Food insecurity, child malnutrition, and rural poverty remain key issues that sub-Saharan Africa continues to deal with. This is partly because most smallholder farmers are engaged in low-intensity, subsistence-oriented farming, resulting in low yields and insufficient income to access nutritious foods. Sustained agricultural productivity growth and commercialization are required to address these challenges.
Against this background, Julius Manda, an Agricultural Economist for the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) East and Southern Africa (ESA) project and other IITA–CGIAR researchers conducted some studies related to agricultural commercialization, food security, and nutrition in smallholder farm households. Their research tested the hypothesis of a positive correlation between commercialization and household dietary diversity, food security, and child nutrition in Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania. Presenting the findings of the research in a seminar moderated by Leena Tripathi, IITA Director for Eastern Africa Hub, Manda stated that the results revealed how agricultural commercialization increased household dietary diversity and food security in the three countries—Ghana, Malawi, and Tanzania
In the study conducted in Tanzania, farmers’ concurrent participation in maize and legume markets resulted in the highest welfare gains compared with participating in the maize or legume markets alone. Moreover, participation in maize and legume markets increased with education, land, productive farm assets, adoption of improved technologies, and credit. Thus, promoting the adoption of intercropping and organic fertilizer applications is crucial to ensure the surplus of maize and legumes in markets. However, market participation decreased due to droughts resulting in the need to encourage climate-smart agriculture.
Furthermore, Manda shared some of his achievements, including improving the quality of science communication and participation in conferences and seminars to promote IITA’s visibility. He also highlighted his active contribution to resource mobilization, including developing the One CGIAR Sustainable Intensification of the Mixed Farming System (SI-MFS) proposal.
Highlighting his plans for IITA, Manda outlined that he would, together with the SI-MFS Monitoring, Evaluation, and Impact Assessment (MELIA) team, conduct baseline studies in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Laos, Malawi, and Nepal. He added that he would conduct data analysis and report writing for the SI-MFS initiative.
Other plans include finalizing the Africa RISING project study on the Return on Investment (ROI). He added that donors are interested in seeing how much of their investment was put to good use and conducting a follow-up study on the willingness to pay (WTP) for quality maize and beans, specifically for urban consumers.
Contributed by Anita Akinyomade and Dr Julius Manda
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