Conservation Agriculture and Smallholder Farming in Africa: The Heretics" View

According to this article, conservation agriculture is claimed to be a panacea for the problems of poor agricultural productivity and soil degradation in sub-Saharan Africa. Conservation agriculture offers the means that can prevent further destruction of precious soils, increase rainwater use efficiency and labour productivity, thereby ensuring higher and more stable yields. Despite the publicity claiming widespread adoption of conservation agriculture, the available evidence suggests virtually no uptake of conservation agriculture in most sub-Saharan African countries, with only small groups of adopters in South Africa, Ghana and Zambia. There is an urgent need for critical assessment under which ecological and socio-economic conditions conservation agriculture is best suited for smallholder farming in sub-Saharan African countries.