From farm scale synergies to village scale trade-offs: Cereal crop residues use in an agro-pastoral system of the Sudanian zone of Burkina Faso

Andrieu, Nadine; Vayssières, Jonathan; Corbeels, Marc; Blanchard, Mélanie; Vall, Éric; Tittonell, Pablo

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2014.08.012

Cited by 44 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…credit) and markets for inputs and outputs. Food self-sufficiency can be assessed either by measuring the number of months per year when the household is food self-sufficient (Tittonell et al, 2010;Valbuena et al, 2014) or by comparing the sum of basic energy requirements of the different members of the household to on-farm cereal production (Andrieu et al, 2015;Paassen et al, 2011;Tittonell et al, 2009). …”

Section: Description Of the Different Steps Of The Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding farm trajectories and development pathways: Two decades of change in southern Mali

Falconnier

Descheemaeker

Mourik

et al. 2015

Agricultural Systems

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Institutional support for smallholders has been the motor for the expanding cotton production sector in southern Mali since the 1970s. Smallholder farms exhibit diverse resource endowments and little is known on how they benefit from and cope with changes in this institutional support. In this paper we explore farm trajectories during two decades (1994 to 2010) and their link with farm resource endowment and government support. We distinguished a favourable period for cotton production and an unfavourable period during which institutional support collapsed. A panel survey that monitored 30 farms in the Koutiala district in southern Mali over this period was analysed. Based on indicators of resource endowment and using Ascending Hierarchical Classification (AHC), farms were grouped into four types: High Resource Endowed farms with Large Herds (HRE-LH), High Resource Endowed (HRE) farms, Medium Resource Endowed (MRE) farms and Low Resource Endowed (LRE) farms. Average yield, labour productivity and food self-sufficiency status of each type were calculated. Farms remaining in the same type were classified as 'hanging in', while farms moving to a type of higher yields, labour productivity and food self-sufficiency status were classified as 'stepping up', and farms following the opposite trajectory of deteriorating farming conditions were classified as 'falling down'. The LRE farms differed from all other farm types due to lower yields, while both LRE and HRE farms differed from the MRE and HRE-LH farm types due to a combination of less labour productivity and less food self-sufficiency. During those two decades, 17% of the farms 'stepped up', while 70% of the farms remained 'hanging in', and only 13% of the farms 'fell down'. We found no obvious negative impact of the collapse of government support on farm trajectories. For MRE, HRE and HRE-LH farms, average N and P use intensity increased from 1994 to 2004 and then decreased during the following cotton crisis. On the other hand, organic fertilizer use intensity increased continuously over the entire monitoring period for HRE-LH and MRE farms. Crop yields did not change significantly over time for any farm type and labour productivity decreased. We discuss how technical options specific for different farm types (increase in farm equipment, sale of cereals, incorporation of legumes and intensification of milk production) and broader institutional change (improvement in finance system and infrastructure, tariffs) can enhance 'step up' trajectories for farming households and avoid stagnation ('hanging in') of the whole agricultural sector.

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Section: Description Of the Different Steps Of The Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding farm trajectories and development pathways: Two decades of change in southern Mali

Falconnier

Descheemaeker

Mourik

et al. 2015

Agricultural Systems

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“…In the simulations, it is assumed that fields are also weeded at the beginning of crop growth and that each hole has three plants after thinning. Under these conditions, simulated plant densities are set to 10,000plants ha −1 at the lowest and reach up to 50,000 plants ha −1 , in agreement with previous studies in southwestern Niger (Buerkert et al ., ; Saidou et al ., ; Marteau et al ., ), although these values are relatively high for the study site strictly speaking (Hiernaux & Turner, ). Use of manure: Manuring is a common practice in the study area (de Ridder et al ., ; Andrieu et al ., ; Valbuena et al ., ); its effects on soil fertility in the model are expressed by modifying the coefficient of vegetation production in SarraH. Crop residue management: Three crop residue management practices are simulated based on observations in southwestern Niger (e.g., Akponikpe et al ., ): collection (to be used as forage) or flattening of (i) none, (ii) half, or (iii) all of the residues after harvest. Fields are cleared (i.e., remaining standing vegetation is laid down as litter) at different dates during the dry season, until the latest possible (in June) just before the start of the following rainy season. Grazing: In the simulations, grazing pressure ranges between no grazing and 50 TLU km −2 (tropical livestock units).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Agropastoral Management on Wind Erosion in Sahelian Croplands

Pierre

Kergoat

Hiernaux³

et al. 2017

Land Degrad Dev

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In the Sahel, climate change and demographic growth are raising major concerns about the ability of crop yields to support the local population. Agropastoral management affects wind erosion (e.g., through crop residue management and tillage practices, which modify surface characteristics), which itself substantially affects soil fertility and thus crop yields. There is therefore a need to assess the potential impact of the main Sahelian cropping practices – like sowing, manuring, and crop residue management – on wind erosion. Using a modeling approach adapted to an experimental site located in southwestern Niger over the period 2006–2012, and scenarios that describe a set of agropastoral practices, the impacts of these practices on wind erosion are simulated and compared. The results indicate that horizontal fluxes differ by a factor of 10 among scenarios, with annual horizontal fluxes ranging from 121 to 1,317 kg m−1. Modeled wind erosion is most sensitive to the mass of crop residues in the late dry season, but different practices dealing with crop growth or with crop residue management may result in fluxes of the similar magnitude. The collection of the crop residues after grain harvest increases wind erosion, whereas grazing might have mixed effects, probably further mediated by the mobility of livestock as a response to forage availability. The seasonal dynamics of the monthly cumulated horizontal fluxes vary depending on practice; however, the annual cumulated horizontal fluxes are closely correlated with meteorological conditions such as wind speed and rainfall in the previous year. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…In Sudanian and Sahelian agro-ecosystems such factors refer chiefly to rainfall variability (Traore et al 2013) and soil fertility (de Ridder et al 2004), in combination with the constraints that are a result of the particular patterns of communal natural resource management in the West African village territories (Achard and Banoin 2003;Andrieu et al 2015). Current assessments of yield variability and yield gaps with respect to exploitable and water-limited crop yield potentials indicate that gaps are widest in smallholder family agriculture (van Ittersum et al 2013), particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (Tittonell and Giller 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil variability and crop yield gaps in two village landscapes of Burkina Faso

Diarisso

Corbeels

Andrieu

et al. 2015

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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Low crop yields in the savannah zones of West Africa are commonly attributed to rainfall deficits and poor soil fertility. In this study, an assessment was made on how the position of fields belonging to different farm types can explain soil variability and related crop yield gaps in two villages in Burkina Faso, Yilou and Koumbia, located, respectively, in the Sudano-Sahelian and Sudanian agro-ecological zones. In each village, four farm types were identified. Soil fertility was generally poor and use of nutrient inputs low in most of the farmer's fields . As a consequence, yields for most crops were low, but differences among farm types were found, which can be linked to their socioeconomic characteristics that influence the amount of inputs used. Application of fertilizers differed also between fields within farms and tended to be greater on the fields near the homesteads in the village of Yilou, especially for organic fertilizers. At both villages, the rates of N and K inputs were insufficient to compensate for their respective output rates, leading to negative partial nutrient balances . The existence of patchworks of soil fertility gives rise to a wide variation in crop responses to fertilizers. Exploitable yield gaps were substantial and to a large extent related to the low fertility status of soils and sub-optimal fertilizer applications. (Résumé d'auteur

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From farm scale synergies to village scale trade-offs: Cereal crop residues use in an agro-pastoral system of the Sudanian zone of Burkina Faso

Cited by 44 publications

References 38 publications

Understanding farm trajectories and development pathways: Two decades of change in southern Mali

Understanding farm trajectories and development pathways: Two decades of change in southern Mali

Impact of Agropastoral Management on Wind Erosion in Sahelian Croplands

Soil variability and crop yield gaps in two village landscapes of Burkina Faso

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