AFROL NEWS
“Maize growing under a full canopy of Faidherbia albida in southern Tanzania.” PHOTO/WAC/Afrol News
Scientists have managed to triple maize yields on smallholder farms in Zambia and Malawi by simple “evergreen agriculture” techniques. Planting acacia trees among the crops automatically fertilised the fields.
Scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre now call for a scaling-up of the use of so-called “fertilizer trees” in fields throughout Africa to fight climate change and increase food security.
The unique acacia known as a “fertilizer tree” had typically led to “a doubling or tripling of maize yields in smallholder agriculture in Zambia and Malawi,” according to evidence presented at a conference in The Hague this week.
The findings were central to the arguments of agroforestry experts at the conference, who urged decision-makers to spread this technology more widely throughout the African nations most vulnerable to climate change and food shortages, and to think differently about more practical ways to solve the problems that are most pressing to smallholder farmers.
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