In the northern part of Burkina Faso's Central Plateau, recurrent drought and frequent harvest failures have created precarious socio-economic and environmental scenarios. As demonstrated in this case study on Burkina Faso, however, the usage of locally driven innovations in soil and water conservation practices, such as planting pits, or zai, can reverse this trend to foster measurable progress in environmental recovery and poverty reduction. Farmer initiative, public investment and new technologies have combined to drive such success, offering a replicable model for other African regions.

Farmers traditionally fallow their lands, that is, allow them to lie idle for one or more seasons in order to restore healthy fertility levels. In eastern Zambia, burgeoning population pressures have forced many farmers to neglect this practice, resulting in continuous cropping of the same land, production declines, and cultivation of marginal areas with poor soil quality. This case study highlights the development of improved fallows using nitrogen-fixing trees which improve soil structure, organic matter and fertility. While planting trees to improve soil fertility was unknown in Zambia, the study identified a well-adapted indigenous tree, Sesbania, to improve soil fertility levels during fallow periods. By using a participatory approach between farmers and researchers that builds on local knowledge and open information exchanges, adoption of the tree planting approach reversed soil degradation trends.

Many of the communities in western Kenya are among the poorest and most highly populated of the entire country. While rainfall and soils are generally good, the region suffers from low soil nutrient levels. To overcome such agricultural handicaps, this case study reports on a pilot project designed to facilitate improved fallows and soil fertility through the introduction of new tree species that would enrich the soil. Improved fallows benefited households in western Kenya and significantly raised crop production, demonstrating that improved fallow strategies represent a viable option for soil fertility management throughout Africa.

Over the past decade, new agronomic practices employed in low and moderate rainfall regions of Zambia have focused on innovative conservation farming techniques to boost soil fertility, yields, and incomes without depending on excessive plowing, chemical fertilizers or expensive irrigation investments. Unlike more conventional hand-hoe and plowing approaches, conservation farming techniques involve dry-season land tillage displacing only about 15 percent of the soil in the immediate planting zone. These practices deliver significant yield gains to farmers through the benefits of timely planting, improved water retention and infiltration, good root development, greater precision in fertilizer use, and gradual build-up of soil organic matter. The case study further explores the under-examined impacts of conservation farming techniques on production and income levels, and finds that while these techniques hold promise for other parts of Africa, success will vary according to geographic settings, crops, and seasons.

From the beginning of the 20th Century, maize has become the dominant food crop in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi. Since 1965, increased productivity has focused on small-scale farmers. National research programs developed breakthroughs in breeding and, after independence, governments intensively supported farmers with extension, input distribution, and output marketing. These investments led to widespread smallholder adoption of improved varieties - up to 98 percent in some countries. Between 1965 and 1980, Kenya's maize output increased 3.3 percent annually. Zimbabwe's smallholder production doubled during the 1980s. However, since 1990, maize production has stalled in these countries, in part because of unsustainable financial subsidies and the atrophying of national research systems. These trends must be reversed to regain the successes of the past.

Since the 1960s, West African cotton production and exports have grown rapidly. The most robust growth has occurred in Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, which together account for 70 percent of total cotton production in francophone Africa. A fully integrated model of government and semi-government institutional support for research, input supply, production, processing, and marketing has underpinned this sustained growth. With this support, cotton yields quadrupled between 1960 and 1999 as fertilizer use increased to over 75 percent in the major producing countries. Use of animal traction equipment rose from near zero to 50 percent in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire, and to 90 percent in Mali. Over the past forty years, francophone Africa's share in world exports has grown from near zero to 16 percent, making them the world's third largest cotton exporting block after the USA and former USSR.

Livestock production plays an important role in agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. Cattle are not only a source of food, but also a sign of wealth, a source of draft power, fuel, building materials, and fertilizer. In some areas, the focus of livestock production has shifted to dairying. In Eastern Africa, which holds over 40 percent of Africa's cattle resources, dairy production is especially promising, though development has not been even throughout the region. Kenya, for example, has one of the largest dairy industries in Africa, with a large smallholder base, while neighboring Uganda's dairy industry is largely undeveloped. By comparing the history of the dairy industry in these two countries, one can identify methods of successfully developing dairy production in other parts of the continent.

Ethiopia has great potential for dairy development, having the largest livestock population in Africa, but the sector is still in its infancy. Kenya's dairy sector offers several lessons for Ethiopia. First, Ethiopian smallholders should be assisted to acquire grade cattle to increase productivity. The country has few exotic, crossbred dairy cows, and the indigenous Zebu breed that dominates is much less productive. Second, effective infrastructure for milk collection should be developed, and the private sector should be encouraged to engage in dairy processing and marketing. Finally, consumption of milk and milk products should be stimulated to increase demand. Besides providing income-earning opportunities for the poor, dairy development could improve the nutritional status of Ethiopians, who consume relatively less dairy products than many other Africans.

In the early 1990s, technological advances in breeding cassava, Africa's second most important staple food, boosted yields and transformed the industry in Nigeria and Ghana. Production in these countries increased four-fold, and Nigeria became the world's leading producer. This increase has substantially benefited both consumers and farmers, for, in Africa, 95 percent of the crop is still used for food. Expanding into the livestock feed and industrial raw materials market could create further possibilities for development of, and profit from the crop. These possibilities pose challenges for policymakers, scientists, and donors seeking to make cassava competitive with American corn on the global market and to encourage private entrepreneurs to develop technologies for using cassava as a raw material.

Cassava production in Malawi and Zambia has grown at about eight percent per year over the last decade- among the fastest growth in Africa, and the world. Improved varieties, declining maize subsidies, and drought have all contributed to this growth. High HIV rates in these countries have also contributed; cassava has long held a reputation as a less labor-intensive food crop with a flexible planting and harvesting schedule. As a result of the high growth rates, farmers have seen increased income, greater equity, and environmental sustainability. However, in order for this growth to continue, policymakers and others will need to address three key issues: improved seed multiplication and distribution, stronger marketing and processing strategies, and sustained funding for cassava research.

Fruit and vegetable exports from Kenya have increased four-fold in constant dollar terms since 1974, and horticulture has become the country's third largest source of foreign exchange after tourism and tea. Smallholder farmers produce more than half of Kenyan horticultural exports. Fruit and vegetable exports in Côte d'Ivoire have also expanded rapidly, rising 4.4 percent annually over the 1990s, with significant participation of smallholder farmers, as well. Factors that have led to the expansion of horticulture include: existence of transportation infrastructure, limited direct government intervention in horticultural markets, and policies allowing private and international investment. Under certain conditions, horticultural production can produce substantially higher returns per hectare than staple food crop production. For example, one crop of French beans can generate gross margins more than ten times greater than maize-bean intercropping.