African-German Applied Research Initiative on Agroforestry - Perspectives from Sub-Sahara Africa and Germany (Agroforestry)
In this initiative, we propose an African-German platform for applied research on agroforestry. This platform will promote a wider use and expand the scientific basis of agroforestry in Africa and Germany in order to take advantage of its beneficial effects. The project and its respective activities are divided into two major elements, i.e.
- thematic focus and
- dissemination of knowledge.
The purpose of this platform is the discussion and exchange of knowledge from different contexts (North-South, South-South and South-North). Climate analogues may play a role here, matching future climates in one region with current climates in another one. The thematic focus will be on the major thematic gaps in scientific knowledge and its application, as listed above (points (i) to (vi)). Within this proposed project, the topics of the thematic focus will be discussed and analysed. The outcome will be a detailed and focused research plan for at least one full project proposal, with the goal to submit this within the project duration or shortly after. The dissemination of knowledge aims at capacity building, thereby using (existing) experimental pilot plots for different target groups from applied research. These plots will serve as example for future plots (full project proposal). The purpose of dissemination activities is to increase the acceptance of agroforestry systems. All host countries will aim for invited talks of the guests to disseminate knowledge.
Background and Motivation
Even though research on agroforestry in Germany suggests multiple benefits, the level of acceptance is rather low due to perceived loss of income, water or nutrient competition, reduced productivity and increased work complexity. However, acceptance might be closely connected to the performance of agroforestry systems, which depend mostly on farm management.
In Africa, Agroforestry practices have ranged from simple and sparse to very complex and dense systems. Practices such as parklands, shade system, crop-over-tree, alley cropping, taungya and fauna based system are prevalent. However, adoption of agroforestry technologies have generally lagged behind scientific and technological advances and has in turn reduced the potential impact of such technologies. It is therefore imperative to assess existing agroforestry practices among farmers in Africa, since it makes economic and ecological senses that a more diversified production will help resource poor farmers optimize their farm output, secure their livelihood while preserving their production bases.
Due to this high positive potential, there is a huge need to increase the knowledge and thus acceptance for agroforestry systems in Africa and Germany. Even though the reasons for the low levels of acceptance may differ in the two regions, the African-German Applied Research Initiative on Agroforestry with strong focus on knowledge generation (applied research), application (capacity building and pilot projects) and, above all, mutual learning is working towards overcoming currently existing obstacles for the widespread use of agroforestry.
Objective
Within this proposed project, the topics of the thematic focus will be discussed and analysed. The outcome will be a detailed and focused research plan for at least one full project proposal, with the goal to submit this within the project duration or shortly after.
Procedure
The project consists of several workshops and guest visits in the participating countries. These workshops will be provide a plattform to discuss topics of the thematic focus and identification of key research questions. Furthermore, they will offer opportunities to visit agroforesty sites in the participating countries. In the later stage of the project, the visits will bring all participants together for a final synthesis for full project proposal and its preparing for submission. There will also be two status workshops with DFG in Bonn at the beginning and at the end of the project.
