ASARECA NRM Strategy

This strategy provides a framework to guide the natural resources management (NRM) work that the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) will promote, facilitate and implement over a period of ten years (2005-2015). It is a response to the consolidated conceptual framework of ASARECA, and other global and regional priorities. More importantly, the strategy responds to the aspirations and priorities of the member countries of ASARECA to transform and modernize their agricultural sectors, making them more commercialized and marketing-oriented. The strategy was developed within the framework of the ASARECA Strategic Studies following a participatory process involving key stakeholders . The process was coordinated by a committee of nine including five regional coordinators of the Natural Resources Management Networks and Programmes (NRM-NPs), two members of the ASARECA secretariat and two consultants. The NRM-NPs, mandated to lead in the development and implementation of this strategy are: the Soil and Water Management Research Network (SWMnet); the ASARECA Animal Agriculture Research Network (A-AARNET); the Trees on Farm Network (TOFNet); the Eastern Africa Plant Genetic Resources Network (EAPGREN) and the African Highlands Initiative (AHI).

BACKGROUND FRAMEWORK

The sustainable livelihoods framework (SLF) identifies five assets that are critical to human development; natural, social, human, physical and financial capital. Widespread poverty in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) and sub-Saharan Africa stems partially from the failure to sustainably transform the abundant natural capital into viable assets. Poverty is experienced in many ways, notably: people having little say on decisions which affect their livelihoods; people having low education, poor skills, and ill health; poor infrastructure limiting access to markets for inputs and outputs; and people having to live on less than the equivalent of one US$ a person a day. Therefore, enhancement, transformation and beneficial conservation of the natural wealth in ECA presents a valuable entry point to the enormous task of eradication of poverty.

To pursue these activities, the NRM strategy of ASARECA identifies the following main domains of intervention:

  • policy and political context of NRM
  • socio-economic settings which determine effectiveness of NRM—human capital, social capital, health and markets
  • climate variability and change
  • land and water resources
  • biological diversity conservation and use
  • livestock production systems
  • forestry and agroforestry systems
  • knowledge management

Structural constraints, such as, limited infrastructure and communication; inpenetrable markets that do not favour smallholders; poor credit, technology, and input availability; poor or no land tenure policies; and limited investment in the agricultural sector contribute to keeping smallholder farmers poor. People who live in the highlands—representing a large majority of the population in ECA—to farmers and pastoralists living in marginal ASAL areas, continue to face these issues.

The resulting impact on the natural or physical capital available are as follows:

  • a declining resource base; poor soil fertility, erosion, removal of forest resources, poor water management
  • the potential for an increase in conflicts over the use of and access to natural resources gender related issues including labour divisions, access to land and resources etc.
  • human and livestock health and nutrition challenges
  • negative impacts through loss of productivity and assets
  • inability to make investments to improve land and water productivity,

Thus, there is a vicious cycle of reinforcement of "poverty and degradation."

ASARECA's Vision for Natural Resources Management addresses these issues and attempts to eradicate poverty thereby increasing the quality of life and contributing to improved quality of environment through effective but sustainable utilization of its natural resources base, especially the agro-ecosystem. Thus, their vision is stated as:

"Enhanced livelihoods and environmental services for all in the ECA sub-region as a result of improved and sustainably managed agro-ecosystems."

Therefore, the Mission of ASARECA-NRM work will be:

"To facilitate increased generation, sharing and utilization of NRM knowledge, information and technologies for the management and conservation of natural resources to the benefit of individuals, society and the environment in the ECA sub-region."

To pursue the stated mission, priority attention will be focussed on the following thematic results in the next 10 years (2005-2015):

Result 1: Improved Development of Natural Resources-Based Enterprises
Result 2: Improved Strategies for Adaptation and Coping with Climate-Induced Crises and Shocks
Result 3: Enhanced Productivity and Conservation of Agro-ecosystems
Result 4: Enhanced Beneficial Conservation of Agro-ecosystems for Socio-economic Benefits and Environmental Services
Result 5: Improved Incentives to Invest in the Management of Natural Resources by Primary Users, Governments and Other Stakeholders
Result 6: Strengthened Institutions and Social Capital for Improved Governance and Support to NRM
Result 7: Strengthened Capacities and Competencies in NRM Research for Development
Result 8: Increased Effectiveness in Knowledge Management, Brokering and Sharing

The strategy is designed to enhance the capacity of ASARECA's member national agricultural research systems (NARS) and their research and development (R&D) partners to react rapidly to the needs of their stakeholders on knowledge, information and technologies (KIT) required to pursue effective management of natural resources for agriculture and environment in ECA. The strategy provides the focus and guiding principles for achieving a client-oriented and demand-led research for development, with special emphasis on smallholder producers and entrepreneurs. It puts a lot of emphasis on integrated approaches towards tackling the poverty-degradation nexus. That is, support for sustainable intensification, diversification and conservation of natural resource endowments is necessary and limitations or driving forces that are causing the poverty-degradation nexus must be reversed.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

Policies provide a framework and an enabling environment that can potentially remove many of the structural issues and allow for profitable natural resource transformation into products, goods and services and encourage investment in conservation and rejuvenation of the natural resource base in a way that ensures sustainable livelihoods. Institutional arrangements that are performance driven would foster more efficient resource-production-consumption-market chains as well as improved links between research and development. Technical and methodological innovations will provide the means to transform people's livelihoods. Enhanced knowledge management and sharing will help to scale up policy and institutional arrangements and technical innovations, thus ensuring utilization across the ECA sub-region.