Beyond Intensification: landscapes and livelihoods in Mali’s Guinea Savannah

For more than a decade, sub-Saharan Africa has been the focus of calls for a new Green Revolution. Like its predecessor, the African Green Revolution aims to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers, improving their own food security and income as well as that of the continent as a whole. This is to be done with minimum environmental damage, through “sustainable intensification.” While sustainable intensification has shown potential in places where high population density precludes cropland expansion, evidence of its effectiveness in land-abundant, labor-limited areas is limited. One such land- abundant, labor-limited area is the Guinea Savannah region of West Africa, which the World Bank called a “Sleeping Giant” where agricultural development could drive economic growth both locally and at the national level. Within the Guinea Savannah region, we use southern Mali’s Bougouni district as a case study to explore potential futures for smallholder agriculture in the area...