New Climate Smart Agriculture project launched in the poorest regions of Niger

His Excellence Moussa Ousmane distributes plants to women at the project launch. Photo: Mahamane Badamssi, ICRISAT

To improve the resilience of poor households to climate risk in the resource-constrained farming systems of the semi-arid ecology of Niger a project funded by the European Union was launched.

The project will use a participatory approach to co-develop and scale out Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) innovations which will include:

• Short duration crop varieties well adapted to the climate
• The development of seed value chain to improve access to seeds
• Improved technologies of soil fertility, water harvesting and agroforestry systems.

A crosscutting objective of the project is focused on sustainable increase of agricultural productivity and nutritional values of agricultural products, reduction of poverty by the strengthening local value chains of high value crops and trees for income generation, especially for women and youth.

The project titled “Enhancing resilience to climate change through the dissemination of integrated management technologies: Soil-water-Agro-pastoralism” is designed using an integrated systems approach targeting the development and scaling of CSA innovations to improve the resilience in two of the poorest regions of Niger, Dosso and Zinder. This systems approach will be used in designing resilient farming systems to improve livelihoods and incomes.

“This is an opportunity to link different initiatives and actors to CSA in Niger, for example our work on the restoration of degraded lands for food security and poverty reduction in collaboration with ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre) and funded by International Fund for Agricultural Developmen (IFAD) and European Union (EU),” said
Dr Anthony Whitbread, Research Program Director, Innovation Systems for the Drylands, who was present at the launch and involved in several initiatives in the region.

The Governor of the region, His Excellence Moussa Ousmane, Representative of the Government of Niger commended ICRISAT for its dedication to the cause of poor smallholder farmers, particularly in the Sahelian region in Niger. Mr Saibou Tamoudari, Prefect of Dosso, appreciated that the project addressed the issue of climate change.

The project was launched at Dosso on 24 September and Zinder on 1 October.

This work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal