Joining the dots between crops, livestock and markets in West Africa

Project launched

A project that aims to strengthen research in crop-livestock systems, to substantially change lives and livelihood of farmers in Western Africa, was launched earlier this month.  There has been little investment in research and development for crop-livestock systems with market linkages. This is why this launch is significant as it not only brings in US$ 1.25 million investment in research awarded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems,  it also aims to leverage several times more funding with support of partners.

The project called ‘Enabling Value Chains to Create Sustainable Income for Vulnerable People in Crop-Livestock Systems of Burkina Faso and Niger’ aims to build resilience and incomes in rural communities in Burkina Faso and Niger, where more than 80% depend on livestock and rainfed agriculture for livelihood.

Livestock market in Niger Photo: Andre F.van Rooyen, ICRISAT

Speaking at the launch in Niger, Dr Anthony Whitbread, Research Program Director, Innovation Systems for the Drylands, ICRISAT, said innovation was key to this initiative. “Research shows that Animal Source Foods (ASF) are set to grow exponentially over the next decade with the livestock revolution taking place in West Africa. We believe that the project has the ability to drive transformational change from the current systems to profitable and market oriented crop-livestock systems.” Dr Malick Ba, Country Representative – Niger, West & Central Africa Program, ICRISAT, highlighted that “this project, brings together scientists from different programs and partner institutions to create greater impact.”

Efforts will be made to increase production of ASF through integrated management of crop-livestock systems with the participation of small-ruminant livestock keepers in value chains. There will be an innovation platform approach for bringing together multi-stakeholder value chain players to bring about more market oriented crop-livestock systems through the introduction of technology, capacity development and policy impact. Scenario analyses using modelling and analytics will be used to determine the highest impact of interventions across farms or regions.

Led by Dr Vincent Bado, Principal Scientist – Dryland Systems and Livelihood Diversification
West & Central Africa Program, ICRISAT, the project will also be implemented by The Institut de l’Environnement de Recherches Agricoles (INERA) in Burkina Faso, The Conseil National de Recherche Agronomique (CNRA) in Niger and the New Mexico State University (NMSU). These efforts are aligned to an on-going USAID-funded initiative Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel–Enhanced Resilience (REGIS-ER) as well as the Association pour la Promotion de l’Élevage au Sahel et en Savane (APSS). The project will leverage the advantage of collaboration between ICRISAT and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) along with Feed the Future.

Building the capacity of the National Agriculture Research and Education System (NARES) and Non- Governmental Organizations to manage multi-actor activities between research and livestock-extension institutions, opportunities to enhance participation of youth and women in income generating enterprises will be included.

Mr Steven Humphreys, representing the USAID funded Responsible Value Chain Marketing – REGIS AG Project, at the inception workshop was optimistic: “There are definitely great opportunities to positively impact livelihoods of livestock keepers across the Sahel with these interventions.  The REGIS-AG project looks forward to close collaborations to improve the availability of feed resources,” he said.

“ILRI recognizes the central role of livestock in supporting livelihoods in the Sahel – empowering small ruminant producers who are often women to market and sell their stock for higher prices and increase throughput are key factors which will reduce poverty’ said Dr Augustine Ayantunde, representing ILRI.

Mr Abderrahmane Outmani, Expert coordination sectorielle – Elevage, Embassy of Belgium, reinforced the Belgian support in this initiative. “This project is a topical issue that meets the real needs of Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso and Niger. We have launched an initiative on livestock value chain in Niger and we are looking forward to close collaborations through this project,” he said.

The main outcome over the next three years will be to develop improved value chains rooted in crop-livestock systems at national and regional levels that are productive, profitable and equitable, resilient and sustainable to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation.

Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems supports research in developing countries to improve the lives of the most vulnerable. It invests in evidence creation for family farms, nutrition from animal-source foods, disease management, and policy-enabling environments. Its vision is to sustainably intensify smallholder livestock systems in order to improve human nutrition, health, livelihoods and incomes.