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| Title
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Targeting Food Self-Sufficiency
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| Subtitle
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Economic and Social Impact of Soil and Water Conservation in Western Africa
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| Author
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Kirsch-Jung, K. P.
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| Editor or Organisation
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GIZ, PATECORE, ISCO 2000
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| Year
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2000
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| Keywords
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soil and water conservation, soil fertility, economic and social impact, food self-sufficiency, Burkina Faso
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| Country
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Western Africa
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| Type
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good practice
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| Language
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English
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| Table of Contents
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11th International Soil Conservation Organization Conference Buenos Aires, Argentina 23 – 27october 2000
1. Project area
2. Measures to fight land degradation
3. Large scale implementation
4. Project Support
5. Efficiency and Effects on Yield
6. Socio-economic Impacts
7. The vision : food self-sufficiency
References
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| Abstract
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Soil and water conservation has become a major instrument of sustainable land use in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of West Africa. This work summarizes factors which enabled the large scale implementation and adoption as well as the impact on food security in a region where land degradation endangers rural livelihoods.
Today, stone and rock structures consisting of lines placed across the land contour are the most popular Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) measures used in the Sahel. Mulching and the spread of dry manure has become a common practice in most of the villages. Compost preparation in basins constructed from mud bricks instead of in pits seems to become the promising technique to maintain soil fertility.
Large scale dissemination of SWC was favoured by collaborating with all development agents in the area, applying a farmer-to-farmer extension approach and supporting the transport of stone and rock material. In Bam province / Burkina Faso, 95 % of the communities participate in SWC. All farms have implemented SWC measures in at least one field, the proximately 14,000 households have meliorated an average of 1.5 ha each.
Thus, benefits are widespread among farm-households and they consider the SWC measures as being the most important activities for social development.
A long-term strategy, based on a farm model of sustained food production, proposes to reverse the structural grain deficit in the region.
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| Permission
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Yes
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| Category
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Resource Management
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| File
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