T. Reardon, SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES FOR AGRICULTURAL-RESEARCH STRATEGIES IN THE SEMIARID TROPICS - FOCUS ON THE SAHEL, Agricultural systems, 48(3), 1995, pp. 345-359
To stimulate debate in agricultural research circles, the paper discus
ses six sets of issues for the design and strategy of agricultural res
earch on sustainability in the semi-arid tropics of Africa, to wit: (i
) what production systems to propose in what zones, in particular how
and where to intensify, (ii) what measures are needed to conserve the
resource base in different zones; (iii) what incentive measures, and t
echnology design, are needed to encourage and enable farmers to adopt
conservation and productivity measures; (iv) what complementary invest
ments at farm, village, and state level are necessary to help farmers
make those investments; (v) what crop and activity mix should be susta
ined - are the conditions upstream and downstream from production of t
hat mix conducive to sustained profitability; (vi) how should sustaina
bility research be organized?