Their roots often extend nous trees in these systems, such as Faidherbia ing the amount of nitrogen in the soil. more than two metres deep (compared albida, can triple maize yields while improv- Each of these three soil-building systems with less than a metre for most annuals), ing the soil. The trees meet other needs as can be adapted to specific types of farming, and their growing seasons are longer. These well — they provide firewood and livestock such as conservation agriculture, organic or attributes make them more resilient to harsh fodder, for example2. conventional management or production of environmental conditions. Because they In doubled-up legume systems, which both crops and livestock. produce more biomass, both above and have now been adopted by more than Organizations such as the US Agency below ground, they are better at reducing 8,000 households in Malawi1, farmers grow for International Development (USAID)

360 | NATURE | VOL 489 | 20 SEPTEMBER 2012 © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved Mang’yana’s pigs, which she sells to pay her grandchildren’s school fees, eat maize bran, Gliricidia branches and weeds that grow in the fields.

and the World Bank have made sustained two decades with pigeon peas, collecting areas, the risk of drought and flood is increas- investments in strategies discovered and and characterizing cultivars and educating ing; most soils are poor; and richer nations are developed by farmers, and these efforts farmers about their use. The institute’s col- buying up Africa’s arable land for their own have proved crucial in battling hunger over laboration with Michigan State University food or fuel security. African farmers have JIM RICHARDSON the past 50 years. Irrigation and fertilization and others has boosted the use of doubled- demonstrated the promise of perenniation. have become specialized scientific disci- up legume systems considerably over the past It is time to scale up its use and put it firmly on plines, sparking the creation of dedicated 10 years, particularly in Malawi1. the research-and-development map. ■ research institutes around the world. Many research institutes, including In many regions of Africa, farmers have Washington State University in Pullman8, Jerry D. Glover is with the USAID taken some perenniation approaches well have taken up the development of perennial Bureau for Food Security, Washington beyond the proof-of-concept stage. Yet grains more broadly. And USAID is investing DC 20523, USA. John P. Reganold is in many questions remain — such as which US$9 million annually in Africa Research the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, species are best suited to which types of in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Washington State University, Pullman, land, and how to maximize productivity in Generation, a programme that includes Washington 99164, USA. Cindy M. Cox is different areas. We believe that perenniation, support for the study of perenniation at the International Food Policy Research along with technologies such as improved strategies (www.africa-rising.net). Yet Institute, Washington DC 20006, USA. seed, fertilization and irrigation, should be these are drops e-mail: [email protected] a priority for the international agricultural in the ocean compared “Many farms 1. Snapp, S. S., Blackie, M. J., Gilbert, R. A., Bezner- research-and-development community. to the scale of need. have taken Kerr, R. & Kanyama-Phiri, G. Y. Proc. Natl Acad. This means scaling up the use of approaches Giving peren- Sci. USA 107, 20840–20845 (2010). known to work, such as evergreen agriculture perenniation niation the kind of 2. Garrity, D. P. et al. Food Sec. 2, 197–214 (2010). well beyond 3. Eswaran, H., Almaraz, R., van den Berg, E. & (in suitable areas), and backing research in support now directed Reich, P. Geoderma 77, 1–18 (1997). cultivars and techniques that farmers have the proof- towards technologies 4. Henao, J. & Baanante, C. Agricultural Production not yet tested widely. of-concept such as mineral ferti- and Soil Nutrient Mining in Africa: Implications for stage.” Resource Conservation and Policy Development lizers and seed devel- (International Center for Soil Fertility and SCALING UP opment could require Agricultural Development, 2006). Some efforts to expand perenniation are hundreds of millions of dollars. According to 5. Committee on a Study of Technologies to Benefit Farmers in Africa and South Asia, National already under way. Last month, a four-year Chris Reij, an expert in African agriculture at Research Council. Emerging Technologies to project called Trees for Food Security was the World Resources Institute in Washing- Benefit Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South launched by the World Agroforestry Centre, ton DC, $50 million would be needed even Asia (National Academies Press, 2008). 6. Betru, S. & Kawashima, H. Afr. J. Agric. Res. 5, an international research institute based in to “show how existing successes [in agrofor- 2757–2769 (2010). Nairobi, Kenya, that has led the develop estry] could be scaled up”. 7. Bationo, A., Kihara, J., Vanlauwe, B., Waswa, B. & ment of evergreen agriculture. The centre Yet such numbers pale in comparison Kimetu, J. Agr. Syst. 94, 13–25 (2007). aims to plant millions of trees on farmland to the losses of nitrogen, phosphorous and 8. Glover, J. D. et al. Science 328, 1638–1639 (2010). throughout sub-Saharan Africa, in part- potassium from sub-Saharan farm fields 9. Adu-Gyamfi, J. J. et al. Plant Soil 295, 127–136 nership with the governments of Ethiopia, each year, which are estimated to be equiva- (2007). Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. lent to billions of dollars in fertilizer4. 10. Hassanali, A., Herren, H., Khan, Z. R., Pickett, J. A. & Woodcock, C. M. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Similarly, the International Crops Research Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is B 363, 611–621 (2008). Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in expected to reach 1.5–2 billion by 2050. Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are Patancheru, India, has worked for more than Already the population is ballooning; in many not necessarily those of USAID.