Abstract
Balanced food and cash crop production is important to meet the food and income needs, and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa. Smallholder maize-tobacco systems have the potential to cushion farmers from food and nutrition insecurity and livelihood uncertainty. This chapter seeks to outline some socio-economic and biophysical challenges within maize-tobacco smallholder systems, as well as highlight some promising prospects that can be promoted or further investigated in order to enhance food security and livelihoods. The challenges include shortage of labour, poor soil fertility, and increased risk of soil disturbance, while the availability of additional organic material that can be used in integrated soil fertility management practices, with associated improvement to soil properties such as pH and maize yields, represent some of the opportunities. Further, tobacco production generates direct on-farm income, which could cushion the farmers from poor yields of maize and price shocks. Therefore, food-cash crop systems present a viable alternative to the mainly subsistence based maize systems with the potential to sustain the food security, income and livelihood needs of smallholder farmers.
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Dunjana, N., Zengeni, R., Muchaonyerwa, P., Wuta, M., Dube, E. (2022). Challenges and Opportunities for Soil Fertility and Food Security Improvement in Smallholder Maize-Tobacco Production Systems: A Case Study from Svosve Area, Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe. In: Mupambwa, H.A., Nciizah, A.D., Nyambo, P., Muchara, B., Gabriel, N.N. (eds) Food Security for African Smallholder Farmers. Sustainability Sciences in Asia and Africa(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6771-8_8
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