Abstract
Sustainable intensification of agricultural production is needed to ensure increased productivity relative to inputs. Short-term yield returns and labor input are major determinants of the fate of sustainable intensification options on smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa because labor shortage is often acute, and most farmers lack access to labor-saving technologies. We assessed the relationship between maize grain yield change and labor input from a total of 28 published papers (631 data pairs) including subsets of data pairs within specific sustainable intensification practices. Among the reviewed technologies, manually dug planting basins showed ratios between the change in yield and change in labor inputs (ΔY/ΔL) below 1, suggesting that labor demand increased more than yield. In contrast, ridging showed average ΔY/ΔL values ≥ 2. No-till showed high ΔY/ΔL (average ≥ 1.7) when combined with herbicides but average ΔY/ΔL ≤ 1 (total labor) when manually weeded. Manually weeded rotations showed average ΔY/ΔL ≥ 1 and manually weeded intercropping systems average ΔY/ΔL around 1. The relations revealed four scenarios: high yield returns but low labor demand, high yield returns and labor demand, low yield returns and labor demand, and low yield returns but high labor demand. High yield with high labor demand requires mostly investments in machinery and/or herbicides to reduce labor input. Low yield with low labor demand requires improved crop management, whereas low yield with high labor demand requires a combination of improved crop management and investments to reduce labor. This is the first comprehensive assessment showing that the sustainable intensification options being considered for smallholder farmers may increase crop yield but also labor demand. Options that include mechanization and herbicides at low cost are likely to be adopted due to their reduction effect on drudgery and total labor input.
Highlights
The smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face many barriers to increased crop productivity such as low nutrient inputs, insufficient control of weeds, pests and diseases, and inadequate labor, and are generally referred to as low-input systems (e.g., Sheahan and Barrett 2017)
All the mean annual precipitation (MAP) categories were significant on the maize yield responses (Table 3)
When MAP was lower than 600 mm per year, results suggest that the yield change will be negative (RR = − 0.185) but increased with increased rainfall up to
Summary
The smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face many barriers to increased crop productivity such as low nutrient inputs, insufficient control of weeds, pests and diseases, and inadequate labor, and are generally referred to as low-input systems (e.g., Sheahan and Barrett 2017). Labor shortages are frequent in small-holder agriculture in SSA and often aggravated by illhealth in diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS (Chapoto and Jayne 2008; Ajani and Ashagidigbi 2008) as well as by urbanization and a younger generation turning away from farming. This has hindered widespread uptake of technologies such as cut and carry green manures, moisture conservation strategies such as fanya juu, zaï, and tied ridges that entail substantial initial labor input or, e.g., increased labor needs for weed control
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