EVERGREEN AGRICULTURE: Case Study for Niger

Abasse Tougiani

Agro-ecological zones in Niger : climatic zones

THE SITUATION IN THE EARLY 1980s

REACTIONS IN THE 1980s TO THE CRISIS: Land rehabilitation using water harvesting techniques

Technical breakthrough in soil and water conservation enabling effective rehabilitation ofdegraded land

Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is the systematic regeneration of living and sprouting tree stumps. From these living stumps of indigenous trees and shrubs, numerous shoots sprout. FMNR involves selection and pruning of desired stems, culling of rejected stems and regular pruning of undesired re-growth

Today the situation on many farms is very different.

Main species used in FMNR in Niger and considered for fertility ,windbreak and Fodder function

species Fertility Wind break Fodder

Piliostigmareticulatum

xx xx x

Guierasenegalensis

xx xx xx

Faidherbia albida xxx xx xxx

Prosopis africana xx xx xx

Hyphaenethebaica

xx x

Combretumglutinosum

x xx x

Annonasenegalensis

xx

Cassia singueana xx

Dichrostachyscinera

x xx

•Faidherbia albida parklandwith tree densityranged between40 to 50 treesrestore per hectare 100kg of Nitrogen, 18 kg of calcium, 20 kg of manganeseand 2 kg of potassium.

• Millet yield of 2910 kg/ha under Faidherbia albida parklandversus openedfield with value of 367kg/ha

Enhancing Tree diversity through Participatory Domestication

Drivers that bring the re-greening process forward

Ideas and models:

Agroforestry practices emerged both from indigenous knowledge , but also from

research;

New approaches to Research and Development ;

External catalysts:

The environmental crisis of the 1970s and 1980s created in the farmers the need

to find innovative ways

Social drivers:

Farmers took a central role;

Forming new organizational structures;

Capacity building of communities

Spaces for re-greening initiatives to grow:

Partnership space:

Spreading technical innovation requires coordinated and flexible configuration of actors;

Cultural space:

The Sahelian countries have a great diversity of cultures and livelihood systems, which requires a flexible menu of technical options that farmers can adapt to their own socio-economic and environmentalconditions;

Institutional/organisational capacity space:

The technical aspects of agroforestry are fairly simple, but the

management of the new tree capital requires not only trainings

but also the creation of new local institutions

THANK YOU!

« A land without Trees is like a people without hope »