Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder Agriculture: An integrated systems research approach

Sustainable intensification has recently been developed and adopted as a key concept and driver for research and policy in sustainable agriculture. It includes ecological, economic and social dimensions, where food and nutrition security, gender and equity are crucial components. This book describes different aspects of systems research in agriculture in its broadest sense, where the focus is moved from farming systems to livelihoods systems and institutional innovation.

Much of the work represents outputs of the three CGIAR Research Programs on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, Aquatic Agricultural Systems and Dryland Systems. The chapters are based around four themes: the conceptual underpinnings of systems research; sustainable intensification in practice; integrating nutrition, gender and equity in research for improved livelihoods; and systems and institutional innovation.

While most of the case studies are from countries and agro-ecological zones in Africa, there are also some from Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Ingrid Öborn is Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia at ICRAF, The World Agroforestry Centre, Bogor, Indonesia, and Professor of Agricultural Cropping Systems at the Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden.

Bernard Vanlauwe is R4D Director for the Central Africa hub and the Natural Resource Management Research Area of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nairobi, Kenya.

Michael Phillips is Director of the Sustainable Aquaculture Program at WorldFish, Penang, Malaysia.

Richard Thomas is Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Drylands Systems at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Amman, Jordan.

Willemien Brooijmans is a rural development sociologist and a consultant at Humidtropics, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.

Kwesi Atta-Krah is Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics (Humidtropics) at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.