Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in West Africa - How Earth Observation Can Support Successful Implementation

Abstract

West Africa faces multiple major global challenges of the 21st century such as population growth and climate change. Changing rainfall pattern and rising temperatures in space and time, often experienced as unreliable rainy season onset or severe flooding, pose huge economic risks to traditional small-scale farming systems. At the same time, an increasing population demands for food, which puts arable land under pressure and often results in agricultural expansion. On the long run, this leads to depleted soils and decreasing productivity. Sustainable intensification (SI), defined as increased production and productivity without adverse environmental effects and without additional land consumption, can support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) when properly implemented. The work presented here is closely linked to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) on climate action of Senegal and Ghana that helps achieve the Paris Agreement. Many of these NDCs are related to SDG 2 ‘zero hunger’ (e.g., sustainable agricultural practices for resilience and resource protection) and SDG 15 ‘life on land’ (e.g., restore degraded land). Within the COINS project (Co-developing innovations for sustainable land management in West African smallholder farming systems), we assess which SI measures work for who under which socio-economic conditions. In two different environmental, economic, social and cultural settings we identify mechanisms how SI can be successfully implemented. The two study sites are the Senegal River Valley in northern Senegal, and northern Ghana. In Senegal we work around the system of rice intensification (SRI) in an area that is dominated by irrigated rice cropping and that shows huge gradients with intensive agriculture in the West and less developed small-scale farming in the East. The gradient exists also in economic and social terms, for example access to labor, machinery and markets. In Ghana, the study site covers mainly rain-fed agriculture with higher economic risks resulting from environmental factors, e.g. unreliable rains. Here, the focus is on risk reduction and soil fertility management. In this presentation, we demonstrate how Earth Observation (EO) can provide information needed by several stakeholders to facilitate the implementation of SI. The examples cover, among others, the delineation of field boundaries, the assessment which fields are in use, long-term dynamics of agricultural activity, and the identification of management practices (e.g. flooding/planting/harvesting in Senegal or crop rotation in Ghana). The final step in the COINS approach is advising. Integrated geodata-enabled platforms take up EO-based information to link farmers and their agricultural practices with insurances and finances, hence reducing financial risks and supporting food production. Widening functionalities to other stakeholders can help to implement SI and monitor activities on the ground in adequate time. Well-coordinated interaction between all stakeholders along the value chain and proper monitoring are key pillars of sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa that can benefit from digital technologies such as EO.