Food insecurity and poverty in the African highlands are strongly linked to deterioration of land-based resources, namely decline in soil fertility, reduced crop and livestock productivity, poor soil water management, decline in vegetative cover and biomass, increased incidence of pests and disease, decline in livestock feed and other system-related issues. Integrating successful technologies and approaches to tackle the above-mentioned constraints in various systems requires sustainable and locally-adapted intensification and diversification approaches. In Phase II of AHI, various research agendas were formulated from participatory analysis of constraints, causes and effects within the different systems, and analysis of social (e.g. by wealth) and ecological (e.g. soil fertility and water gradients) niches for opportunistic improvement. A participatory agro-ecosystem approach (PAM) was initiated and research carried out with farmer research groups (FRGs) to improve both individual components, and the system at large (components nested within various production units as parts of an integral system). Over the course of the AHI programme, different driving forces were identified to determine the mode of systems intensification in smallholder farming systems.

The main determinants or driving forces influencing the direction of intensification in the eastern African highlands are market, climate, land quality, access to knowledge and policy. In areas where market access is poor (due to inaccessibility, poor policies or otherwise), farmers tend to depend on local resources. For example, resource-rich farmers most able to invest on inorganic fertilizers will shift to compost and other integrated soil fertility management options where poor market opportunities cut into profit margins. Thus, market, beyond other things, is proved to be a major driving force towards sustainable intensification. With the improved partnership with research and the improved cohesiveness of the community groups, farmers have adapted and combined technologies to achieve this end.

	subthemes:		Understanding Systems Participatory Approaches for Systems Innovation Improving Component-Systems Linkages