Una cura para el suelo de África. La ínfima calidad de suelo devasta enormes áreas de África. Plantar árboles y arbustos perennes entre los cultivos permite regenerarlo y, al mismo tiempo, aumentar las cosechas.

Summary

This review, by prominent soil scientists Reganold and Glover (2016), addresses the widespread soil degradation problem across sub-Saharan Africa by examining evidence for agroforestry and perennial intercropping as regenerative solutions. The authors argue that adding mineral fertilisers alone is insufficient for severely depleted soils, and present evidence that integrating permanent vegetation—trees, shrubs and nitrogen-fixing legumes—between annual crops can rebuild soil structure, suppress pests and increase yields simultaneously. The paper notes that over one million African farmers had already adopted these techniques by the time of publication, though many millions more require technical or financial support to scale adoption.

UK applicability

The findings relate primarily to tropical and sub-tropical soil contexts with distinct degradation patterns; direct applicability to UK temperate farming is limited. However, the underlying principles of perennial plant integration for soil health and pest suppression may inform UK agroforestry policy and regenerative farming guidance.

Key measures

Soil quality improvement metrics; crop yield changes; adoption rates among smallholder farmers

Outcomes reported

The paper examines how integrating perennial trees, shrubs and leguminous plants into cropping systems can restore degraded soils and simultaneously increase agricultural productivity across sub-Saharan Africa.

Topic tags