Taking successes in land restoration to scale

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Combining land restoration and
livelihoods - examples from Niger
Taking successes in land restoration
to scale
Vincent Bado, A.M. Whitbread and team
INTRODUCTION
Land degradation in the West Africa Sahel
Fragile ecosystem

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6. Food Insecurity and
Poverty
5. Income
reduction
4. Soil
degradation
3. Nutrient depletion
2. High yield with low
inputs
1. New land opened
for agriculture
8. Land degradation-
unsustainable
agriculture
Poor soil makes
poor people and
poor people make
the soil worse
7. New land opened
for agriculture
Land degradation: The vicious cycle of poverty
Strategy of implementation
Review of experience and knowledge
Participative selection of options
Field testing/refinement/retesting

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Implementation of field tests in partnership
• INRAN : Institut National de Recherche Agronomique du Niger
• YANA-YI: funded by EU and coordinated by ICRISAT
• Synergetic intervention on testing IMOs (some common sites and
metallization of resources)
• ProDAF
• Signed Agreement to collaborate in Maradi, Zinder and Tahou (common
sites and sharing of resources)
• REGIS- ER (USAID Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel –
Enhanced Resilience)
• Interest to participate in the scaling process by testing some IMOs at
Zinder and Dori (Burkina Faso)
• Universities (Niamey, Maradi)
• Collaboration through training of students
• Literature review to identify
successful experiences
• Workshop with stakeholders and
partners for validation and
refinement
Review of experiences
Stone-band
Micro-bassin
Zaï
FMNR
Vallerani system
Sous-Solage
Micro-bassin
Half-moon
Bio- Regeneration
Combined application of
techniques by farmers

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Selection of sites for field work
Experience of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration FMNR)
• FMNR: origin in Niger
• 5,000,000 ha re-greened in 20 years; 200
million of new trees
• 1.25 million rural households involved
• FMNR’s is now spread through Spontaneous
adoption and Farmer-to-farmer extension
• Selection of the regions
• Maradi: starting point of development
of FMNR in Niger.
• Zinder: Neighboring to Maradi, FMNR
adopted in some villages
• Tahoua: Neighboring to Maradi, FMNR
and/or Zaï adopted in some villages
• Dosso: FMNR not well known.
Considered as a control
• Selection of communes and villages
Participative selection of practices and technologies
• Tools: Experience: Literature, workshop, interactions with
stakeholders
• Opportunities
1. FMNR: a successful experience in Niger
2. FMNR: could be integrated in cropping systems
3. Cereal/Legume Intercropping: Main cropping system of
farmers
4. ICRISAT has developed affordable technologies
(improved varieties, intercropping systems, micro
dosing of fertilizers etc.)
5. Opportunities to combine FMNR with improved
technologies in cropping systems

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Crop yields on station
Effet of ziziphus on productivity of Millet/Cowpea intercropping
435 485
1405
Revenue ($US)
Millet
Millet+Cowpea
Millet+Cowpea+Tree
We have increased the rain water use efficiency
of millet by 20%
Linking farmers in community of practices:
Scaling innovations through Planned Comparison
Village
Region
Lead commune
Leader of
Innovation
Community of Local Innovators
Leader of Local Innovators
Community of Leader of Local
Innovators
Leader of Local Innovators from selected
villages
ICRISAT
Focal Point
2019 >300 villages/2300
local innovators reaching
~20,000 farmers
2018 - 162 Villages /2047
local innovators
2017 -107 Villages /1260
local innovators

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• Removal of the topsoil by erosion exposes the
lateritic soil layer.
• Degraded lateritic soils are unsuitable for
agriculture -used for grazing/ firewood.
Restoring degraded lands for women:
Source of revenues for food security and resilience
Partnership with YANA-YI funded by European Union/CRS and USAID
Restoring degraded lands for women:
Source of revenues for food security and resilience
Partnership with YANA-YI funded by European Union
1. Negotiation of the use of ‘’degraded’’ lands with local
authorities (1-3 ha)
2. Obtaining of ‘’degraded’’ lands
3. Fencing, application of soil and water conservation
technologies to improve/restore land productivity
4. Organization of farmer association (50 to 100 women)
5. Sharing of plots to women (200-300m2/women)
6. Training on cropping and organization activities

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Restoring degraded lands for women:
Source of revenues for food security and resilience
Partnership with YANA-YI funded by European Union
• BDL scaled with participation of
11,970 women in 197 villages,
reclaiming 175 ha of degraded
land.
• Total revenue earned US$ 1,800
to $4,420 per ha ( 9 to 22 times
more than the traditional
system.
• Total revenue earned by
individual US$50 to $110.
Conclusions
• The integrated approached (improving the cropping
system with FMNR) has increased the interest of
farmers
• Growing demand for training on FMNR
• Growing demand for testing packages combining
FMNR and soil and water conservation technologies
• Interest of different partners to collaborate (ProDAF,
REGIS-ER, NGOs and others)
• Growing demand for Bioreclamation of Degraded
Lands (BDL)
• Involving local communities and linking to livelihoods
is a key to taking integrated technologies to scale
V.Bado@cgiar.org

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Merci beaucoup