ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes several major issues of sustainable plant management and food security, and ways to address them. It examines new events and trends related to food security, including investment and policy. Hall predicted that most agricultural production in Africa would continue to come from smallholder-dominated, rain-fed farming. Rapid demographical and dietary changes can cause further strains on farming systems, and may contribute to political instability in the form of riots, crime, armed conflict, and massive migration. When Hall described the major farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa, 61% of the region's 626 million people were directly involved in agriculture. The five most important systems with respect to population, poverty, and growth potential were irrigated farming systems, tree crop farming systems, cereal root crop farming systems, maize mixed farming systems, and agropastoral sorghum/pearl millet farming systems. In addition to reducing risk, multicropping systems can improve the use of sunlight, water, nutrients, and labor in low-input farming systems.
