Trade-offs in sustainable intensification

'Sustainable intensification' aims to produce more food, fibre and fodder with fewer resources – for example, by increasing yields per unit of land, water or fertiliser. The concept has been widely adopted by mainstream development actors, but has been critiqued by some who are concerned that it adds 'a bit of sustainability' to systems that are productivity-oriented and highly dependent on external inputs.

These systems are not delivering for people and planet either. In particular, in sub-Saharan Africa, the gap between domestic food production and demand is driving deforestation to produce food crops – contributing to biodiversity loss. It also drives food importation – a risky strategy in times of global crises.

At the same time, smallholder farmers and their communities are struggling to mobilise the knowledge and resources for a transformation towards more sustainable food production that provides a livelihood for them and their families.

IIED believes that sustainable intensification needs to be firmly embedded in a wider food systems perspective that addresses all three dimensions of sustainability along the value chain 'from field to fork'. But the inherent tensions between different development objectives and different sustainability dimensions are resulting in trade-offs that need to be understood and managed – at farm, landscape and national level.

What IIED has done

As part of IIED's wider work on the various angles of sustainable intensification – at different scales and in different geographies, we worked with partners in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali and the Netherlands in the project SITAM (Supporting smallholder farmers’ decision making: managing trade-offs and synergies for sustainable intensification) to explore trade-offs at farm and household level.

This explored the question of how smallholder farmers manage the trade-offs between production, sustainability, and other socioeconomic and environmental factors, using in-depth household case studies.

These case studies in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Malawi helped develop an understanding of how different types of smallholder farmers perceive the trade-offs and synergies between different ways of allocating their scarce resources (labour, land and capital) when trying to produce more. And it helped understand how farmers’ decisions are influenced by factors beyond their control – such as markets, policies and institutions.

At community, landscape and national scale, we are also working with partners in Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia and the UK to understand what happens when sustainable intensification is not delivering on one of its promises – to reduce agricultural expansion into natural habitats. The Sentinel project focuses on the management of trade-offs between food production and forests.