Food insecurity is a major challenge for Niger and for many African countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting household food security in Niger. Based on survey data covering 500 households, drought, high food prices, poverty, soil infertility, disease and insect attacks are reported by the respondents to be the main causes of food insecurity. The empirical results from logistic regression revealed that the gender of the head of household, diseases and pests, labor supply, flooding, poverty, access to market, the distance away from the main road and food aid are significant factors influencing the odds ratio of a household having enough daily rations. Another important finding is that female headed households are more vulnerable to food insecurity compared to male headed households. The findings of this study provide evidence that food insecurity continues to affect the Nigerien population.

Sahelian countries, particularly Niger, are more vulnerable to climate change due to the high dependence of most of their populations on rain-fed agriculture and limited capacities to respond to climate variability and change. This paper examines the factors influencing climate change adaptation strategies and the impacts on household income and food security in rural Niger. For this purpose, we collected data from 1783 valid rural households in four main agricultural regions of Niger. The results showed that crop diversification (72.74%), income diversification (67.97%) and changing planting times (55%) are the main adaptation strategies adopted by households. The majority of respondents had noticed changes in rain patterns (93.21%), in the amount of rain (91.25%) and in the intensity of rain (81.82%) during the last five years. We categorized these adaptation strategies into six major groups namely climate-resilient crop varieties, improved agronomic practices, irrigation and water conservation practices, crop diversification, income diversification, and agroforestry. We ran logit regression to identify the determinants of each individual group. The results show mixed effects of independent variables on these categories of adaptation strategies. Using matching techniques, we found adaptation strategies have positive and significant impact on both household income and food security. The farmers who adopt climate change adaptation strategies are more likely to increase household income by 7721.526 FCFA compared to those households with zero adaptation strategies. Similarly, the adapters have 7% to 9% more chance to be food secure compared to those who did not adopt strategies. These results suggest that strengthening the awareness of the effects of climate change on farmers and the choice of appropriate adaptation strategies are necessary to enhance household resilience. Strengthening institutional factors such as access to credit and market, extension services, and using drought-resilient crop varieties would surely improve agricultural production.

This paper investigates price transmission from international and regional markets to Niger domestic grain markets using monthly wholesale prices. Cointegration and error correction models were employed to analyze the degree of price transmission. Tests of causality were also performed. In general, the results showed that grain markets in Niger respond to negative and positive shocks in regional and international markets differently. Maize and rice markets have high speed of adjustments to world prices compared to millet and sorghum markets. The speed of adjustment of prices to the long-run equilibrium varies between 30 percent, 35 percent, 48 percent and 40 percent respectively for millet, sorghum, maize and rice prices. Nigeria, Burkina-Faso, Mali, Togo and Vietnam markets have shown significant transmission in Niger markets. Supply and demand shocks in these markets will definitely affect Niger food prices. Based on this analysis, we suggest that Niger should develop a proper trade policy with its neighboring countries to facilitate regional market integration. This will enable Niger to import cereals from regional surplus-producing areas to supply its food shock regions to reduce the negative impacts of price shocks on households. For rice, Niger should encourage local production to limit high dependence on international markets.

Climate change affects seriously household food security, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture is still using traditional methods of farming systems. As strategies against the impact of climate change and way to increase agricultural production, several Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices were introduced and experimented at sub-regional and national levels in Niger. The purpose of this study is to prioritize these technologies and practices using participatory assessment approach and to analyze the determinants of their adoption. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), organic manure, forest management, Zaï pits and stone bunds are the most preferred technologies and practices by the farmers according to the three pillars of Climate-Smart-Agriculture. The results of econometric models revealed that access to credit/subsidy, access to training, membership of an organization, source of income, family size and ownership of animal of traction influence significantly and positively the adoption of these CSA technologies and practices. The government and other development agents should reinforce the access of credit and training to farmers to boost the adoption of these technologies and practices, and to build sustainable and climate resilient livelihoods in order to move out of chronic poverty and food insecurity.

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