Perennial grain crops in the West Soudanian Savanna of Mali: perspectives from agroecology and gendered spaces

Perennial grain crops may play an important role in environmentally sound and socially just food systems for Africa. We study the future possibility of integrating perennial grains into Malian farming systems from the perspective of agroecology, and more specifically using a gendered space approach. We interviewed 72 farmers across the sorghum-growing region of Mali. We found that perennial grains offer a vision for transforming human relations with nature that mirrors the resource sharing of customary land tenure, including patterns of extensive and intensive land use in time and space. Women interviewees identified a broad set of potential advantages and challenges to perennial grain production. Advantages include reduced labour, saving seed, and improving food security. Women farmers were concerned about livestock, water access, and resource limitations. We argue that perennial grains may increase access to land and natural resources for women farmers. Perennial grains may improve soil quality, reduce labour early in the rainy season, and provision more resources from fallow lands. Pastoralists stand to benefit from improved pastures in the dry season. We conclude that investments are needed to develop viable crop types in consideration of the complexity of West African farming systems and the local needs of women farmers and pastoralists

Biomass transfers and nutrient budgets of the agro-pastoral systems in a village territory in south-western Burkina Faso

Privatisation of grazing resources is emerging in the agro-pastoral systems of West Africa, resulting in increased pressure on the remaining communal rangelands and greater competition between farmers for access to crop residues. Differential management strategies arise as determined by household diversity. This study quantified the flows of biomass and related nutrient budgets in relation to farm diversity in Koumbia, a representative village of south-western Burkina Faso. Four farm types were identified: subsistence-oriented and market oriented crop farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists. Crop farmers collected about 30 % of their maize harvest residues for feeding during the dry hot season, while agro-pastoralists and pastoralists stocked about 50 % of their maize residues. Whilst the remaining crop residues on (agro)pastoralist farms were almost entirely grazed by their own cattle, about 90 % of the crop residues of crop farmers were consumed by cattle of (agro)pastoralists. On the other hand, available manure from cattle in the village was mainly used to fertilize the fields of the livestock owners. As a result, the cropped land of farmers with few livestock is continuously mined for nutrients. Calculated partial balances of N and K at farm level were negative for all farm types, except for N in the case of pastoralist farms. N and K balances of cropped fields were generally negative on all farm types. Partial balances of P were generally positive, which was to a large extent due to P fertilizer use. Better integration of crop and livestock production activities on farms and between farms offers a pathway to more efficient nutrient cycling with reduced nutrients losses

Biomass flows in an agro-pastoral village in West-Africa: who benefits from crop residue mulching?

International audienceIn West Africa, new management practices such as conservation agriculture with crop residue mulching can improve crop yields for individual farmers. However, in a context of complex social interactions between farmers, the introduction of such practices can also lead to conflicts between private interests and communal use of resources, for example the free grazing of crop residues. The objective of this paper was to assess ex-ante the impacts of the practice of crop residue mulching on crop productivity in a village of central Burkina Faso using an agent-based model, AMBAWA, that simulates the flows of biomass and nutrients between crop and livestock systems at the village scale. The model considers the interactions between four types of farmers that were identified in the study site: subsistence-oriented crop farmers, market-oriented crop farmers, agro-pastoralists and pastoralists. The model simulated increased cattle migration outside the village due to increased crop residue scarcity during the dry season with increased proportions of cropland under the practice of conservation agriculture, decreasing the manure availability at village scale. Consequently, the assumed direct yield increases due to soil moisture conservation as a result of mulching did not compensate for the yield losses resulting from lesser amounts of manure available. This effect was felt most strongly by farmers who own relatively large numbers of cattle (agro-pastoralists and pastoralists). The total maize production at village level depended more on the proportion of cropping land that was available for grazing by cattle, and thus not mulched, than on a possible direct effect of mulching on yield per se. The AMBAWA model can support discussion among stakeholders (farmers, traditional and administrative authorities) who are involved in the private and communal management of crop residues and other biomass resources, in order to co-design effective arrangements and practices for their sustainable use

SEAMLESS Global Change and Ecosystems D6.2.3.3: Documentation of baseline and policy scenarios to be assessed with Prototypes 2 and 3

This deliverable describes the construction of baseline and policy scenarios in Test Case 1 and 2 for the second and third prototypes of SEAMLESS-IF. It provides details of the methodology used in SEAMLESS-IP to build scenarios, and the data and parameters needed for the implementation of these scenarios in SEAMLESS-IF. These scenarios will be used to test the second and third prototypes of the integrated framework and its individual tools, especially the two backbone model chains: Data-base-APES-FSSIM-Indicators and Databases- APES-FSSIM-EXPAMOD-CAPRI-Indicators. The report is divided in two parts. The first part gives an overview of what we, in the SEAMLESS integrated project, define as a scenario. It also identifies the main elements for defining scenarios in agreement with the literature. After this overview, the steps defining scenarios in SEAMLESS-IF are identified and explained. The last section of the first part applies this approach to four typical user's problems that SEAMLESS-IF is designed to address: i) Green intensification at regional scale in animal-based farming systems(Auvergne), ii) Nitrate Directive at regional scale in crop based farming systems (Midi-Pyrenees), iii) Trade liberalisation at EU scale and iv) WTO and cotton policies in a LDC country (Sikasso and Koutiala regions of Mali). The second part of the report details the scenarios used in SEAMLESS-IF for Test Case 1 and 2 at EU and regional scales. The scenarios that can be developed depend on the availability of data as well as the model chain used for assessing the impact of the different EU policies and technological innovations. It proposes a template for the baseline and the policy scenarios compatible with the SEAMLESS-IF structure. More details on the parameters (premiums and constraints) of scenarios to be implemented by WP6 with prototype 2 and 3 are given in three sets of annexes: Annex 1: Concrete description of a SEAMLESS-IF project for four examples using the concepts highlighted in the document Explanation of the project definition V0.7: EU, Midi-Pyrennes, Auvergne and Mali. Annex 2: Scenarios to be carried out throughout EU regions with the third prototype. Annex 3: Scenarios to be carried out throughout some detailed regions for Prototype 2 and 3: Midi-Pyrenees (France), Auvergne (France), Zachodniopomorskie (Poland) and Koutiala

Causes and Consequences of Increasing Herbicide Use in Mali

This paper examines the origins and impact of rapid recent growth of herbicide use in Mali. Primary data come from interviews with herbicide importers and distributors in major markets across Mali and from a 2014/15 survey of 700 farm households in Mali’s Sudanian Savanna zone. Results suggest that a series of major supply-side innovations are driving growth in Mali’s herbicide markets, most conspicuously a proliferation in the number of herbicide brands marketed, a shift to low-cost suppliers in China and India, and consequently falling herbicide prices. At the farm level, herbicides cost on average 50% less than hiring weeding labor. Despite low econometric estimates of damage abatement, herbicide adoption rates reach 25% in remote rural zones and 75% in more accessible rural areas. Key factors affecting adoption include spatial variation in herbicide prices and rural wage rates. At current rates, herbicide usage reduces peak season rural labor demand by 20%