Pathways of crop and livestock intensification for Green Revolution in Africa: evidence from smallholder farmers in Rwanda

拟议的研究涉及关于农业集约化和商业化以及撒哈拉以南非洲自给自足农民生计转变的辩论。对食物、水和能源日益增长和相互竞争的需求使得农业集约化对非洲至关重要。虽然作物和畜牧业生产的集约化和商业化是农业议程的首要任务，但可持续集约化议程尚未就小农如何可持续地满足多种生计需求提供明确的答案。我的博士论文的主要结论表明，政府农业集约化和现代化议程的长期政策目标与卢旺达农民面临的农村现实之间缺乏联系，严重破坏了替代小农生产系统及其潜在的发展道路。因此，农业集约化和转型的雄心水平以及许多小农参与这一议程的能力的差异，对发展和改善农村经济从而改善数百万小生产者生计的政策努力构成了重大挑战。在这项研究的基础上，我建议使用由科学政策研究组带头的“知识系统方法”来解开东非可持续发展的知识体系。知识系统方法有助于揭示“塑造知识驱动不同社会结果的方式的不同行为者、部门、能力、进程和体制安排之间的相互联系”(Atela等人)。促进绿色和商业创新作为卢旺达农业部门的解决方案就是一个很好的例子。本届政府的政策议程提出了一个问题，即非洲绿色革命的知识生产是如何由正规和非正规部门的国家和非国家行为者制定、推动、交流并最终谈判的。因此，该研究金的关键活动之一是通过利益攸关方和线人协商以及圆桌对话绘制知识生产图景。一旦确定了知识生产的类型和用户之间的联系，我们将能够理解导致特定决策过程的知识流动和轨迹。这一发现反过来将有助于找到知识系统流动中的瓶颈，还将提出缩小政策目标与小规模耕作系统农业改造的农村现实之间差距的潜在方法。

The proposed research engages with the debates about intensification and commercialisation of agriculture and the transformation of livelihoods of subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The increasing and competing demands for food, water, and energy make agricultural intensification imperative for Africa. While intensification and commercialisation of both crop and livestock production are at the top of the agricultural agenda, the sustainable intensification agenda does not yet provide a clear answer as to how smallholder farmers can meet multiple livelihood demands sustainably.The main findings of my PhD thesis demonstrated that the lack of connection between the long-standing policy objective of agricultural intensification and modernisation agenda of the Government and the rural realities faced by Rwandan farmers, critically undermined the alternative smallholder production systems and their potential development pathways. Therefore, the difference in the level of ambition for agricultural intensification and transformation and the ability of many smallholders to engage with this agenda, poses a significant challenge for policy efforts to develop and improve the rural economy and thus the livelihoods of millions of small-scale producers.Building on from this research, I propose to use the 'knowledge systems approach' that is spearheaded by the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) to unpack the knowledge systems for sustainable development in East Africa. The knowledge systems approach is useful in revealing 'the interconnections between diverse actors, sectors, capabilities, processes and institutional arrangements that shape the way knowledge drives different societal outcomes' (Atela et al. 2019).The promotion of green and business innovation as the solution to the agriculture sector in Rwanda is a case in point. The current government's policy agenda raises the question about how the knowledge production of the green revolution for Africa is framed, driven, exchanged and ultimately negotiated by state and non-state actors in the formal and informal sectors. Therefore, one of the critical activities of this fellowship is mapping the knowledge production landscape through stakeholder and informant consultation and roundtable dialogue. Once the types of knowledge production and users' linkages are identified, we will be able to understand the knowledge flows and trajectories that lead to particular decision-making processes. This finding, in turn, will help to locate bottlenecks within the flows of the knowledge system and also, to propose potential ways to close the gaps between policy objectives and rural realities of agricultural transformation of small-scale farming systems.