“Now more than ever, innovative research on sustainable agriculture is crucial to Africa’s well-being,” says a post on the blog of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative.

The article outlines areas where research and development is addressing natural resource constraints and lack of access to agricultural inputs and technologies in order to increase yields and lift rural people out of poverty, in particular:

• Sustainable intensification, which aims to use resources and ecosystems more efficiently and with fewer negative environmental impacts
• Achieving multiple climate benefits in agricultural landscapes, such as through agroforestry which can provide both mitigation and adaptation benefits at the landscape scale
• Agrobiodiversity, i.e. maintaining a variety of animals, plants, and micro-organisms in farm fields, homegardens, and other parts of agricultural landscapes.

“Scientific gaps inhibit integrated landscape management,” says the article, outlining the need to better analyze how different management practices at the farm-scale benefit different agricultural landscapes.

There is a need to build scientific capacity for integrated landscape management, and this can be achieved if governments access the resources available and tap into regional and global research communities (such as partnering with the World Agroforestry Centre). Investment is also needed in research infrastructure and human capacity which has been shown to generate considerable returns.

Read the full story: Priorities for Research to Achieve Landscapes for People, Food and Nature in Africa