Can organic and resource conserving agriculture improve livelihoods? A meta analysis and conceptual framework for site-specific evaluation

This paper assesses the capacity of organic and resource-conserving agriculture (ORCA) to improve the livelihoods of poor smallholders in Africa. Distinguishing among the different practices related to ORCA is sometimes difficult because ’certified organic’ is the only term with a precise definition. While organic agriculture and resource-conserving agriculture have some differences, which are described in the paper, they both aim for the long-term sustainability of livelihoods through practices that enhance agricultural productivity with an emphasis on using resources that are locally available. Certified organic, on the other hand, refers to produce from farms that comply with schemes defined by specific operational standards that are often part of national statutes. Certification requires independent verification of compliance. Although certified organic products are always organic, not all organically grown products qualify as certified. The ORCA umbrella covers both certified and uncertified. The benefits that ORCA offers smallholders depend on the farming system from which farmers convert as well as the degree to which they are integrated into markets. Farming systems may range along a continuum from ’organic-by-default‘ systems at one extreme, to ‘conventional agriculture’ at the other. Organic- by-default systems prevail in areas where external inputs are unavailable, unaffordable or unprofitable. Conventional systems are based on Green Revolution technologies that incorporate Executive summary synthetic fertilizers and other agrochemicals. While ORCA and organic-by-default farmers both use relatively low amounts of synthetic chemicals, they differ from each other because ORCA farmers employ more practices explicitly intended to maintain fertility, proactively manage pests and conserve natural resources. The degrees of market integration discussed in this paper range from subsistence scenarios in which farmers hardly participate in markets at all, through transitional scenarios in which farmers sell some of their produce, generally in informal, local markets, to cash-cropping scenarios in which farmers sell nearly their entire crop, generally through formal markets, and purchase food with the income they obtain. Neither ORCA nor conventional farming systems inherently exclude any of the market scenarios and vice versa.

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