African Highlands Initiative: a conceptual framework

The cool highlands of eastern and central Africa constitute about 23% of the total land mass of the region. The area is densely populated, with more than 100 million inhabitants (51% of the total population of the region) who are primarily dependent on agriculture. With their high rainfall and relatively good soils, the highlands have been the principal source of the staple foods, forest products, export crops, water and employment opportunities. The future of this natural resource base is, therefore, critical to the welfare and development potential of the region. The African Highlands Initiative (AHI) is a response to the major concern of the national agricultural research systems (NARS) and the international agricultural research centres (IARCs) that decades of agricultural research in the relatively high-potential but densely populated highlands have not achieved commensurate results in terms of improved and sustainable land productivity. As the available land continues to be subdivided to accommodate the growing population, land productivity declines markedly. The major factors contributing to the diminishing capacity of the natural resource base (soil, water and vegetation) to meet the needs of the rapidly growing population are the existing resource-management systems and their response to inappropriate national agricultural policies, internal strife and escalating costs of agricultural inputs. This thesis has been debated by agricultural scientists, including directors of NARS, in the region over the past two years and has been generally endorsed as a starting point for a new research initiative in the region that would enable farmers and NARS to contribute to and benefit from improvements in agricultural policies and economic strategies that effect the management of the natural resources. The overall goal of AHI is to sustainably improve and enhance land productivity within the intensive land-use systems of the highlands of eastern and central Africa by working with farmers to evolve policy and technologies that increase agricultural production while maintaining the quality of the natural resource base at the same time. This goal will be achieved through the following objectives: • To develop a regional programme of research on the management of natural resources, particularly soil, that will contribute to the sustainability of agricultural and livestock production through improved technologies based on better understanding of the natural and socioeconomic environment, and in collaboration with the local communities • To strengthen the capacity of NARS to deal with problems related to natural resource management and to establish links between different institutions and professionals at the national level dealing with sustainable land management • To encourage cooperation between NARS in the region and between NARS and IARCs and other regional research and extension programmes dealing with natural resource research.AHI will support, whenever possible, and collaborate with programmes covering various issues of agricultural production in the highlands, but will focus on the problem of enhancing sustainable land productivity in intensive land-use systems. Initially, this will be addressed through two main research themes: • Maintenance and improvement of soil productivity• Natural resource management strategies for effective and sustainable plant protection.

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