Sustainable agriculture: 5 reasons why it’s the most important issue for East Africa’s future

By Meshark Sikuku, Farm Systems and Sustainability Coordinator for Ripple Effect

Around the world agriculture accounts for 5.9% of global GDP. In the US economy it is 5.6% of GDP, but in France only 1.9%, in Germany 0.8%, and in the UK agriculture is only 0.7% of national GDP. (1)   

But in East Africa agriculture contributes between 24-44% of national GDPs, and more than 80% of our populations depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. (2)

East Africa doesn’t have adequate and elaborate irrigation systems especially for smallholder producers. We are highly dependent on rain-fed agriculture and there is high unpredictability of weather conditions. There is high variation in precipitation and extremes of flooding and droughts, and changing temperatures result in climate and food crisis.

Many of the results of climate shocks are made worse by unsustainable farming practices. Outbreaks of devastating crop pests are increasing, unchecked by modern pesticides. Land degradation is still on the rise even in protected areas such as forests and wildlife parks. Sustainable agriculture is the only solution that can establish a balance between the needs of current populations while ensuring the environmental protection which will sustain future generations. 

This is how:

This coming year, more than 9.3 million children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition in Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, according to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). (3)

Sustainable agriculture ensures access to enough nutritious food not just right now but in the future, and for future generations, because it is affordable and protects the environment – not being dependent on commercial seed stocks, expensive chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

Food security is achieved without much struggle by practices such as keeping small livestock like poultry, rabbits, goats and even cattle to boost protein intake; crop livestock integration to improve soil fertility; introducing diversified, climate-resilient crops; and agroforestry to provide additional sources of nutrition and income and to protect landscapes.

In unmodified rain-fed agriculture, fluctuations in rainfall produce dramatic variations in food availability, and pricing.

In August 2024 Kenya's inflation rate was running at a five-year high of 8.3 percent, with food, transport, and fuel prices all pushed upwards by the extreme weather (4). In Zambia, devastated by drought, inflation last year was 17%; in Burundi, where flooding destroyed roads and infrastructure, inflation was driven up to 25%. (5)

Sustainable agriculture minimises seasonal variations by ensuring that smallholder farmers can produce across all the seasons. Stable food prices stabilise other commodity pricing, and reduced inflation improves business performance across the whole economy.

Intensive farming, with its focus on high cost input and output is one of the major drivers of environmental degradation and the depletion of natural resources. Across our region we are seeing the spread of overcultivation, intensive grazing, deforestation, and poor farming methods dependent on the use of chemicals and focused on monocrops.

Recent assessments show that land degradation affected  22% of land in Kenya, 23% in Ethiopia, 41% in Malawi and a whole 51% of land in Tanzania. (6)

Sustainable agriculture considers productivity not only in terms of quantity, but also the environmental outcomes of production systems. It values and actively promotes practices that regenerate the environment and natural resources.

Change of seasons and climate variability such as droughts and floods have become the greatest challenges facing East African countries.

Almost a million people in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, and Somalia were affected when heavy rains wreaked havoc in Eastern Africa in May 2024 (7). At least 51 million people are facing food insecurity in Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda as we head into 2025. (8)

Sustainable agriculture ensures that small holder farmers adopt climate resilient practices that enable them to thrive despite climate change. Improving soil health, introducing drought resistant crops, using cover crops to preserve soil moisture, improving livestock health and productivity, producing locally-appropriate fodder, and diversifying farm enterprises all help to reduce the impact of climate change on farmers every day.

One of the pillars of sustainable agriculture is social and cultural inclusion. This means that interventions undertaken consider community socio-cultural and economic dynamics and ensure that these do not become barriers to the people traditionally considered last in development. Instead, the programme work becomes an enabler for women, young people, people living with disabilities and vulnerable minority groups.

By its very nature, in order to be sustainable this system of agriculture must be future-proofed to social change. Around 40% of agricultural work in the region is done by women (9) (10) – but many of them currently have no land-owning rights, and little or no say in how their land is used and what crops are grown.

Eighty percent of the population in East Africa are young people under the age of 35 (11), but many of them have no land of their own, or no stake in their family’s farm.

Up to six percent of the rural populations in East Africa live with a disability, or are excluded from decision-making in their communities because they are from minority groups.

Change is coming, across Africa. If we cannot reach these traditionally excluded groups the benefits will not reach the most disadvantaged people in our communities, and the results we achieve will never be sustained across future generations.

In Ripple Effect we design our programs to enrol at least 60% women, 40% young people and 15% people living with disability.

From the work that we do every day, and the results that we measure, I know that sustainable agriculture is the most effective development tool we can implement now which will have an immediate and a lasting impact on these critical social and environmental issues.

• In Oxford on Thursday 9th January I will be speaking at Farming Today for Tomorrow’s Climate: Practical Global Solutions - Oxford Real Farming Conference (online livestream access still available)

• In Totnes on Tuesday 14th January, Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson and I will be discussing our recent visit to farmers in Kenya: From Devon to Diani: Farming for a Better Future

• In London on Thursday 16th January join us at Ripple Effect’s event at the Financial Times for philanthropists and corporate supporters: Building a Fairer Food System in the Face of the Climate Crisis

(1) List of countries by GDP sector composition - Wikipedia

(2) Investment in Agriculture

(3) Eastern Africa: Humanitarian Snapshot (As of December 2024) - Sudan | ReliefWeb

(4) Impacts of protracted drought and high inflation rates drive widespread Emergency (IPC Phase 4)

(5) Inflation Rate - Countries - List | Africa

(6) Economics of land degradation in Eastern Africa

(7) Almost 1 Million People in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, and Somalia Affected as Unprecedented Heavy Rains Continue to Wreak Havoc in Eastern Africa

(8) Eastern Africa: Humanitarian Snapshot (As of December 2024) - Sudan | ReliefWeb

(9) Women, Agriculture and Work in Africa

(10) WOMEN AND AGRICULTURE IN RURAL KENYA: ROLE IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION

(11) https://ecommons.aku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=eastafrica_eai/