Prioritizing Agronomy Solutions in Changing Environments (PAiCE) for Sub-Saharan Africa Smallholder Farmers

Oct 08, 2024

By Wuletawu Abera and Brendan Brown et.al

The looming threat of climate change is not a distant concern but a pressing issue that significantly jeopardizes smallholder farming in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, we can enhance resilience and productivity through targeted adaptation strategies. In collaboration with key stakeholders, the CGIAR’s Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) Initiative is at the forefront of identifying and prioritizing these strategies using the PAiCE tool. Recent PAiCE workshops across 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have facilitated valuable knowledge sharing and collaboration, with outcomes set to inform sustainable agricultural development in the region.

Addressing Production Constraints and Climate Change

Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is grappling with increasing challenges from production constraints and climate change. These challenges include poor-performing crop varieties, erratic rainfall, lack of storage facilities, soil compaction due to tractor operations, pest infestations, high chemical costs, low soil fertility, Striga infestation, crop disease outbreaks, and crop residue loss due to wildfires. The rapid changes in climate conditions highlight the urgent need to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers.

Adopting effective adaptation strategies is necessary and a beacon of hope for optimizing crop yields, improving soil health, and mitigating the impacts of climate changes and variability. These strategies also encourage farmers to diversify their crops and reduce the risks associated with climate-induced failures. The CGIAR EiA Initiative, through its innovative tools and stakeholder engagements, is addressing challenges and empowering smallholders to improve their livelihoods and food security amidst these growing environmental challenges.

Introducing the PAiCE Framework

The PAiCE (Prioritizing Agronomy in Changing Environments) framework is not just a tool but a collaborative platform designed to bridge the gap between understanding agricultural constraints and implementing effective adaptation strategies. Developed by CGIAR’s EiA Initiative in collaboration with CSIRO, PAiCE combines expert insights with robust data to prioritize solutions tailored to specific local contexts.

Engaging Experts Across Multiple Farming Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

In recent months, the PAiCE framework has been deployed in 13 workshops across diverse farming systems in sub–Saharan Africa, engaging with 147 experts who are knowledgeable about these respective systems. The workshops were held in regions across West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal), Central Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda), Southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia) and Eastern Africa (Ethiopia). Each session provided a collaborative platform for local experts and stakeholders to identify and prioritize key agricultural challenges. In Ghana, the focus was on cereal-legume systems. Nigeria’s discussions centered on various cropping systems through the AKILIMO platform.

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Senegal concentrated on rainfed rice systems, while the workshops in Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC explored mixed farming systems. In Eastern and Southern Africa, the focus was on the Maize mixed systems in the Chinyanja Triangle and the mixed Highlands production systems in Eastern Africa. By involving a broad spectrum of stakeholders—from agronomists and climate scientists to local farmers and policymakers—PAiCE ensures that the solutions developed are both scientifically sound and deeply rooted in local realities.

Developing (Ecological and Institutional) Typology-Specific Adaptation Interventions and Prioritization Strategies

The PAiCE framework, a comprehensive and robust initiative designed for areas with similar farming systems, agroecology, and institutional and political boundaries, is a testament to our thorough approach. These commonalities lead to shared risks, challenges, and institutional mechanisms for adaptation. Therefore, the 13 PAiCE workshops across Africa were selected based on this philosophy: typical constraints, climate risks, and proposed strategies can be practical within these domains. This is crucial to ensure that risks, constraints, and adaptation strategies are targeted at specific spatial and stakeholder platform levels rather than offering general and broad recommendations.

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Video: Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Turning Plant Defense Into a Management Strategy

Understanding how a plant responds to stress is one thing.

Using that knowledge to make better management decisions is another.

Systemic acquired resistance, or SAR, is the plant's more direct defense response. When stress or infection occurs, the plant begins signaling throughout its system and preparing defensive compounds.

But if we know that response exists, can we help prepare the plant before the stress arrives?

The answer starts with understanding what triggers the response and what the plant needs to carry it out.

The Trigger and the Fuel

Salicylic acid plays an important role in triggering the SAR pathway.

Think of it as turning the truck on.

The engine may be running, but it still needs fuel to do the work.

In this case, manganese plays an important role in supporting the enzyme systems involved in the plant's defensive response.

This makes manganese status an important part of the conversation. Whether a producer is using tissue testing, sap analysis, or simply scouting for visible deficiency symptoms, the goal is to make sure the plant has adequate manganese available.

Manganese is required in relatively small amounts, but that does not make its role small.

If the plant receives a signal to defend itself but lacks the nutrition needed to support that response, it may struggle to carry out the process efficiently.

The trigger matters.

The fuel matters too.

Prepare Before the Stress Arrives

The best time to think about stress management is before the plant is overwhelmed.

Once a crop is already struggling, management can quickly turn into a game of catch-up.

This is similar to nitrogen management. Once a plant becomes severely deficient, correcting the problem does not necessarily erase the time and yield potential already lost.

Plant defense can work the same way.

Low-rate, targeted approaches designed to support the SAR pathway may fit best ahead of an expected stress event rather than after significant damage has already occurred.

That requires producers to think about predictable stress.

We may not know exactly what the weather will do tomorrow, but we generally know summer heat is coming. We know certain field conditions increase disease pressure. We know a herbicide application can temporarily stress a crop as the plant processes the chemistry.

Even a properly timed and labeled herbicide application can create a temporary response in the plant.

That does not mean the herbicide is bad.

Weeds can create significantly more yield loss than the temporary stress caused by controlling them.

The question is not whether we should eliminate every stressor.

The question is whether we can better prepare the plant to manage necessary and predictable stress.

Not All Stress Is Bad

Stress is a normal part of plant growth.

A perfectly stress-free environment does not exist in the field.

In fact, some stress is necessary for normal plant development. A plant responds to wind, temperature, moisture, sunlight, and countless other environmental signals throughout the season.

The environment is stress.

The plant's job is to manage it.

Problems begin when the stress load becomes greater than the plant's ability to respond.

Extreme heat, drought, high salt concentrations, disease pressure, and even certain management practices can add to that load.

This is where understanding SAR becomes useful.

Instead of waiting until the plant is visibly struggling, producers can begin identifying periods when stress is likely and make management decisions around those windows.

ISR Starts With the Soil

While SAR is a more direct defense response, induced systemic resistance, or ISR, brings the conversation back to soil health.

The longevity of a farm is closely connected to the health of its soil.

Carbon plays a major role because it supports biological life within the soil. Bacteria, fungi, and other organisms interact with plant roots and influence how the plant grows, accesses nutrients, and prepares for stress.

This is why soil health cannot be reduced to one product or one application.

It is a system.

Keeping living plants in the field longer can support biological activity. Cover crops may fit some operations. Better water management can improve soil conditions.