The (un)broken promise of agroforestry: a case study of improved fallows in Zambia
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The (un)broken promise of agroforestry: a case study of improved fallows in Zambia Michael Jacobson1 · Cori Ham2 Received: 10 September 2018 / Accepted: 12 December 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract In 1999, an article entitled Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry in this journal showed that agroforestry, including improved fallow systems, had evolved from a collection of activities to a full-fledged recognizable science that was bringing promising results to African farmer needs. This case study specifically examines the promise of soil replenishment in Zambia. In 1999, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) was extremely active in Zambia, carrying out extensive research and promotion of fertilizer trees for soil replenishment. This paper shows that improved fallows were short-lived. By 2006, it was estimated that over 61,000 farmers were “reached” with improved fallow technologies. Today, improved fallow systems are virtually nonexistent in Zambia. The departure of ICRAF left a “vacuum” and “gap” in agroforestry in Zambia, and, after decades of agroforestry research and promotion, there has not been a “sense of ownership” by the government, the farmers, or other entities to agroforestry. This study shows that the Government of Zambia’s policies toward agroforestry are opportunistic and driven by funding and donor wishes. Numerous institutional and policy factors such as fertilizer subsidies, as well as farmer characteristics, their knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes toward both the technology and its perceived returns and risks, are discussed. If agroforestry is to deliver on its promise, it needs to move away from a focus on mainly technology promotion and instead scale up and address policies and institution building that mainstream it across all sectors, dealing with poverty alleviation and food security. Keywords Agroforestry · Fertilizer trees · Impact evaluation · Farmer adoption · Enabling environment
* Michael Jacobson [email protected] 1
Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Pennsylvania State University, 309 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA
2
Department of Forest and Wood Science, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
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M. Jacobson, C. Ham
1 Introduction Agroforestry has been identified and investigated by researchers and others as a multifunctional land use system that provides economic and environmental benefits. Being able to provide multiple farm outputs, potential income, and other benefits is important for smallholders struggling to subsist and a development imperative for policy makers (Minang et al. 2015). In 1999, Pedro Sanchez, then Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), published an article entitled “Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry” in this journal. His point was to show that agroforestry had evolved from a collection of activities to a full-fledged recognizable science that was bringing promising results to developing country farmer needs (Sanchez 1999).
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