Converting ‘trade-offs’ to ‘trade-ons’ for greatly enhanced food security in Africa: multiple environmental, economic and social benefits from ‘socially modified crops’

Abstract

To address the issues of food insecurity within the context of land degradation, extreme poverty and social deprivation, this review seeks first to understand the main constraints to food production on smallholder farms in Africa. It then proposes a highly-adaptable, yet generic, 3-step solution aimed at reversing the downward spiral which traps subsistence farmers in hunger and poverty. This has been found to be effective in greatly increasing the yields of staple food crops and reducing the ‘yield gap’. This solution includes the restoration of soil fertility and ecological functions, as well as the cultivation, domestication and commercialization of traditionally-important, highly nutritious, indigenous food products for income generation and business development. A participatory approach involving capacity building at the community-level, leads to the development of ‘socially modified crops’ which deliver multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, suggesting that increased agricultural production does not have to be detrimental to biodiversity, to agroecological function, and/or to climate change. These are outcomes unattainable by attempting to raise crop yields using conventional crop breeding or genetic modification. Likewise, the livelihoods of smallholder farmers can be released from the constraints creating spatial trade-offs between subsistence agriculture and (i) international policies and (ii) globalized trade.