Climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in Senegal’s semi-arid zone: role of socio-economic factors and institutional supports

In dryland agricultural systems, developing appropriate climate-smart technology (CST) options is important to adapt agriculture to climate change and transition toward sustainability, as well as increasing productivity and incomes. This study examines the impact of socio-economic and institutional support on community responses to climate change and the impact of changes in three selected regions of Senegal (Meouane, Thiel, and Daga Birame), which fall within different rainfall gradients. It captures community perceptions of climate change, compares them to long-term meteorological data, and identifies site-specific response strategies. Communities are randomly selected from a list of communities within the target sites. We used a two-stage stratified sampling method to select sample households. First, purposive sampling was conducted to select at least six (6) villages as a cluster within each rainfall gradient. Likewise, the selection of households in each cluster was based on the main value chains of crops grown in the study area, namely groundnut, millet, black pea, and livestock. A total of 145 households participated in this study. Data from surveys conducted during the 2022 post-harvest season were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit models. The analysis found that smallholders have a comprehensive understanding of climate indicators, including annual rainfall, shortened crop seasons, and rising temperatures, compared to historical data trends. Additionally, the results highlight how farmers view the negative impacts of seasonal rainfall deficiencies (72%), delayed start of the growing season (88%), frequent dry spells (68%), and longer dry spells (76%), which ultimately lead to decreased grain and fodder yields. The logit model also highlights the importance of socio-economic and institutional factors such as access to credit, extension services, agricultural experience, frequency of interaction with extension workers, and access to government subsidies. These factors play a crucial role in farmers’ decision to adopt CST. Given the specificity of community contexts, these insights have important implications for guiding policymakers and making it easier to reduce climate risk among smallholder farmers

Training of Trainers (ToT) on the dissemination of CSA practices and CIS toward increasing the productivity of target crops

Sustainable environmentally, economically viable, and socially acceptable ways are important factors in increasing food production and achieving food security. To achieve increasing food production, the capacity development of key stakeholders especially extension agents and youth farmers is of great necessity, toward increasing the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices. The training of trainers (ToT) was organized to equip the lead beneficiary with relevant knowledge and skills on the dissemination of CSA practices and CIS towards increasing the productivity of target crops in order to increase the farmers’ adoption across the intervention villages. Specifically to; (1) review and share the experience of the 2022 on-farm participatory demonstration; (2) educate them on the importance and objectives of trials and demonstrations; (3) ensure the field technicians (ANCAR, CERAAS, identified local) in charge of setting up and supervising trials as well as demonstrations fully understand the designed protocol and monitor them to achieve good results; (4) train them on techniques of quality seed production and (5) benefit of climate-based advisories through ISAT platform for Increase productivity

Inventaire des technologies et pratiques de l’Agriculture Intelligente face au climat (AIC) au Sénégal

Cet inventaire des pratiques AIC est le résultat de travaux de revue systématique réalisée par le Centre d'étude régional pour l'amélioration de l'adaptation à la sécheresse (CERAAS), Sénégal. Les documents consultés comprennent des articles de revues traitant des aspects de l'agriculture intelligente face au climat en Afrique de l'Ouest, des livres, des chapitres de livres, des rapports de projets, etc. La recherche a été menée sur des plateformes de documentation en ligne telles que Science Direct, Google Schoolar et les sites Web de diverses institutions de recherche travaillant dans le domaine du changement climatique. Des mots clés liés à l'AIC ont été utilisés tels que : « Changement climatique », « AIC », « Adaptation », « Impact », « Vulnérabilité », « Agriculture », « Atténuation » etc. Dans ces différents documents, les pratiques développées ont été listées. Afin de recueillir un maximum d'informations sur les pratiques et leur mise en œuvre, un modèle de fiche descriptive a été utilisé

Exploring adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers in dryland farming systems and impact on pearl millet production under climate change in West Africa

Understanding and identifying appropriate adaptation optons for cropping systems and management practices at spatial and temporal scales is an important prerequisite for scaling. Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L) R. Br.) could be regarded as a risk-reducing measure crop under climate change when coupled with tactical agronomic management practices. In this study, we assess the impacts of adaptation strategies such as cultivar type, planting windows, and fertilizer strategies on pearl millet production under rainfed farming systems over Nigeria and Senegal using the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model. The impact of climate change on millet yield was evaluated using a validated APSIM-millet module that utilized yield data collected through participatory research and extension approach (PREA) in contrasting environments. The climate model projections for the mid-century period (2040–2069) were compared against a baseline period of 1980–2009 for both locations. During the simulation, two millet varieties (improved local and dual-purpose) with two sowing regimes were considered comparing traditional farmers’ sowing window (dry sowing) and agronomic sowing window (planting based on the onset of the rainfall) at three different fertilizer levels [low (23 kg N ha−1), medium (40.5 kg N ha−1), and high (68.5 kg N ha−1) respectively]. The performance of the APSIM-millet module was found to be satisfactory as indicated by the low Root Means Square Error (RMSE) and Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) values. The range for grain yield was between 17.7% and 25.8%, while for AGB it was between 18.6% and 21.4%. The results showed that farmers’ sowing window simulated slightly higher grain yield than the agronomic sowing window for improved local millet cultivar indicating yield increased by 8–12%. However, the projected changes in the mid-century (2040–2069) resulted in a decline in yield against baseline climate for both varieties and sowing windows, indicating the negative impact of climate change (CC) on yield productivity. The comparison between dual-purpose millet and improved local millet indicates that disseminating the improved millet variety and implementing early sowing could be an effective adaptation strategy in reducing risks and losses caused by climate change. Similarly, low magnitude impacts simulated on grain yield (< −8% in Nigeria compared to > −8% in Senegal) even though both locations are in the same agroecological zone