Degradation of water resources in rural Burkina Faso: drivers, local perceptions and solutions.

Burkina Faso reformed its water management institutions and adopted integrated water resources management (IWRM) for more than two decades, yet the country still suffers from weak institutions and ineffective implementation of water management reforms. The key institutional question is: “How can IWRM reforms be adapted to increase effectiveness and sustainability of water management, and improve livelihoods of rural populations through increased participation of local stakeholders?” A key practical issue related to this bigger institutional question is to understand the barriers to adoption of good land and water management measures by riparian farmers and other land/water users, and the mechanisms to induce behavioral change among these users. Knowledge gaps exist in understanding the local perceptions and preferences of alternative management measures, and the incentive mechanisms to induce behavioral change. The aim of this study, which was part of a 3-year project entitled ‘Participatory planning for more inclusive and sustainable water management in rural Burkina Faso’, was to understand the perceptions, preferences and willingness of farmers and other land/water users to adopt environmentally friendly land and water management measures. The study also examined potential mechanisms that could induce riparian economic actors to adopt such measures

Les usagers de l’eau face à la dégradation des ressources : entre prise de conscience et volonté d’agir

Cette étude menée en 2018 dans trois régions du Burkina Faso avec l’appui de l’International Water Management Institute IWMI visait à comprendre les pratiques agricoles et de gestion des ressources naturelles, les choix ou préférences des usagers de ces ressources ainsi que les mécanismes pouvant les inciter à adopter des mesures de gestion plus respectueuses de l’environnement. Selon ses résultats, beaucoup sont conscients de la raréfaction et de la dégradation de la qualité des ressources et en identifient des causes. Les usagers interrogés se sont dit prêts à adopter des mesures de gestion, y compris à travers une contribution financière

Can biogas digesters help to reduce deforestation in Africa?

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for financial support for this work in part from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) New and Emerging Technologies Research Call, and in part from the EU under the REDD-ALERT (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation from Alternative Land Uses in Rainforests of the Tropics) project, Grant agreement number 226310. The authors thank Dr Hoang Viet Anh, Dr Suyanto and Mr. Gamma Galudra for their input on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Climate change, income sources, crop mix, and input use decisions: Evidence from Nigeria

This paper combines panel data from nationally representative household-level surveys in Nigeria with long-term satellite-based spatial data on temperature and precipitation using geo-referenced information related to households. It aims to quantify the impacts of climate change on agricultural productivity, income shares, crop mix, and input use decisions. We measure climate change in harmful degree days, growing degree days, and changes in precipitation using long-term (30 year) changes in temperature and precipitation anomalies during the crop calendars. We find that, controlling for other factors, a 15 percent (one standard deviation) increase in change in harmful degree days leads to a decrease in agricultural productivity of 5.22 percent on average. Similarly, precipitation change has resulted in a significant and negative impact on agricultural productivity. Our results further show that the change in harmful degree days decreases the income share from crops and nonfarm self-employment, while it increases the income share from livestock and wage employment. Examining possible transmission channels for this effect, we find that farmers change their crop mix and input use to respond to climate changes, for instance reducing fertilizer use and seed purchases as a response to increases in extreme heat. Based on our findings, we suggest policy interventions that incentivize adoption of climate-resilient agriculture, such as small-scale irrigation and livelihood diversification. We also propose targeted pro-poor interventions, such as low-cost financing options for improving smallholders’ access to climate-proof agricultural inputs and technologies, and policy measures to reduce the inequality of access to livelihood capital such as land and other productive assets

A historical review of fertilizer policies in Nigeria

In its endeavor to improve agricultural productivity, food security, and livelihoods, Nigeria has pursued several approaches in fertilizer policy. Most of these approaches revolved around variants of government-financed subsidy programs. This paper assesses the history of fertilizer policies in Nigeria and the tenets of the fertilizer policies in two recent national agricultural policy documents – the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) (2010/11-2016) and the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) (2016-2020). Our review results show that despite some recent achievements in ATA and APP, Nigerian fertilizer policies have lacked consistency and continuity, which in turn affected the functioning of supply chains, logistics channels including distribution costs, fertilizer prices, farmers’ access to the input, and, ultimately, application rates and crop productivity. Thus, though Nigeria is one of the leading producers of fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa, fertilizer consumption and farm application rates are generally low (below 20 percent of the application rate per hectare (ha) in developed countries). Moreover, several exogenous factors including poor infrastructure (especially bad roads), credit constraints, extension services, high fertilizer prices, lack of access to information, security threats, and lack of quality control or assurance also affect the functioning of fertilizer supply chains in Nigeria. The newly adopted national agricultural policy (National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) promises to build on ATA and APP and gradually deregulate the fertilizer sector to incentivize private sector investments in local fertilizer production and distribution. NATIP also requires the incorporation of practical approaches to tackle important exogenous constraints. We anticipate NATIP’s commitment to policy continuity and addressing exogenous challenges will bring efficiency and effectiveness to the fertilizer sector in Nigeria

Are smallholder farmers willing to pay for a flexible balloon biogas digester? Evidence from a case study in Uganda

This work was supported by the UK DFID grant on ‘The New and Emerging Technologies Research Competition (NET-RC) initiative (Grant No. DFID NET-RC A06502). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from DFID. We also extend our thanks to the households participated in the survey. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of DFID or the affiliated organizations.Peer reviewedPostprin

Economic potential of flexible balloon biogas digester among smallholder farmers: A case study from Uganda

This work was supported by the UK DFID grant on ‘The New and Emerging Technologies Research Competition (NET-RC) initiative (Grant No. DFID NET-RC A06502). We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from DFID. We also extend our thanks to the households participated in the survey. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of DFID or the affiliated organizations. Our final thanks go to the two anonymousreviewers for their invaluable and critical comments that have remarkably improved the paper.Peer reviewedPostprin