Ep48: Narrowing the yield gap in sub-Saharan Africa

Episode summary

The yield gap refers to the difference between the potential agricultural yield that could be achieved under ideal conditions and the actual yield that farmers harvest. In sub-Saharan Africa, the yield gap is in some cases 80% meaning that farmers have the potential to double, triple or even quadruple their harvests.

The causes of the yield gap are debated and so are the solutions to narrow it. In this conversation with Martin van Ittersum, a professor at Wageningen University, and Klara Fischer, an associate professor and senior lecturer at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, we discuss if increasing yield is the right entry point for reducing hunger in the region; if bottom-up or top-down interventions lead to a more resilient food system; and at what time-scale (short- or long-term) should we be focusing food systems solutions?

[ Transcript available ]

Fig1. from Yield gap analysis with local to global relevance—A review (van Ittersum et al., 2013)

About Martin van Ittersum

Martin van Ittersum is a professor at the Plant Production Systems group at Wageningen University. He has led and is leading a large number of (inter)national projects dealing with global food availability, integrated assessment of agricultural systems, yield gap analysis, phosphorus scarcity, climate change and circular food systems.

Since its inception in 2011 Martin has been leading the Global Yield Gap Atlas project to map the scope for increasing agricultural production on current agricultural land. He has co-chaired the 1st (2013) and 4th (2020) editions of the International Conference on Global Food Security (CGFS). He is co-chairing the 5th edition of GFSC to be held in April 2024 in Leuven.

Since 2022 he has been a visiting professor for two months a year at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala with the Crop Production Ecology and Ecology departments.

More info about the Global Yield Gap Atlas project.

About Klara Fischer

Klara Fischer is an associate professor in rural development and senior lecturer in Environmental Communication at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Her research interests concern how ideas and practices regarding today's sustainability challenges in food production and natural resource management are negotiated and turned into practice, and in particular how marginalised groups are affected.

Klara works on issues such as how agricultural policy is turned into practice in smallholder crop and livestock farming, how smallholders conceptualize, prioritize and act on animal health challenges, the relevance of agricultural advice seen in the light of smallholders’ challenges, etc. She has spent over a decade in the field working with African smallholders across South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

Klara is passionate about interdisciplinary research, especially interdisciplinary endeavors to build understanding about the human/nature intersection. She has just completed an interdisciplinary project in the newly established Interdisciplinary academy- IDA, at SLU, where she led a group that explored the ontologies, epistemologies and values guiding key academic discourses on sustainable agriculture.