Understanding soil fertility management under cereal cropping systems in southern Mali

For decades, Malian stakeholders, including farm households and scientists, have increasingly recognized soil-nutrient depletion as one of the major constraints to sustainable agricultural development. Farming systems in the country are diverse due to variations in climate, soils, and production goals. Many complex factors influence the level of soil nutrient depletion and include nutrient management, regeneration and plant protection, livestock integration, soil and water conservation, biodiversity, agricultural policies, and marketing structures. Farm households are confronted with declining price relations between farm inputs and outputs resulting in a net exploitation of soil nutrients. Due to prevailing poverty, farm households have limited options for investment in nutrient adding or nutrient saving technologies. Nowadays, this situation is worsening due to climate change and variability. Climate smart technologies such as using organic manure and micro dosing have been implemented by various actors to address soil nutrient depletion and the effects of climate change, but questions about the sustainability of this system remain. In this progress report we explore farm characterization for understanding the management strategies regarding soil fertility. This activity is the first of a series of four monitoring steps for assessing nutrient flow at farm scale in the Koutiala District of southern Mali

Jatropha Curcas Development as Intervention Potential to Tackling Land, Energy and Food Challenges of Rural Communities in Dryland Sub-Saharan Africa

Global population growth is placing increasing pressures on land for food and feed production as well as energy security. In particular in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), these issues require urgent attention. This is clearly stated in The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development emphasizing the importance of sustainable use of land resources to increase food productivity and energy requirement. SSA lags behind most regions of the world in household food security and access to energy. The rural agriculture-dependent communities of SSA are the hardest hit by food and energy scarcity and the impact is felt most by communities in the dryland farming areas. In terms of energy supply appropriate measures and interventions are required to address this challenge. Jatropha curcas L. oil fast tracked itself from obscurity to prominence. Its main advantage is the high content of methyl ester (or bio-diesel). It conforms to EN 14214 specifications, exhibiting emission reduction potential and qualifying as a lucrative bio-diesel alternative to fossil diesel. This paper proposes a focus on Jatropha technology as a holistic approach to tackling the land, energy and food degradation challenges in unison for dry-land SSA. The new Jatropha strategy would be innovative and environmentally friendly soil resource recapitalization and supply feed stock for rural energy generation while fulfilling the criteria of delivering other benefits, such as addressing land use conflict for food and energy production

Assessment of rainwater management practices and land use land cover changes in the Meja watershed of Ethiopia

Poor rainwater management (RWM) practices and resultant problems of land degradation and low water productivity are severe problems in the rural highlands of Ethiopia. The current study was undertaken at Meja watershed, which is located in the Jeldu district of Oromia region. The study investigated rainwater management practices and associated socio-economic and biophysical conditions in the watershed. The existing RWM interventions, their extent and the nature of changes in land use and land cover (LULC) conditions were mapped and evaluated. Results indicated that over the two decades between 1990 and 2010 there was an increase in the extent of cultivated land and large expansion in eucalyptus plantation at the expense of natural forest and grazing lands. Results indicate that, with few exceptions of RWM interventions practised, there were mainly poor and inefficient rainwater management practices. The overall effect leads to inadequacy of water for household consumption, livestock and for intensifying agricultural production via small scale irrigation systems. Deforestation and poor resource management resulted in soil degradation, reduction of hydrological regimes and water productivities in the watershed

Spatiotemporal Response of Vegetation to Rainfall and Air Temperature Fluctuations in the Sahel: Case Study in the Forest Reserve of Fina, Mali

Forests constitute a key component of the Earth system but the sustainability of the forest reserves in the semi-arid zone is a real concern since its vegetation is very sensitive to the climate fluctuation. The understanding of the mechanisms for the vegetation–climate interaction is poorly studied in the context of African Sahel. In this study, the characteristics of the vegetation response to the fluctuations of precipitation and temperature is determined for the forest reserve of Fina. Rainfall estimates, air temperature and NDVI were re-gridded to a same spatial resolution and standardized with respect to their respective long-term mean. Lag-correlations analysis was used to estimate lag times between changes of climate variables and vegetation response at both seasonal and interannual bases. Results show increasing tendency of NDVI started from the 1990s coinciding the recovery of the rainfall from the 1980s drought, and the obtained correlation (r = 0.66) is statistically significant (p value < 0.01). The strongest responses of vegetation to rainfall and temperature fluctuations were found after 30 and 15 days, respectively. Moreover, at a shorter time lag (e.g., 15 days), more pronounced vegetation responses to both rainfall and temperature were found in agriculturally dominated land while at a longer time lag (e.g., 30 days), a stronger response was observed in Bare-dominated land. The vegetation response to the climate fluctuation is modulated by the land-use/cover dynamics

Utilisation de l'Information Climatique au Mali-Manuel technique à l'usage des agents publics et privés du développement rural

De nos jours, le changement climatique est une réalité qui présente une menace majeure pour les systèmes de productions agricoles dans les pays du Sahel. L’augmentation de la variabilité inter et intra-saisonnière des précipitations et des températures ainsi que des phénomènes extrêmes climatiques (sécheresse, inondation, fortes températures et vents violents) comme conséquence du changement climatique va affecter sérieusement la production, la sécurité alimentaire et les moyens de subsistance des populations dans le Sahel qui sont majoritairement pauvres. La pluviométrie constituant l’un des principaux facteurs qui affectent la stabilité de la production agricole dans le Sahel, il est nécessaire de doter les populations d’outils de gestion de risques pluviométriques afin de minimiser les pertes de récoltes liées aux mauvaises saisons pluvieuses et de profiter des avantages liés à de bonnes années hivernales. Selon les chercheurs, l’information climatique constitue un outil efficace pour la prise de décisions en agriculture dans un contexte de changement climatique (Hewitt et al., 2017). Avec l’appui des agents techniques de développement de l’État, des services de vulgarisation, et des Organisations non gouvernementales (ONG), les producteurs se battent au quotidien pour s’adapter aux effets néfastes de ces changements climatiques afin de s’assurer les moyens de subsistance et de meilleures conditions de vie. Au regard du caractère dominant de l’agriculture pluviale, l’appui des agents techniques aux producteurs devrait prendre en compte cette nouvelle dimension de la variabilité et du changement climatique en intégrant la diffusion et l’utilisation de l’information climatique parmi les thèmes de vulgarisation. Pour ce faire, il est impératif de renforcer les capacités des agents techniques en matière de compréhension de l’information climatique, de sa communication aux usagers et de son utilisation par les producteurs agricoles en particulier. Il apparaît donc nécessaire de contribuer au renforcement des capacités de ces agents d’appui au monde rural afin qu’ils puissent bien accomplir leurs missions. Cela leur permettra de disposer de connaissances techniques simples sur les variabilités et changements climatiques et sur la connaissance des outils ou des approches sur l’utilisation de l’information et des services climatiques. Le présent manuel est élaboré pour servir de guide à l’utilisation de l’information climatique pour la prise de décision en matière d’adaptation aux changements climatiques. Il a été conçu à partir des expériences réussies de mise en oeuvre du Projet RIC4REC (BRACED, 2017 ; Traore, 2017). Il devrait particulièrement contribuer à l’atteinte de l’objectif spécifique de RIC4REC qui consiste à préparer les communautés à l’utilisation des informations climatiques dans les prises de décisions sur la gestion de leurs moyens de subsistance. Ce manuel est le fruit du partenariat entre ICRISAT, CCAFS et IRDBlumont pour renforcer les capacités des utilisateurs (ONG, Agences de développement rural, organisations paysannes, etc.) Le manuel est structuré en quatre grandes parties décrivant respectivement les concepts de la variabilité/du changement climatique, les prévisions saisonnières, hebdomadaires et journalières et définissant les modalités d’accès et de l’utilisation des informations climatiques dans les prises de décisions

Contribution of Climate-Smart Agriculture Technologies to Food Self-Sufficiency of Smallholder Households in Mali

Climate change has resulted in food insecurity for the majority of farming communities in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Mali. In this paper, we present a methodology for scaling climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies such as Contour Bunding (CB), Microdosing (MD), Intercropping (IC), Zaï pits, and Adapted crop Variety (AV) treatments, and evaluated their contribution to smallholder households’ food self-sufficiency. We used the participatory technology selection method and onfarm demonstration in order to tackle farm-related constraints. The study found that there has been a major shift in the spatial distribution of land use/land cover (LULC) classes between 2016 and 2020. About 25% of the areas changed from other land use/land cover to cropland. Crop yields obtained from CSA-treated fields were significantly higher than yields from farmers’ practice (FP). The application of CSA technologies resulted in millet yield increases by 51%, 35%, and 23% with contour bunding (CB), microdosing (MD) and intercropping (IC), respectively. With Zaï pits and adapted variety (AV) treatments, the yield increases were 69% and 27%, respectively. Further, the use of IC and MD technologies reduced the food-insecure household status to 13%, which corresponds to a food insecurity reduction of 60%. The application of Zaï technology reversed the negative status of food-insecurity to +4%, corresponding to a reduction in food insecurity of more than 100%. In the case of food-secure households, the application of CSA technologies led to increased food production. However, notwithstanding this, prospects for CSA in the Sahel hinge on the capacities of farming households and local extension agents to understand the environmental, economic and social challenges in the context of climate change, and consequently to self-mobilize in order to select and implement responsive technologies

Scaling up climate services for agriculture in Mali Initial findings from piloted implementation of PICSA approach in Africa RISING project intervention zone, southern Mali

The Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA) approach, designed by the University of Reading (UoR), focuses on improving farmers' livelihood and resilience against the effect of climate change. It provides farmers with accurate, locally specific climate and weather information; coupled with diverse, locally pertinent options for crops, livestock and other livelihood activities; and the use of participatory planning tools to improve and enlighten their decision making based on their individual situations. PICSA is a step by step approach, primarily designed for field extensionists to help them integrate new tools in their activities with farmers and improve the efficiency and impact of those activities on farmer's enterprises