About this Research Topic

Background

Smallholder farmers account for up to 70% of the farmers in most Southern African countries. Their productivity is therefore very critical to national food security. However, productivity amongst these farmers has always been low even with the introduction of high input based green revolution technologies. This has been mainly due to the strong link between the smallholder farming systems and other cultural activities, which has prevented the adoption of current improved farming systems by these farmers. Most of the cultural farming techniques still being practiced by the smallholder farmers involve unimproved mixed farming methods, where yields are low. With the advent of climate change, these smallholder farmers are experiencing continuous biotic and abiotic stresses on their crude traditional methods of farming. Research that improves the efficiency of these traditional mixed farming techniques will be critical in driving the resilience and adaptation of these vulnerable smallholder farmers in Southern Africa.

Around the 1960s, the Green Revolution technologies were introduced in Southern Africa and this saw a drive towards new imported farming technologies with a shift from the traditional farming methods that were being practiced by most smallholder farmers in this region. However, for most smallholder farmers, their farming practices involved a mixed farming practice where mixed or combination of crops and animals are farmed together, unlike the recommended Green Revolution technologies which introduced practices like mono-cropping, intensive aquaculture, use of herbicides and improved crop varieties that side-lined the smallholder farmer’s traditional practices. This has seen yields increasing among the commercial farmers, whilst smallholder farmers continue to experience reduced yields, which is now being exacerbated by climate change. To increase the resilience and adaptation of these smallholder farmers’ in the 21st century, there is a need for research that is undertaken with the involvement of these farmers whilst avoiding the import of new techniques researched elsewhere only to be recommended for these farmers. Such research needs to focus on improving the efficiency of these smallholder farmers’ mixed farming techniques, whilst incorporating newer technologies such as aquaponics; multi-trophic systems, agroforestry and improved varieties of orphan crops within an integrated climate smart framework.

The Research Topic focuses on current research on the mixed farming techniques adoptable by smallholder farmers in Southern Africa that can drive the change from traditional farming techniques to more improved technologies to help mitigate, adapt to and make these farmers more resilient to the effects of climate change. We would like to receive manuscripts that target the smallholder farmers from the Southern African region.

We welcome the following manuscripts; original research, reviews, systematic reviews, policy and practice reviews that address all three pillars of climate-smart agriculture (adaptation, mitigation and resilience). The relative emphasis across the pillars does not have to be equal, but a coherent assessment across the pillars must be made. We particularly welcome research within the following themes

• Multi-disciplinary research on climate- smart mixed farming techniques critical in driving resilience and adaptation of small-scale farmers.
• Integrated climate-smart aquaculture technologies that create balanced systems for environmental sustainability, economic viability and social acceptability for smallholder farmers in Southern Africa.
• On-farm research on improved landrace crop varieties that are high yielding, suitable for crop-livestock farming systems and adapt well to changes in climate.
• Socio-economic impact of the adoption of mixed farming based climate-smart technologies on smallholder farmers.
• Low cost, easy to adopt technologies that can be implemented by smallholder farmers in Southern Africa as a means of mitigating against climate change.

Keywords: multi-trophic farming, indigenous crops, arid agriculture, marginal soils, agroforestry, Southern Africa

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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