ABSTRACT
The densely populated humid highlands of eastern DRC, Rwanda and Burundi are characterized by small farms (<1 ha), large families (seven people), few livestock (0.4 tropical livestock unit (TLU)) and a large dependence on a few staple food crops, such as cassava, banana and beans. Farmers wish to improve their food security and income, but have limited resources to achieve this. CIALCA has made an effort to increase resource use efficiency by improving interactions between major crop components. The aim is to achieve triple-wins of improved (1) productivity/profitability, (2) sustainability and resilience and (3) adoptability by smallholders, taking into account resource constraints and gender dimensions. For the annual crops, new planting arrangements have been developed for cassava–legume and maize–legume systems. When combined with judicious applications of mineral fertilizers and organic matter inputs, production and income are often doubled. However, the ‘best’ combination depends on the agro-ecological conditions and production objectives. For the perennially based systems, banana–legume and banana–coffee, intercropping can provide large agronomic and economic benefits to smallholders while minimizing risks and improving system resilience. Soil and water conservation measures often do not offer short-term benefit, making adoption unattractive for resource-poor and risk-averse farmers. Several integrated technologies are highly beneficial but knowledge-intensive and context-specific. The ‘Green Revolution’ in the humid highlands does not need to follow a ‘traditional’ mechanized, large-scale, high-input approach. However, achieving impact will require a more favourable environment in policy, extension and market that encourages the development of locally owned solutions adapted to the constraints and opportunities of the farming systems.
