Farmers' knowledge of wind erosion processes and control methods in Niger

Sterk, G.; Haigis, J.

doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-145x(199803/04)9:2<107::aid-ldr285>3.0.co;2-5

Cited by 36 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Sahelian farmers have groundwork for accepting this system. According to Sterk and Haigis (1998), most Sahelian farmers believe that soil loss results in reduced fertility and lower production, whereas deposition of wind-blown soil materials improves soil fertility and productivity. Bielders et al (2001) also reported that some farmers in the Sahel omit second weeding in unproductive areas because weeds will increase soil cover during the subsequent dry season and help reduce erosion and trap sediment from adjacent unprotected areas.…”

Section: Outline Of the ''Fallow Band System''mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This does not mean that farmers are ignorant of wind-erosion problems. Studies in Niger showed that most farmers recognize the severe damage caused by wind erosion, are aware of wind erosion control techniques, and many have even tried to apply one or several of these techniques (Taylor-Powell 1991;Sterk and Haigis 1998;Bielders et al 2001;Schlecht and Buerkert 2004). The main reason for non-adoption may be that developers and/or extension workers of these techniques did not give sufficient attention to their practicality for farmers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

“Fallow Band System,” a land management practice for controlling desertification and improving crop production in the Sahel, West Africa. 1. Effectiveness in desertification control and soil fertility improvement

Ikazaki

Shinjo

Tanaka

et al. 2011

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wind erosion is a major contributor to desertification in the Sahel. Although three effective countermeasures for wind erosion (i.e. ridging, mulching with post-harvest crop residue, and windbreaks) have been proposed, they are not practical for Sahelian farmers. Therefore, we designed a new land management practice, termed the ''Fallow Band System,'' which can be used for both controlling wind erosion and improving soil fertility and crop production. This method does not impose additional expense and labor requirements on Sahelian farmers who are economically challenged and have limited manpower. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of this system on wind-erosion control and soil-fertility improvement. We conducted field experiments at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics West and Central Africa and showed that (i) a fallow band can capture 74% of wind-blown soil particles and 58% of wind-blown coarse organic matter, which suggests that it can effectively control wind erosion, (ii) the amount of soil nutrients available for crops in a former fallow band was increased by the decomposition of trapped soil materials containing considerable amounts of nutrients, and (iii) the amount of soil water available for crops in a former fallow band was increased by the trapped wind-blown soil materials through improvement of rainwater infiltration into surface soil. These results lead to the conclusion that the ''Fallow Band System'' can be useful for preventing desertification and improving soil fertility in the Sahel, West Africa.

show abstract

Section: Outline Of the ''Fallow Band System''mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Fallow Band System,” a land management practice for controlling desertification and improving crop production in the Sahel, West Africa. 1. Effectiveness in desertification control and soil fertility improvement

Ikazaki

Shinjo

Tanaka

et al. 2011

Soil Science and Plant Nutrition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Institutional arrangements of crop residue and manure exchange between households and manuring practices were studied by Hoffmann et al (2001) in the close settled zone of Dundaye as well as in the Zamfara forest reserve of northern Nigeria. Farmers' perception of wind erosion (Sterk and Haigis, 1998) of changes in fallow practices and general cropland management strategies (Wezel and Haigis, 2002) as well as farmers' classification of soil types and measures applied to particular fields (Osbahr and Allan, 2003) were investigated in western Niger. However, none of these studies investigated how and why farmers managed fields the way they did.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic inputs and farmers' management strategies in millet fields of western Niger

Schlecht

Buerkert

2004

Geoderma

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa was criticized lately for largely ignoring farmers' management strategies and the underlying principles. To fill this gap of knowledge, detailed interviews were conducted with 108 farm households about their rationale in managing the soil fertility of 307 individual fields in the agro-pastoral village territory of Chikal in western Niger. To amplify the farmers' information on manuring and corralling practices, repeated measurements of applied amounts of manure were carried out within six 1-km 2 monitoring areas from February to October 1998.The interviews revealed that only 2% of the fields were completely fallowed for a period of 1 -15 years, but 40% of the fields were at least partially fallowed. Mulching of crop residues was mainly practiced to fight wind erosion but was restricted to 36% of the surveyed fields given the alternative use of straw as livestock feed. Manure application and livestock corralling, as most effective tools to enhance soil fertility, were targeted to less than 30% of the surveyed fields. The application of complete fallow and manuring and corralling practices were strongly related to the households' endowment with resources, especially with land and livestock. Within particular fields, measures were mainly applied to spots of poor soil fertility, while the restoration of the productivity of hard pans was of secondary importance. Given the limited spatial coverage of indigenous soil fertility measures and their strong dependence on farmers' wealth, supplementary strategies to restrict the decline of soil fertility in the drought prone areas of Niger with their heavily weathered soils are needed. D

show abstract

“…Increasingly, social scientists, economists and agronomists started to acknowledge the efficiency of farmers' low external input strategies to maintain the productivity of selected parts of their fields (Brouwer et al 1993;Sterk and Haigis 1998), and provided contrasting evidence to previous predictions of imminent doomsday-scenarios (Scoones and Toulmin 1998;Mazzucato and Niemeijer 2001;De Ridder et al 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical analysis of challenges and opportunities for soil fertility restoration in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa

Schlecht

Buerkert

Tielkes

et al. 2006

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the 1970s, research throughout West Africa showed that low soil organic matter and limited availability of plant nutrients, in particular phosphorus and nitrogen, are major bottlenecks to agricultural productivity, which is further hampered by substantial topsoil losses through wind and water erosion. A few widely recognized publications pointing to massive nutrient mining of the existing crop-livestock production systems triggered numerous studies on a wide array of management strategies and policies suited to improve soil fertility. Throughout Sudano-Sahelian West Africa, the application of crop residue mulch, animal manure, rockphosphates and soluble mineral fertilizers have been shown to enhance crop yields, whereby yield increases varied with the agro-ecological setting and the rates of amendments applied. In more humid areas of Western Africa, the intercropping of cereals with herbaceous or ligneous leguminous species, the installation of fodder banks for increased livestock and manure production, and composting of organic material also proved beneficial to crop production. However, there is evidence that the low adoption of improved management strategies and the lack of long-term investments in soil fertility can be ascribed to low product prices for agricultural commodities, immediate cash needs, risk aversion and labour shortage of small-scale farmers across the region. The wealth of knowledge gathered during several decades of on-station and on-farm experimentation calls for an integration of these data into a database to serve as input variables for models geared towards ex-ante assessment of the suitability of technologies and policies at the scale of farms, communities and regions. Several modelling approaches exist that can be exploited in this sense. Yet, they have to be improved in their ability to account for agro-ecological and socio-economic differences at various geographical scales and for residual effects of management options, thereby allowing scenario analysis and guiding further fundamental and participatory research, extension and political counselling.

show abstract

Farmers' knowledge of wind erosion processes and control methods in Niger

Cited by 36 publications

References 11 publications

“Fallow Band System,” a land management practice for controlling desertification and improving crop production in the Sahel, West Africa. 1. Effectiveness in desertification control and soil fertility improvement

“Fallow Band System,” a land management practice for controlling desertification and improving crop production in the Sahel, West Africa. 1. Effectiveness in desertification control and soil fertility improvement

Organic inputs and farmers' management strategies in millet fields of western Niger

A critical analysis of challenges and opportunities for soil fertility restoration in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About