Brad G. Peter

Re-evaluating the Malawian Farm Input Subsidy Programme

The Malawian Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) has received praise as a proactive policy that has transformed the nations food security, yet irreconcilable differences exist between maize production estimates distributed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Malawi Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MoAFS) and the National Statistical Office (NSO) of Malawi. These differences illuminate yield-reporting deficiencies and the value that alternative, politically unbiased yield estimates could play in understanding policy impacts. We use net photosynthesis (PsnNet) as an objective source of evidence to evaluate production history and production potential under a fertilizer input scenario. Even with the most generous harvest index (HI) and area manipulation to match a reported error, we are unable to replicate post-FISP production gains. In addition, we show that the spatial delivery of FISP may have contributed to popular perception of widespread maize improvement. These triangulated lines of evidence suggest that FISP may not have been the success it was thought to be. Lastly, we assert that fertilizer subsidies may not be sufficient or sustainable strategies for production gains in Malawi.

Loamy, Two-Storied Soils on the Outwash Plains of Southwestern Lower Michigan: Pedoturbation of Loess with the Underlying Sand

Soils on many of the outwash plains in southwestern Michigan have loamy upper profiles, despite being underlain by sand-textured outwash. The origin of this upper, loamy material has long been unknown. The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatio-textural characteristics of these loamy-textured sediments to ascertain their origin(s). The textural curves of this material have distinct bimodality, with clear silt and sand peaks. Because the sand peaks align with those in the outwash below, we conclude that the upper material is a mixture of an initially silty material with the sand from below, forming loamy textures. By applying a textural filtering operation to the data, we determined its original characteristics; nearly all of the soils originally had silt loam upper profiles, typical for loess. Field data showed that the loamy material is thickest east of a broad, north–south trending valley (the Niles-Thornapple Spillway) that once carried glacial meltwater. The material becomes thinner, generally better sorted, and finer in texture eastward, away from this channel. We conclude that the loamy mantle on many of the adjacent outwash plains is silt-rich loess, derived from the Niles-Thornapple Spillway and its tributary channels and transported on mainly westerly winds. The spillway was active between ca. 17.3 and 16.8 k cal. years ago. At this time, a large network of tunnel channels existed beneath the stagnant Saginaw lobe ice. Meltwater from the lobe funneled silt-rich sediment into the spillway, rendering it a prodigious silt source.

Nature-based agricultural solutions: Scaling perennial grains across Africa

ABSTRACT Modern plant breeding tends to focus on maximizing yield, with one of the most ubiquitous implementations being shorter‐duration crop varieties. It is indisputable that these breeding efforts have resulted in greater yields in ideal circumstances; however, many farmed locations across Africa suffer from one or more conditions that limit the efficacy of modern short‐duration hybrids. In view of global change and increased necessity for intensification, perennial grains and long‐duration varieties offer a nature‐based solution for improving farm productivity and smallholder livelihoods in suboptimal agricultural areas. Specific conditions where perennial grains should be considered include locations where biophysical and social constraints reduce agricultural system efficiency, and where conditions are optimal for crop growth. Using a time‐series of remotely‐sensed data, we locate the marginal agricultural lands of Africa, identifying suboptimal temperature and precipitation conditions for the dominant crop, i.e., maize, as well as optimal climate conditions for two perennial grains, pigeonpea and sorghum. We propose that perennial grains offer a lower impact, sustainable nature‐based solution to this subset of climatic drivers of marginality. Using spatial analytic methods and satellite‐derived climate information, we demonstrate the scalability of perennial pigeonpea and sorghum across Africa. As a nature‐based solution, we argue that perennial grains offer smallholder farmers of marginal lands a sustainable solution for enhancing resilience and minimizing risk in confronting global change, while mitigating social and edaphic drivers of low and variable production. HighlightsMapping suitability and scaling potential of perennial crops across Africa.Targeting agricultural development through remote sensing‐based classification.Locating areas for deployment of nature‐based sustainable land management strategies.

Scaling Agricultural Innovations: Pigeonpea in Malawi

Successful scaling of agricultural development strategies is fundamental to increased production and yields, yet targeting efforts frequently fail to fully consider the underlying biophysical drivers of agricultural marginality, particularly at fine spatial resolutions. We present a heuristic for intelligent targeting, utilizing remotely sensed information to identify the intersection between marginal conditions for performance of a staple crop and the optimal niche for technologies that improve crop performance. Here, we explore the geographic potential of maize diversification with pigeonpea, a crop with soil productivity enhancing properties. Overall, 79 percent of agricultural land in Malawi exhibits climate conditions optimal for pigeonpea cultivation and, in total, approximately 51 percent of Malawian maize-based farming is expected to receive some benefit from pigeonpea integration, with 9 percent receiving predictable and substantial benefits. These findings illustrate the geographic scaling potential of pigeonpea in Malawi and provide direction for informed pigeonpea deployment and market development across the country.

Perennial grain crops in the West Soudanian Savanna of Mali: perspectives from agroecology and gendered spaces

ABSTRACT Perennial grain crops may play an important role in environmentally sound and socially just food systems for Africa. We study the future possibility of integrating perennial grains into Malian farming systems from the perspective of agroecology, and more specifically using a gendered space approach. We interviewed 72 farmers across the sorghum-growing region of Mali. We found that perennial grains offer a vision for transforming human relations with nature that mirrors the resource sharing of customary land tenure, including patterns of extensive and intensive land use in time and space. Women interviewees identified a broad set of potential advantages and challenges to perennial grain production. Advantages include reduced labour, saving seed, and improving food security. Women farmers were concerned about livestock, water access, and resource limitations. We argue that perennial grains may increase access to land and natural resources for women farmers. Perennial grains may improve soil quality, reduce labour early in the rainy season, and provision more resources from fallow lands. Pastoralists stand to benefit from improved pastures in the dry season. We conclude that investments are needed to develop viable crop types in consideration of the complexity of West African farming systems and the local needs of women farmers and pastoralists.

A Multiscalar Approach to Mapping Marginal Agricultural Land: Smallholder Agriculture in Malawi

Marginal agricultural lands are defined here by suboptimal biophysical conditions and historically variable or low agricultural production. We characterize these areas using remotely sensed information to disentangle the biophysical and possible social factors driving marginality. Considering both the modifiable areal unit problem and the ecological fallacy problem, the heuristic we propose is generalizable across geographies and scales and provides information at multiple decision-making levels through a multiscalar interannual variability model. We present results from our study of Malawi, where the landscape is densely cultivated and smallholder farmers frequently occupy marginal lands, to illustrate the potential of a multiscalar analysis in a place where food insecurity alleviation is needed and where remote sensing can provide necessary information. Our framework for identifying marginal agricultural lands consists of (1) locating long-term agricultural land, (2) measuring interannual productivity of long-term farmed locations, and (3) assessing marginal biophysical land characteristics and the fundamental climate niche for the dominant crop (in this case maize). Productivity and marginality in Malawi are spatially organized, and an assessment of productivity at multiple scales highlights the importance of presenting both global and local spatiotemporal variability for managing agroecological variance. By disaggregating broad classes of historically marginal production and the underlying drivers of marginality, different intervention efforts can intelligently target areas most likely to receive maximum benefit. These methodologies can be applied by both policymakers and scholars to identify and target marginal agricultural areas for improved productivity and for the support of smallholder farmer livelihoods.

Corrigendum: Re-evaluating the Malawian Farm Input Subsidy Programme

Nature Plants 3, 17013 (2017); published online 6 March 2017; corrected 13 March 2017. In the version of this Article originally published, the map in Fig. 1 showed Lake Chiuta in the wrong position. Lake Chiuta is actually situated along the southeast border of Malawi. This has now been corrected in all versions of the Article.