Agricultural innovations in small-scale farming systems of Sudano-Sahelian West Africa: Some prerequisites for success

摘要

Intensified land use leading to ever shorter fallow periods, overuse of crop residues and woody perennials for feed, as fire wood and construction material, and temporary overstocking of pastures have shaped our image of doomsday scenarios in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa. While the described phenomena have undoubtedly contributed to a widespread decline in soil productivity of the vast marginal agro-pastoral millet and sorghum based land use systems, a few, largely overlooked, innovations have allowedenhancing productivity across a range of agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. These are worthwhile to analyse in order to better understand how the well-known constraints to farmers' investments in more sustainable agro-pastoral production systems can be overcome. Successful innovations such as the locally made 'charette', a donkey-drawn, single axe farm transport vehicle, and the counter-season cultivation and regional marketing of onion have transformed subsistence agriculture in Niger since the 1970s. More recently the use of small amounts of seed-placed mineral phosphorus fertilizer (propagated as 'microdosing' by NGOs, FAO and the Gates Foundation) in millet and sorghum, a sprawling use of urban and periurban land for the highly intensive production of vegetables, specialty crops and sometimes also milk, as well as the fattening of small ruminants for religious festivals provide opportunities to effectively strengthen poor people's livelihood strategies and enhance their food sovereignty, often without involvement of extension services. The factors which seem to determine the success of such approaches are (i) their capacity to enhance farmers' access to markets (secure sales and cash earning), (ii) the possibility to adopt an innovation with only small amounts of capital (low entrance fee), and (iii) limited risk of failure despite high rainfall variability (safe return on investment). These factors add to the recent spread of real-time information about consumer demands and pricesfor agricultural goods across the region which is largely the result of the mobile phone revolution in Africa.