IJESAHELwater erosion and improves crop establishment. Anti-erosion dikes, like tied ridges, are a...

IJESAHEL

PRISAS/INS^H-MSIMJSAJO

AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN THE SAHEL: BASELINE LITERATURE REVIEW

Ousmane N Coulibaly and Josu6 Dion6

BACKGROUND

The Sahel region is located in a belt between 250 mm and 750 mm with a rainy

season of between 60 and 120 days. The political definition of the region

encompasses 9 countries in semi-arid West Africa and includes: Burkina-Faso, Cap Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinee Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal. Basic

environmental characteristics are: shortness of the rainy season, low and highly variable rainfall (Matlon, 1983) with impredictability in location, timing and amount

throughout the season; particularly poor soils with low nutritient and water-holding

capacity and highly susceptible to crusting, erosion with between-year variable

responses to land and substituting inputs (Nagy et al., 1986).

Farming systems are characterized by bush-fallow cultivation with a decade or more to restore soil fertility. Crop failure is current when rainfall is insufficient. Staple

food crops include millet, sorghum and maize in pure stands or inter-cropped with cowpea. As the soil fertility gradient changes different cropping and management

strategies are used by farmers (Nagy et al., 1986). Yields are low and insignificant

production gains could be achieved without technical change. Cash crops are cotton

and peanut mostly produced by farmers and receiving more inputs.

The Sahel is a vulnerable region where the gap between food production and food requirements is growing. The Sahel is known to be a drought striking zone.

There have been two widespread acute droughts in 1968-73 and 1982-84 (Sanders, 1989) when livestock died and crops failed in most parts of the region. In the past two

decades, Sahel food-grain supply has increasingly come to depend on imports and

food aid to overcome the food crisis.

PRISAS / WP 04-90 Page 1

By 1974, the Sahel region has received from international relief efforts more

than $ 360 millions of emergency aid (OTA, 1986). To avoid such crises, donors and

governments implemented different development policies, most of which have been

disappointing in addressing food security in the Sahel. Among the policies

implemented were direct transfer of agricultural technologies from other semi-arid

regions without sufficient knowledge regarding Sahelian natural and socio-economic

environments; short-term production related and discrete projects with high recurrent

cost (OTA, 1986), weak cereal marketing and pricing policies.

I. RAINFED FOOD CROP TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH

RESULTS

1.1. Crop Improvement

Rainfed food crop improvement has been mainly focussed on developing and

introducing high yielding varieties of millet and sorghum under high management

conditions (Matlon, 1985). These breeding efforts have begun with IRAT (French

Research Organization) and accelerated by national agricultural research systems

(Sanders, 1989). Despite on station higher yields, improved materials have not been

successful when tried on farms because of environmental and socio-economic

constraints at the farm level. High management environment on station (high fertility,

tillage, water management and pest control) is rarely met on farm. Most cereal

farmers in the Sahel use family labor and little fertilizer and improved management

techniques. According to Matlon (1985), new materials have been developed and

selected on station without an early systematic and critical feed-back from farmers to

breeders.

Actually, most of these weaknesses in crop improvement are on way to be

corrected. Most of the breeding programs for sorghum are based on local as well as

introduced and locally-bred materials (Beninati, 1988). In Mali, local guinea types

PRISAS/WP 04-90 Page 2

sorghum with favorable characters are combined with higher yield potential of

introduced materials for good grain and pest resistance qualities.

Also, efforts are underway to target sorghum breeding to specific agro-

ecological zones (low, medium and high rainfalls). Improved local varieties of millet

(IBV 8001, NKK and Toroniou de Ningari) have been extended into semi-arid regions

of Mali. Factors attributable to the success of these varieties are earliness and pest

resistance.

Early maturing cultivars of maize (Jaune Flint de Saria; IRAT 80; Tiemantie de

Zamblara) have been extended to Niger, Burkina-Faso and Southern Mali (Camara,

1986; Coulibaly et at., 1988). Collaborative cowpea breeding and testing programs

between IITA, SAFGRAD University of California-Riverside and national research

institutions lead to development of early flowering and short cycle cultivars (Hall and

Patel, 1986). Among varieties extended in Sahelian countries are: TN 88-63, SUVITA-

2, TVX 3236, KN1 with high yield potential. Since these varieties are pest sensitive,

efforts are underway to combine pest resistance with high yielding and early maturing

characteristics. Also, two varieties are reported to be free from Striga, a serious

problem in the dry areas (Aggarwal and Haley, 1986).

1.2. Crop Associations

Research on intercropping (growth of two or more crops simultaneously in the

same field) in the Sahel is a recent phenomenon compared to sole crops on which

colonial administrators and researchers concentrated their research and extension

efforts (Fussel and Serafini, 1985). Mos. of the research undertaken on

intercropping in the Sahel report significant increases in yields over sole crops, due

to increase in plant population and spatial arrangement (Fussel and Serafini, 1985).

Stoop (1981) reported interactions between crop combinations and soil type in


Burkina-Faso and concluded that the best crop mixture depends on the nature of the

soil as well as the agroclimatio context. To maximize intercropping advantages, Willey

(1979) recommended maximizing the degree of complementarity between the

components and minimizing the inter-crop competition. Managing spatial

arrangements reduce competition for light, water and nutrients between crops. Also,

research in the Sahel has shown advantages in temporary complementarity between

crops when maturity periods differ. In Southern Mali, late millet provides a more

productive association with maize (Serafini, 1984; Shetty et al., 1987). Research

results on sorghum-cowpea and millet-cowpea intercropping systems show that a 30%

yield increase over the corresponding monocrop systems can be achieved (Schilling

et al., 1990). Intercropping is also proved to reduce striga incidence on the cereal

crop (Dembele, 1990). Limited research has been carried out on agro-forestry (Naggy

et al., 1986), although traditional cropping systems keep trees such as Acacia Albida

or Butyrospermum Parkii (Chea tree) on fields. Acacia Albida produces nitrogen and

deposit organic matter on surface for crops.

1.3. Fertilizer use

Current fertilizer use on rainfed food crops in the Sahel is low despite significant

yield responses on station trials (Fieri, 1985; Adesina et al., 1987). Fertilizer responses

vary by crop variety, crop area based on rainfall and the underlying soil fertility and

moisture (Roy and Me. Clellan, 1985; Adesina et al., 1987; Staatz, 1990). Results from

FAQ fertilizer programs in Burkina-Faso, Mali and Niger suggest that millet and

sorghum have the lowest responses to nitrogen and phosphorus compared to maize

(second highest) and rice (highest) (Me. Intire, 1986). Most of the research carried

out in the Sahel on fertilizer has shown that, without increased water availability,

responses and returns to fertilizer will be low (Matlon, 1987; Nagy et al., 1987;

Adesina, 1988; Sanders, 1989). Average negative economic returns were recorded

in Sahelian sites with low rainfall in ICRISAT farmers tests.

In recent years, attention has been paid to rock phosphate from large local


deposits in the Sahel (Burkina-Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal). These rocks are

reported to be in use as a direct application source. Many trials have confirmed

residual yield effects of a basal dose of such granulated phosphate (Matlon, 1985).

Despite multiyear delay in realizing full benefit due to solubility problems, dustiness,

partially acidulated forms of rock phosphate show promise in supplying phosphorus

to crops because of its low cost and easy-to-use type of technology (Matlon, 1985;

Me. Intire, 1985; Coulibaly, 1989). Applied research to solve solubility problems of

rock phosphate are underway by the German Foreign Aid Agency GTZ and the

International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) (Sanders, 1989). When the solubility

problem in rock phosphate is solved, it can be an appropriate technology for

increasing cereal yield in the Sahel. In Mali, rock phosphate from Tilemsi (Northern

Mali) is currently use by farmers in the Central and Southern regions where rainfall

ranges from 700 to 1000 mm per year.

Research on manure, compost and crop residues has shown the importance

of such organic inputs in counteracting the negative effects of continuous application

of nitrogenous fertilizer (Pichot et al., 1981) by maintaining yields and productivity.

Manure stables and compost with crop residues and rock phosphate have been tested

by Farming Systems Research and recommended to farmers in the Southern Cotton

Zone of Mali.

1.4. Animal traction

Animal traction is well known in Francophone West Africa and specially in the

Sahel. Since 1970, more than 50 projects involving animal traction have been funded

in Francophone West Africa (Sargent, et al., 1981). Higher rates of adoption of animal

traction are found in Southern Mali, Southern Gambia, South West Burnkina-Faso, the

Sine-Saloum zone of Senegal and the Soudanian zone of Chad (Matlon, 1983),

generally associated with cash crops (Dione, 1989, Adesina, 1990). Earlier research

in the Sahel (Delgado and Me. Intire, 1982) concluded that animal traction in isolation

from other improved technologies is not sufficiently profitable to compensate for the


high opportunity cost of farm resources tied up in the technology. But, recent field

studies are challenging this view by demonstrating that draft animal tillage can be

profitably adopted by farmers in the Sahel with high utilization of animals and

equipment (Adesina, 1990; Jarger and Matlon, 1990). Animal traction clearly provides

extensification benefits and some labor- substituting effect to farmhouseholds

(Coulibaly, 1988; Dione, 1989; Adesina, 1990; Jaeger and Matlon, 1990). Because of

seasonal labor shortages in planting and weeding periods, animal traction offers

Sahelian farmers the only alternative for mechanized tillage and weeding operations

for the foreseeable future (Starkey and Faye, 1990).

1.5. Improved water and so!! management techniques

Improving the environment for crop growth has been a key research area in the

Sahel since the drought of the 1970's. Research has been mostly focussed on

improving water retention and soil fertility and conservation. Among the techniques

on shelves are tied ridges, anti-erosion dikes and bunds, and mulching. These

techniques have been shown to significantly increase yields (Nicou and Charreau,

1985; Nagy et al., 1986; Sanders, 1988; Jayne et al., 1989). Tied ridges are a

promising technology, which promotes soil fertility by conserving water and limiting

water erosion and improves crop establishment. Anti-erosion dikes, like tied ridges,

are a water conservation technique, which limits loss of organic matter and increases

water infiltration. Economic evaluation indicates that in Burkina-Faso, returns more

than offset labor cost of constructing the dikes in the initial year (Nagy et al., 1986).

Mulching reduces evaporation, rainfall runoff with crop residue left over the fields, but

the high demand for crop residues for animal feed, construction and fuel limits its use.

Improved water and soil management techniques in combination with animal

traction use (plowing, seeding, weeding) and moderate levels of fertilizers (organic and

inorganic) result in significant yield increase of crops in the Sahel (Nagy et at., 1986;

Adesina, 1987; Coulibaly, 1989; Sanders, 1989).


1.6. Pest and weed management

Insect and weed control have received also some attention throughout the

Sahel. Most of the recommendations are based on chemical sprays and require

technology and inputs that are still out of reach for many farmers (Ter Kuile, 1985).

However, when input and output markets are favorable, chemical sprays are used by

farmers on crops that are very sensitive to pests. Examples are the use of insecticide

to control pod bugs and bruchids on high yielding cowpea varieties and the

widespread of a locally manufactured fungicide (THIORAL) for cereals and cowpea in

Mali. Insecticide is widely used on cotton in Southern Mali. But, in most national

agricultural research programs, efforts are underway to address pest and weed

problems through integrated pest management programs which combine breeding

with improved cropping practices and biological control.

II. IRRIGATION

With drought (1968-1974), unreality of the rain and prevailing food shortages,

priority has been given to the development of irrigation in the Sahel. Therefore, nearly

$ 1,8 billion was invested by donors in huge irrigation schemes (OTA, 1986). But

experiences with irrigation through large scale schemes have been disappointing. Per

hectare costs are substantially high and a CILSS/Club du Sahel estimated per hectare

investment of irrigation project to vary between $ 5,000 to $ 20,000 (Eicher and Baker,

1982). Rice has been the common crop under irrigation. Constraints to high yielding

of crops under irrigation have been reported by Matlon (1983) as poor water control,

absence of double cropping, inappropriate agronomic packages and lack of

complementary inputs. Matlon further adds that poor management, high recurrent

costs, lack of farmers incentives, intensive and directed irrigation with traditional

farmers have made economical potential of large scale irrigation project less

encouraging in the Sahel.

PRISAS / WP 04-90 Page 7

But, potential for increasing the proportion of arable land in the Sahel has been

reported by FAO (1976). Eicher and Baker (1982) noted that this potential is still not

well known because of lack of soil mapping, hydrological surveys soil and agronomic

research for irrigated farming (plant water needs and yield responses under irrigation).

Few research has been carried out on indigenous irrigation techniques (small swamps

rice or bas-fonds rice) deemed adapted to local agro ecological conditions (Eicher and

Baker, 1982).

The profitability of small scale irrigation versus large schemes has been noted

by many authors in the Sahel (Sparling, 1981; Eicher and Baker, 1982; OTA, 1986).

III. EXPORTS/FOOD CROP DEBATE

Most of the research and agricultural strategies in the colonial and post

independence have been based toward export crops in the Sahel (cotton and peanut).

Redressing this imbalance may be important, but few researchers see it as a simple

question of switching from one to other (OTA, 1986; Dione, 1989).

Institutional factors such as credit, input and marketing services as well as price

factors have given more importance to export crops versus food crops (Matlon, 1985).

Increased productivity in the cotton industry has been achieved through technological

improvement, research and development and quality maintenance through extension

support (Abt Associates, 1990). The transfer and wide adoption of cotton and peanut

technologies in the Sahel show that sahelian farmers are responsive to economic

opportunities and incentives.

IV. LIVESTOCK

Efforts to improve the productivity of sahelian livestock systems have been less

successful as expected (Eicher and Baker, 1982; OTA, 1986) despite millions of dollars

channelled to livestock projects without a sound knowledge base.


As with crop varieties, research on livestock in the Sahel has focused on

transferring imported and station bred materials to farmers. Unsuccessful results are

associated with poor environmental and farm resource base (inadequate water and

feed supplies, diseases and parasites, heat).

Research results have shown so far that technical coefficients for livestock are

still unfavorable in many sahelian countries (ILCA, 1978; Traore, 1990). More recent

research has shifted to crossing between imported and local materials, cattle feeding

(forage and pasture improvement), diseases and parasites; range management and

land use planting (Traore, 1990). Improvement of economic use of livestock through

small scale fattening schemes, integrated livestock crop management and the

relationship between pastoral livestock production (grazing) and environmental

degradation are on national livestock research agenda in the Sahel. In Mali, crossing

between local N'DAMA, Zebu and imported species or semens are underway to

increase milk and meat production as well resistance to environmental stress (climate,

diseases, poor feed supply).

ILCA and national agricultural research systems are working on animal feeding

with farm grown leguminous forages, agro-industrial and crops by products. Such

research centerprice is the integration between livestock and cropping systems typical

in most sahelian farm-households.

V. CONSTRAINTS TO TRANSFER AND ADOPTION OF PROPOSED

AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

5.1. Physical constraints

Unpredictability of level and distribution of rainfall have increased risk of crop

failure, thus affecting the decision to adopt inputs such as chemical fertilizers. Also,

short growing season imposes severe time constraints on practicing adequate tillage.

Among other physical constraints are low soil fertility and water retention capacity,


which compound the first ones, leading to highly variable inter-annual yield responses

to chemical fertilizers. This -in turn increases the risk of losing cash outlays for

purchased inputs (Nagy et al., 1986). Highly fragile and poor sandy soils are

challenging for further increase in productivity. An example is tied ridges that break

down with heavy rains on sandy soils in Niger (Nagy et al., 1983). Application of

fertilizers without an assured water supply is economically risky, since the response

to fertilizer is dependent upon the availability of water at critical stages of plant

development (Sanders, 1988; Coulibaly, 1989). The reduction of riskiness of fertilizer

use through improved water- retention capacity of the soils is a priority (Adesina et al.,

1987).

Harsh Sahelian agroclimatic conditions, pest existence and unrealistic

assumptions regarding these parameters were major factors in the poor performance

of new varieties of sorghum and millet brought to the Sahel from India by ICRISAT

(Matlon, 1985; Spencer 1985; Sanders, 1988).

5.2. Inappropriateness of technology development

a). Too much focus on breeding and direct transfer of varieties

Successful breeding results from the Green Revolution have been tried in the

Sahel in order to accelerate food production after 1973). Cereal breeding efforts

already started by French Research Organization (IRAT) have been accelerated by the

international and national agricultural research agencies, among which ICRISAT

(Sanders, 1989). These efforts concentrated on developing cultivars on experimental

stations with high-input and sophisticated cultural practices without much attention to

Sahelian micro-variations in climate, soils and socio-economic constraints at the farm

level where resource endowment is limited (Ibid).

This breeding strategy has been abandoned because of the poor performance

of introduced varieties at the farm level, where agroclimatic stress and low level input


were constraining. Food quality, an important adoption criterion, was ignored. In Mali,

a sorghum variety CE90 failed to be adopted by farmers because of low consumer

acceptability of the quality of its Toh (a local dish made from sorghum and millet): Ton

made with CE90 did not taste as good as that made with local varieties (Coulibaly,

1990). New efforts are being made toward evaluating and exploiting local genetic

diversity of West African materials for crossing (Matlon, 1983; Sanders, 1988; Beninati,

1990).

One of the important problems in agricultural development in the Sahel is that

too much has been expected from breeders to come up with high-yielding and stable

varieties

under conditions of low and erratic rainfall and poor soil fertility (Sanders, 1989;

Beninati, 1989; Niangado, 1990).

b). Lack of profitability of agricultural technologies

High costs of production and low farmer returns for different agricultural

technologies have impeded their wide use by farmers in the Sahel. A well known case

of low profitability as a constraint to adoption of technology in the Sahel is that of

imported chemical fertilizer use on cereals.

Low and variable cereal yield responses, high prices of chemical fertilizers, low

and precipitous fall in cereal prices have limited chemical fertilizer use in most of

Sahelian countries (Matlon, 1983; Adesina, 1988; Coulibaly, 1989). Fertilizers are then

mostly used on cash crops which can pay for them. In Southern Mali, guaranteed

market prices and a well organized credit system for cotton have been important in

wide use of animal traction (Dione, 1989).

Short-term returns are also important for poor farmers to adopt technologies.

In Mali, rock phosphate, which requires two to three years before farmers can notice

the crop responses (solubility problems), has had low rates of adoption by farmers.


Also, technologies that require high-labor inputs at critical peak-labor periods have low

chance to be adopted by farm-households facing scarce labor endowment. In their

fertilizer study in Niger, Adesina et al. (1987) have shown that farmers' risk, liquidity

position and seasonal labor constraints are factors limiting fertilizer use.

It has been noticed by many scientists that the lack of profitability of agricultural

technologies can be largely explained by the lack of socio-economic inputs in research

design. Most efforts of technology development lack inputs from social scientists to

modify its design and to make it more profitable or attractive to farmers, traders and

consumers (Staatz, 1990). In Mali, most of research stations are staffed with technical

scientists. The programs administratively and technically separate disciplines into

discrete vertical entities (Schilling et al., 1989). Little knowledge about marketing

credit, prices and costs of production is taken into account in technology

development, which ends up being costly, therefore impeding adoption by end users.

c). Lack of adequate funding and well trained scientists

The erratic and low funding of national agricultural research and the

inadequately staffed research programs are characteristics of Sahelian countries. Most

agricultural research or training programs are funded on externally short-term research

projects. Ultimately budgetary allocation constraints jeopardize agricultural

experiments and data collection activities throughout the Sahel (Spencer, 1985).

Inadequate funding and lack of political support add to the poor management of

scarce qualified human resources in research, characterized by experienced staff

instability and lack of incentives to scientists. The critical mass of scientists is lacking

in most national agricultural research systems. Vallaeys and al. (1989) report that the

mean number of research workers per million rural inhabitants is 7 in most of sahelian

countries.


5.2. Institutional constraints to technology transfer and adoption in the Sahel

(a). Credit constraints

Limited access to credit for most of the farmers to invest in agricultural technologies has impeded transfer of technologies in the Sahel. Even when

technologies are profitable, less risky, farmers can't adopting them due to credit constraints (Staatz, 1990). Technologies that require initial high-capital investment

(e.g., animal traction) may be less adopted in areas without significant cash crop

farming to guarantee a sustainable stream of substantial farm income over a relatively

long period (Dione, 1989).

In his study of animal traction in Mali, Adesina (1990) found that 50% of the farmers indicated that the lack of credit for animal traction is the major problem limiting

their use of tillage technology. Profitability of animal traction depends on support

services. In-kind credit program run by a rural development project in Mali (FDVS)

allowed 93% of the farmers in the area to continue using the new varieties of cowpeas

by supplying them with insecticide, a key input for cowpea (Coulibaly, 1987; Coulibaly, 1989). In contrast, 80% of farmers in villages without access to credit have tried the

new varieties (KN1, TN 8863) of cowpea but quit using them because they were not profitable without insecticides (Coulibaly, 1987). Constraints to adoption of fertilizer

technology by sma1 ; scale farmers in Southern Niger include the poor liquidity position

of farmers (Adesina et al, 1987). Higher positive correlations have been found

between cotton production farmers' access to formal credit and use of chemical fertilizers in Southern Mali (Dione, 1989).

Poor functioning of input markets such as the lack of effective supply and distribution of implements and inputs, has often prevented farmers from adopting

improved agricultural technologies in the Sahel.


(b). Poor extension systems for tainted food crop technologies

Extension policies in the Sahel are typically characterized by their top-down

approach of most of the extension policies and their excessive focus on commodities

and activities (managing credit, supply inputs and farm equipments), with few sound

technologies to be diffused. Poor linkages between research and extension have been

noticed. But one of the biggest weaknesses in technology transfer in the Sahel is the

poor understanding of farm level constraints by researchers, extension agents as well

as policy makers. First generation Sahelian agricultural programs attempted to

develop and extend combinations of interdependent technologies delivered to the

farmers as "packages". This package approach proved to be disappointing (OTA,

1986). Lack of information about farmers' adoption patterns of technologies has

handicapped thorough technology transfer in the Sahel and elsewhere. Farmer's

strategy to adopt single technologies or "cluste; ~" of technologies on route to total

package adoption, what Byerlee and de Polanco (1986) have termed stepwise

adoption, has rarely been understood by extension agents. Within the package,

technologies that are available, economically profitable, and less risky while fitting in

the farm systems (resource endowment) have greater chance to be selected for earlier

adoption before the other elements. An evidence of such selective adoption is the

case of new varieties of cowpea adoption by farmers around the agricultural research

station of Cinzana in Mali between 1983-1987. Farmers quickly adopted short cycle

(60-75 days) varieties (compared with 120-160 days for traditional ones) and the

accompanying insecticide instead of chemical fertilizers. In addition to maturing earlier

(this breaking the hungry season) the new varieties of cowpeas with insecticide

yielded, at 1,000 kg/ha, 12.5 times as much as the traditional varieties. Because of

their high sensitivity to pests, the profitability of the new varieties of cowpeas depended

more on using insecticides than increasing the level of fertilizer used. Likewise, some

farmers who faced cash constraint to pay for ULV sprayer still found it profitable to

adopt insecticide and use traditional brushes to spray it on cowpea plants.


(c). Food marketing constraints

Bad marketing and price policies have been perceived by most policy analysts as major impediments to the growth of food production in the Sahel (Coulibaly, 1987;

Dione, 1989).

After independence, Sahelian countries adopted compulsory marketing of food- grains through parastatals (OPVN in Niger, OPAM in Mali). Official consumer and producer prices for all major commodities were fixed by the state, with conflicting objectives such as increasing rural incomes, providing cheap food to urban consumers and extracting surpluses from agriculture to finance state investment (Dione and

Staatz, 1988). These policies lead to depressed producer prices and hence

constrained food crop technology adoption by farmers. Steps have been taken to remove subsidies for imported cereals and flour and relax food prices. In Mali, market liberalization for food crops was designed as centerprice of a strategy aiming at restoring both producer and trader incentives though the idea of "getting the prices right" to stimulate cereals production and marketing (Dione, 1989). But, these policy reforms have some limitations. They lack a careful analysis of micro-economic data of Sahelian production systems and ot the linkages between macro-level policies and

micro-level responses (OTA, 1986). Assumptions that farmers' income and incentive

to adopt new technologies and to produce more cereals will increase by getting prices right can be misleading. In his food security policy study in Mali, Dione (1989), has shown that in the short-term, higher coarse grain prices benefit mainly fewer than one third of the farm-households while depressing the real income of 43% of the sample farmers, who were net buyers of cereals.

Competition of coarse grains with rice and wheat can be disincentives in transfer of rainfed cereal technologies. Without alternatives uses of millet and sorghum

into more marketable products, incentives to develop and transfer their production technologies will have little chance to succeed because of depressed effective demand. Under-investment in physical infrastructures (roads, storage capacities) and


lack of information systems are also major constraints to well functioning of markets of food crops in the Sahel.

VI. SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVING THE DEVELOPMENT, DIFFUSION AND

ADOPTION OF FOOD CROP TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SAHEL

Food crop technology development and transfer in the Sahel is more complex than has been assumed by donors, government agencies, and expatriates and national scientists.

Guidelines to improve the whole system include technology development which addresses agronomic environment constraints given farm-level socio-economic resources and objectives and appropriate institutional support. Technologies developed must be sustainable, i.e., they must be compatible with the resources and goals of farmers, affordable, and stable.

6.1. Improvement of agronomic environment

Given low and erratic rainfalls and low soil fertility, simultaneous improvements in water retention and soil fertility are priorities to focus on. Further on-farm tests and diffusion are needed on tied ridges, digues, water-shed management techniques, and laying out contours. Optimal organic and inorganic formulas including natural rock phosphate use and manuring should be developed. Mechanical ridges and locally- made and tiers as well as support for equipment spare parts and draft animal availability will be important to improve crop environment. These technologies will reduce physical environment risks which constrain increases in yields.


6.2. Improvement of research design

Research should be location specific and reflect low levels of management and

input use to decrease yield gaps between stations and farms. Better understanding

of agroclimatic variations and cropping systems diversity is necessary. Crop

improvement should focus on stress (drought, pest and disease) resistances and food

quality to meet consumers preferences (alternative use of millet and sorghum for

animal feed). Research on management issues in irrigation should be adressed to

decrease costs of production. More research on small scale irrigation is needed.

Research on livestock will focus on improving crop livestock interactions (forage,

animal power, soil fertility). Farm level socio-economic characteristics and institutional

data should be incorporated in setting research priorities and designing technology

through multidisciplinary commodity-based research involving technical and social

scientists. Long run support from government, donors development agencies and

international research institutes to national research programs through funding,

collaborative research and training should be committed to improving food crop

technology development and transfer in the Sahel.

6.3. Improvement of research - extension - farmer linkages

An effective participation of farmers, extension agents into research design, with

feed-back about technologies used to researchers is required for to appropriate

technology development in the Sahel. This implies a new extension program design,

with a decrease in agent burdening-work load (credit management, input supply) and

better working conditions (more training, better salaries and logistics) of extension

agents.

6.4. Improvement of institutional setting

Access to reliable input and output markets should be improved. An integrated

seed multiplication that ensures high quality seeds is necessary. Public and private


deliveries along with village-level farmer management of input supply and credit should

be encouraged. An example of such farmer participation is the management of in-kind

credit and cotton marketing at farm level by village associations in Southern Mali

(CMDT). Improving farmers and herders capacity of managing their own institutions

through training and developing managerial skills is a key for agricultural technology

transfer. Private banking system should be encouraged to extend loans directly to

farmers' associations (Dione, 1989). Special attention should also be paid to fiscal

policies, which constrain farmers' investment in animal traction equipment and other

farm investments. Alternatives use of cereals such as ready to cook rice-like products,

animal feeds may contribute to expanding effective demand for cereals. An important

institutional problem in the Sahel is the access of women to agricultural technologies

which needs to be adressed through tailored credit and extension to women as well

as men. The proposed technological package for women will include post-harvest

processing and storage techniques as well as crop production ones (Keimar, 1985).


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Kumar Shubh, K. (1984)The nutrition situation and its food policy links". PP. 39-52.

Ter Kuile Coenrad, H.H. (1984)The humid and sub-humid tropics". PP. 97-117.

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