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

Codesign of agropastoral innovations through a model at farm scale. Case of cattle fattening

In agropastoral areas of West Africa, some farmers aim to intensify their farming systems. Action research in partnership (ARP) methods may support these changes through the use of modeling tools. The objective of this article was to analyze the relevance of the use of a simulation model at farm scale within an ARP framework to codesign agropastoral innovations. The study was conducted in Koumbia and Kourouma villages located in the west of Burkina Faso. The article analyzes results obtained by seven farmers who aimed at developing cattle fattening. Simulations of the project were carried out and compared to a baseline scenario corresponding to the practices implemented by farmers the year before the ARP. At the same time, the technical staff of the project provided the farmers with financial support to help them improve fattening cattle feed at full scale by introducing fodder crops and improving storage fodder capacity. Interviews and follow-ups were carried out to investigate farmers’ perception of the relevance of the model and to analyze their adoption of the proposed techniques. The farmers the most interested in the use of the model were those who lacked experience in cattle fattening. The model helped them assess the expected effects of this type of activity on the farm income, crop balance, and mineral crop balance. Follow-ups performed after the experimental phase showed that farmers carried on the activities simulated by the model and tested in the field. The study highlights the benefits from associating modeling with on-field experiments in order to facilitate the adoption of technical innovations by stakeholders

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

Tree species and pruning regime affect crop yield on bench terraces in SW Uganda

Integration of trees on farms may exert complementary or competitive effects on crop yield. This four year study examined novel systems in which Alnus acuminata (alnus), Calliandra calothyrsus (calliandra), Sesbania sesban (sesbania) or a mixture of all three were grown on the degraded upper part of bench terraces in Uganda; beans or maize were grown on the more fertile lower terrace during the short and long rains. Three pruning treatments (shoot, root or shoot+root pruning) were applied to the tree rows adjacent to the crops; shoot prunings were applied as green manure to the woodlot from which they came. Pruning increased survival in calliandra and reduced survival in sesbania; alnus was unaffected. Pruning reduced tree height and stem diameter in alnus, but did not affect calliandra or sesbania. Maize yield adjacent to unpruned calliandra, alnus and sesbania or a mixture of all three was reduced by 48, 17, 6 and 24 % relative to sole maize. Shoot pruning initially sustained crop performance but shoot+root pruning became necessary when tree age exceeded two years; shoot+root pruning increased maize yield by 88, 40, 11 and 31 % in the calliandra, alnus, sesbania and tree mixture systems relative to unpruned trees. Bean yield adjacent to unpruned calliandra, alnus, sesbania and the tree mixture was 44, 31, 33 and 22 % lower than in sole crops and pruning had no significant effect on crop yield. The results suggest that sesbania fallows may be used on the upper terrace without reducing crop yield on the lower terrace, whereas pruning of alnus is needed to sustain yield. Calliandra woodlots appear to be unsuitable as crop yield was reduced even after pruning