Improving Crop-Livestock Systems in the Dry Savannas of West and Central Africa

Introduction

In the dry savannas of West and Central Africa (WCA), traditional farming systems are breaking down as evidenced by progressively shortened fallow periods and expansion onto marginal lands. This problem is compounded by the increasing human population. All these changes result in lowered productivity and the emergence of unsustainable farming systems with potentially disastrous consequences for resource poor people, their food security and their environment.

A number of promising technologies (fertilizers, chemicals, irrigation, etc..) that could contribute in increasing productivity in the dry savannas of WCA are available, but they are not adopted by farmers due to various reasons including high costs and non-availability of inputs. There is therefore a need to develop appropriate and affordable strategies and technologies, which will maximize the benefits from limited inputs without any adverse effects on the natural resource base.

Of all the farming systems in the WCA region, crop-livestock integrated systems are believed to have the highest potential for increasing productivity in a sustainable manner. Crop and livestock enterprises are closely related, and with increasing agricultural intensification, higher productivity from these systems, without jeopardizing the natural base, is essential. As no crop or livestock species is treated in isolation from other components of the system, it was recognized that component research on crops, livestock and soils have to be integrated so as to understand and address the needs of farmers within the “whole farming system”.

It was in this context that this multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary project involving ICRISAT, ILRI, IITA, IFDC, University of Kingston, UK and various NARES partners was initiated with funding from SLP to understand and address constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the dry savannas using farmer participatory research and a “whole system” approach. The project aims at enhancing the integration of crop-livestock systems to increase farm productivity and livelihoods while conserving the natural resource base. The specific objective of the study is to test and adapt “best bet” crop-livestock technologies using a holistic and farmer participatory approaches.

Materials and Methods

This project was initiated in northern Nigeria in 1998 with the establishment of on-farm trials in Bichi Local Government, and was expanded to Mali and Niger in 1999. This site was selected because there was good information on village characterization (Ogungbile et al., 1999) resulting from a survey carried out by ICRISAT and IAR scientists. In 1998, 11 farmers participated in the trial and in 1999 an additional 13 farmers joined in the work in Bichi and a second site, Unguwan Zangi in the Northern Guinea Savanna zone in northern Nigeria was included in the study. On-farm experiments were established in these sites in 2000.

Farmers and scientists all participated in allocating the treatments to the field plots. Three treatments were used:

i) BB+: Cowpea variety: IT90K-277-2;
ii) Sorghum variety: ICSV 400.
iii) Fertilizer: 100 kg/ha NPK (15:15:15) applied to the whole area at planting with an additional 60 kgN/ha applied as urea to the sorghum rows only as top dressing. Insecticide: Sherpa Plus (1 litre/ha) sprayed twice on the cowpea