Can Sustainable Agricultural Innovations and Tools be a Solution to Africa’s Food and Environmental Challenges? A Review

Authors

  • Christian Tegha Kum Part Time Tutor/Ph.D. Research Student, Environmental Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, College of Technology, University of Bamenda, P.O. Box 39 Bambili, North West Region, Cameroon
  • Martin Ngwabie Head of Department, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, College of Technology, University of Bamenda, P.O. Box 39 Bambili, North West Region, Cameroon
  • Aaron Suh Tening Vice Dean/Research and Cooperation, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63 Buea, South West Region, Cameroon
  • Cornelius Tsamo Senior Lecturer, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, College of Technology, University of Bamenda, P.O. Box 39 Bambili, North West Region, Cameroon

Keywords:

climate change, food security, Soil Organic Carbon, Sustainable agricultural innovations, yield

Abstract

Sustainable agricultural innovations are crucial to boost food quality and quantity needed to feed Africa’s doubling population (PopulationPyramid.net) faced with complex challenges such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, emerging diseases, urbanization pressures, etc. These challenges hinder the successful implementation of Africa’s agenda 2063 agricultural development plan and necessitated an urgent need for the development of sustainable innovative farming systems and tools to overcome these challenges. This resulted to the development of agroecological practices, PUSH-PULL technology by INCIPE, and LANDPKS mobile app technology by ATPS. This paper reviews 7 sustainable innovations in Africa helping to improve crop production, analyses their advantages and constraints, potential of each to be fully integrated in the continent’s agriculture system by 2063, and classifies them according to efficiency using the Hill and MacRae analytical framework. Only soil nutrient management techniques were averagely integrated into actual agriculture of the African continent while LandPKS, Push-Pull, and the other agroecological innovations were not well integrated in the continent. The paper also highlights some measures to facilitate expansion and deployment of these innovations and recommends quantification of SOC and GHG emission from the innovations should be simulated to 2063 to aid choice of innovation.

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Published

2021-06-26

How to Cite

Kum, C. T. ., Ngwabie, M. ., Tening, A. S. ., & Tsamo, C. . (2021). Can Sustainable Agricultural Innovations and Tools be a Solution to Africa’s Food and Environmental Challenges? A Review. International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR), 59(1), 119–137. Retrieved from https://www.gssrr.org/index.php/JournalOfBasicAndApplied/article/view/12724

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Vol. 59 No. 1 (2021)

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