Evaluation de la rentabilite et de la competitivite de la chaine de valeur gomme arabique dans l’amelioration des conditions de vie des populations au Sahel du Burkina Faso

L’étude a eu pour objectif d’évaluer la rentabilité et la compétitivité de la chaine de valeurs gomme arabique au Sahel du Burkina Faso. Les données ont été collectées auprès de 40 producteurs, de 20 collecteurs, de l’association des exportateurs de gomme arabique et des services douaniers du Burkina Faso. Des données aussi bien secondaires que primaires ont été collectées. Les données primaires ont été collectées à l’aide de questionnaires structurés, à raison d’un questionnaire par catégorie d’acteurs. Les logiciels Excel et Value Chain Analysis (VCA) version 10 ont été utilisés pour la saisie et le calcul des indicateurs de rentabilité et de compétitivité. La Matrice d’Analyse des Politiques (MAP) a été utilisée comme outil d’analyse. Des résultats obtenus, il se dégage que la chaine de valeurs gomme arabique est financièrement et économiquement rentable. L’analyse des indicateurs de compétitivité fait ressortir un avantage comparatif à produire la gomme arabique dans le Sahel du Burkina Faso. Les coûts en ressources domestiques montrent que tous les agents économiques utilisent les ressources domestiques de manière rationnelle. Les profits ainsi générés permettraient un accroissement de la production de la gomme arabique qui impacte positivement sur l’amélioration des conditions de vie des exploitants du Sahel du Burkina Faso.Mots clés : Gomme arabique, rentabilité financière, rentabilité économique, compétitivité, Sahel du Burkina Faso

Anti-proliferative effect of Scoparia dulcis L. against bacterial and fungal strains

Scoparia dulcis L. was sequentially extracted with hexane, chloroform and methanol and soaked with aqueous-acetone (80%) to check for its antimicrobial activities against five bacterial and four fungal strains.250μg of each extract loaded on a whatman paper disc exhibited significant antimicrobial activities on all the fungus and against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Therefore, P. mirabilis is less sensitive to all the extracts while B. cereus, a â-lactamase producer bacterium, was resistant to the activity of the polar methanol and aqueous-acetone extracts. By the microdilution method, the most active extracts were chloroform extract on B. cereus with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 1.56 mg/ml and Aqueous-acetone extract on S. typhimurium (MIC = 1.56 mg/ml); the antifungal activity was strongest for hexane extract (MIC = 6.25 mg/ml) on both A. niger and P. roquefortii.Keywords: Scoparia dulcis, Antibacterial, Antifungal, Polyphenols

Assessing the Climate-Smartness of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP): What can we learn from Benin, Guinea, Niger, Togo and Chad projects?

Agriculture is the most important sector of the national economies in West Africa. However, the agricultural sector is faced with numerous challenges (declining soil fertility and land degradation, adverse climate change manifestations, demographic pressure, market instability and incidence of crop pests and diseases, etc.), compromising its ability to be a driving engine out of food insecurity and poverty. With the growing challenge of climate change and variability in West Africa, the agricultural production and food systems must undergo significant transformations to meet the interlinked challenges of achieving sustainability, increasing food security and responding to climate change. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is proposed as a solution to transform and reorient agricultural systems to support food security under the new realities of climate change

Promising high-yielding tetraploid plantain-bred hybrids in west Africa

Open Access Journal; Published online: 21 April 2019The devastating threat of black leaf streak disease caused by Pseudocercospora fijiensis on plantain production in West Africa spurred the development of resistant hybrids. The goal of this research and development (R&D) undertaken was assessing the development and dissemination of two plantain hybrids PITA 3 and FHIA 21 bred in the 1980s by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Nigeria) and the Fundación Hondureña de Investigación Agrícola (FHIA, Honduras), respectively. In Côte d’Ivoire, plantain growers selected PITA 3 and FHIA 21 based on their improved agronomic characteristics and, between 2012 and 2016, they were massively propagated and distributed to farmers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Togo under the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAAP) coordinated by the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF). In 2016, the Centre National de Recherche Agronomique in Côte d’Ivoire included the hybrids in the improved cultivar directory. This R&D activity illustrates how three decades of crossbreeding, selection, and distribution led to local acceptance. It also highlights how a CORAF-led partnership harnessed CGIAR research for development. The dissemination and acceptance of these plantain hybrids will enhance the sustainable intensification in plantain-based farming systems across the humid lowlands of West and Central Africa

Priority interventions for transformational change in the Sahel

The Sahel region holds both challenges and opportunities for smallholder agriculture and agro pastoralism. Market opportunities for food producers in the region have improved due to population growth, urbanization, income growth, dietary diversification and higher output prices. However, alongside land degradation and climate change, conflicts and epidemics, an increased dependence on dynamic food (and feed) value chains and on volatile markets indicates the need to address structural constraints such as limited access to high-potential agricultural innovations, ineffective policies, an underdeveloped business environment, poor infrastructure and processing facilities and a generally poor market infrastructure. To support the agricultural transformation required to meet these challenges, evidence needs to be provided to countries in the Sahel to enable them make informed decisions on policy reforms and supporting actions where and when needed. Several scaling approaches and technological solutions have been demonstrated to be effective and this document outlines proposed priority actions to achieve higher adoption of climate smart agriculture through Public-Private-Partnerships. A particular focus will be on the role of women and youth, both through improved household nutrition (and other attendant health and development benefits) and through improved job creation and wealth generation in various components of selected value chains. Meanwhile, the importance of improved agro-industrialization and trade for income generation and poverty reduction underscores the critical role of enhanced interaction with a vibrant private sector. This document presents some of the main routes by which R4D can contribute to agricultural transformation in the Sahel towards inclusive and sustainable economic growth, social development and resilience, including climate smart agricultural technologies appropriate to smallholder farming families. This will be achieved through a six-pronged strategy: (i) Increasing the efficiency of tree, crop and livestock value chains, (ii) Empowerment and increased employment opportunities for women and youth in agriculture, (iii) Co-creation of context-specific, climate smart innovations to enhance climate resilience (iv) Value addition and improved nutrition, (v) Improved soil and water conservation and its utilization for production, Improved policy and institutional enabling environments

La jachère, lieu de production

Les espèces arborées des parcs agroforestiers soudaniens et l'homme entretiennent des rapports étroits, depuis des temps très reculés. Ces rapports, indirects dans un premier temps, liés aux activités de chasse et de feu, se sont enrichis de rapports plus construits à travers les activités agricoles et domestiques, conduisant à une véritable arboriculture de certaines espèces. Le karité #Butyrospermum paradoxum$ et bien d'autres espèces caractérisent l'espace cultivé en culture à longue jachère. La jachère lui est encore indispensable pour la régénération de son peuplement. Le choix ancestral du karité fait par certaines sociétés de la zone soudanienne, l'importance des liens matériels et culturels (fonctions alimentaires, économiques, symboliques, agricoles) qui les relient, la qualité intrinsèque de ses produits et leur avantage relatif, en particulier leur exclusivité, enfin l'existence d'un capital arboré considérable, obligent à prendre l'espèce en compte dans les politiques agricoles, socio-économiques et de l'environnement, et en particulier se pencher sur le dysfonctionnement du commerce international de karité et sur les menaces qui planent sur l'intégrité du capital arboré (soit par destructions soit au travers du recul des jachères). (Résumé d'auteur

Food tree species consumed during periods of food shortage in Burkina Faso and their threats

Aim of study: Edible products from tree species were identified in Burkina Faso and their contribution to the diet in the lean season was assessed. The main threats affecting most consumed food tree species were also documented.Area of study: Six villages across two phytogeographic regions of Burkina FasoMaterial and methods: Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, including a 7-day dietary intake recall targeting women; semi-structured interviews targeting key male informants.Main results: The number of edible tree products consumed was found to vary according to phytogeographic region and ethnic group. A few tree species played a disproportionally greater role in the diet and were characterized by very high frequency of consumption by the majority of households in both phytogeographic regions and across ethnicities: Adansonia digitata, Parkia biglobosa and Vitellaria paradoxa. These species are not critically endangered at country level but they are perceived as scarcely available at local level. Considering that the main threats on priority tree species (fires, drought, pest and diseases) vary across regions, to maintain sustainable sources of nutrients in the landscape, mitigation measures should be diversified and adapted to local pressures.Research highlights: Priorities for conservation are emerging clearly, but research efforts should also target underutilized tree species for their potential to diversify nutrient-poor diets