Research Gaps and Future Perspectives
摘要
Increasing population, dwindling soil and water resources, severe soil degradation, resource poor and subsistence farming by small holders in SSA has created a serious food and nutritional security problem and the climate change impacting food productivity has aggravated this problem further. Agriculture sector programs are primarily focused on increased production, ignoring nutritional issues; and therefore, nutrition-sensitive agriculture investments and guidance for program formulation are needed. Successful management of drought requires adoption of conservation agriculture, including integrated soil fertility management, agroforestry, and integration of crops with trees and live stocks. Furthermore, incentivizing resource-poor small land holders through payments for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration in soil) is critical and policies which are pro-nature, pro-agriculture and pro-farmers are needed. Research and development priorities on technologies such as climate -resilient and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, irrigation and water management, integrated soil fertility management, protection and restoration of soil health and policy formulation through constructive integration of technological knowledge with societal knowledge are highly needed.