Despite the socio-economic and climate-resilience benefits of crop diversification for low-income farmers, they are the least likely to diversify. But there is a silver lining.
Nassoun Kone, a subsistence farmer in Kadiolo in Mali, shields her eyes from the blinding rays of the sun as she walks over hard, cracked soil to get to her peanut field. The only sound is the occasional crunch of a leaf beneath her feet; no insects hum and no cows bellow on this dry afternoon. Overhead, a single wispy cloud in the blue sky confirms what Nassoun suspected:
“Once again, no rain today,” she says with a sigh. When she reaches her field, Nassoun points out the large gaps between her peanut plants. “We’ve had no rain for fifteen days.”
If Nassoun, a mother of seven children, were to have a poor harvest due to the lack of rainfall, her family, who depend on her for their food, would suffer as a result. Even in years with good rain, the small plot of 1/8 hectare that she uses is of poor quality, and with no means to pay for fertilizer, her harvest is generally small and insufficient to earn a decent income.
Nassoun is certainly not the only farmer in this precarious situation. Smallholder farmers everywhere, who rely on the food they grow to feed their families, are at a high risk of food insecurity due to crop loss from drought, floods, soil erosion, pests and infestations. Women farmers in particular are at a disadvantage when the effects of climate change strike.
Nassoun, who doesn’t grow cash crops such as maize like her husband, but products that can feed her family, would be helped if she could have access to varieties of millet and sorghum that are drought resistant and can be planted later in the rainy season. Diversifying the crops Nassoun plants would increase the range of potential food and income sources available to her and help ensure her family has enough to eat year-round. According to the FAO, in many drought-prone regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, crop diversification serves as an important climate risk management strategy.
“For farm households with few resources, crop diversification is likely to be an important strategy for managing production and price risk,” the FAO report states, adding, “The economic returns to crop diversification tend to be highest for the poorest farmers.”
Despite the socio-economic and climate-resilience benefits of crop diversification for low-income farmers, farmers like Nassoun are the least likely to diversify. Cultural norms dictate that the family must prioritize her husband’s maize farm over Nassoun’s peanut fields, and her husband, like many husbands in Senegal and Mali, controls the use of household productive resources, such as land, labor, and tools. As a result, Nassoun’s small field is planted last.
In addition, women are often on the side lines when it comes to government subsidies and extension support. Nassoun does not have access to quality inputs, nor can she get extension support for non-staple food crops, as most of the government programs in Mali focus on fertilizer subsidies benefitting men who grow cash crops. Unfortunately, staple crops such as maize are more susceptible to unexpected changes in temperature and water availability. Therefore, overreliance on these crops increases the climate vulnerability of their household.
But there is a silver lining. Crop diversification has been increasingly recognized as a priority for agricultural development programming policies in West Africa, one that can even contribute to the country’s economic growth.
In Mali for example, the government has adopted The Strategic Framework for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development, which aims to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 through “the promotion of intensive, diversified and sustainable agriculture.” The government is supported by international programs such as the FAO to adapt cropping methods for higher production and to better face the climate challenges related to drought and flooding.
In the last few years, the country has attracted funding from donors such as the World Bank’s ACDP project, which aims to diversify the country’s crop portfolio.
By promoting a more diversified farm management approach oriented towards intensified production and higher-value, nutrient-rich crops such as vegetables, millet, sorghum and rice, farmers like Nassoun can benefit; not only by being able to provide a diversified daily diet for their families, but also by supplying the local and national market with a more diverse, micro-nutrient rich food.
Governments and international programs recognize that agricultural diversification is the next stage in transforming traditional agriculture into a dynamic, commercial sector, both locally and internationally. And crop diversification has a “significant effect on long-term child nutritional status, in particular for very young children and children living in households with limited market access,” a report published by CCEP states.
myAgro’s strategy fits within this wider effort by governments, research institutions and international multilateral programs to diversify the agricultural sector, benefitting the poorest of the poor.
myAgro’s program empowers women to invest in themselves and grow more food for their families. myAgro’s model provides women access to agricultural input markets that didn’t previously exist, delivering high quality seed and fertilizer on time so farmers can plant early and have larger harvests. myAgro also supports “healthy farms” by encouraging a smart rotation of crops to improve soil health and offering seed varieties that are resistant to high heat and rain shortages.
Additionally, myAgro offers farmers the option to buy or rent a myAgro precision planter: a tool that automatically plants seeds at uniform, measured distances while micro-dosing the ideal amount of fertilizer to maximize plant growth. With access to this high-tech farming tool, not only can women plant their fields on time, but they can plant more quickly while still maintaining best-practice micro-dosing techniques that double their yields. This leaves them more time and energy for other priorities, like growing their small businesses and educating their children.
With larger harvests, women like Nassoun combat the problems of malnutrition and food insecurity that are exacerbated by climate change. Last year, Nassoun planted with myAgro and saw the harvest from her small farm jump from 100 kg to 300 kg. “I’m thrilled,” she said of her harvest.
