Meeting the food needs of Africa’s growing population over the next half-century will require technologies that significantly improve rural livelihoods at minimal environmental cost. These technologies will likely be distinct from those of the Green Revolution, which had relatively little impact in sub-Saharan Africa; consequently, few such interventions have been rigorously evaluated. This paper analyzes solar-powered drip irrigation as a strategy for enhancing food security in the rural Sudano–Sahel region of West Africa. Using a matched-pair comparison of villages in northern Benin (two treatment villages, two comparison villages), and household survey and field-level data through the first year of harvest in those villages, we find that solar-powered drip irrigation significantly augments both household income and nutritional intake, particularly during the dry season, and is cost effective compared to alternative technologies.
The African Market Garden (AMG) is a holistic horticultural production system for small producers based on low-pressure drip irrigation combined with a crop management package. Over the last 10 years, ICRISAT (the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) and partners have tested four AMG models in the Sudano Sahel of West Africa. The Thrifty (80 m 2 ) and Commercial (500 m 2 drip kit) AMG systems were developed for individual gardening. The Cluster (multiple kits of 500 m 2 ) and Communal systems were developed for producers to benefit from collective use of water, energy resources, land, purchasing and marketing. This paper describes the development pathway of the four different models and assesses their returns to investment. It was shown that irrigated vegetable production is a capital-intensive undertaking where investment and operation cost per unit land can be reduced through economies of scale. The payback period for a 500 m 2 traditional garden and for a single 500 m 2 AMG is 15 months, while for a 5000 m 2 Cluster or Communal AMG it is only 5-6 months. The latter two systems have been tested using alternative energy sources like solar radiation, gravitation or artesian pressure to further cut down costs of water supply.
Low pressure drip irrigation is being promoted in Sub Saharan Africa as an alternative to traditional methods of small scale irrigation of vegetables. The African Market Garden (AMG) is a horticultural production system for smallholders based on low-pressure drip irrigation combined with an improved crop management package. The agronomic and economic performance of the AMG is compared to two gardens irrigated manually with watering cans. One of these gardens is managed according to the same improved crop management package as in the AMG, this treatment is called Improved Management (IM). The other garden is managed according to common practices of vegetable producers in the area, this treatment is called the Farmer Practice (FP). Crop productivity, labor and water use were monitored for two vegetable species (okra and eggplants). The experiment was performed on-station in Niger on three adjacent 500 m 2 plots in a sandy acid soil. It was found that improved crop management practices greatly enhance crop productivity over traditional methods at comparable production costs. The AMG gave higher crop yields and higher returns to investment than the treatments irrigated with watering cans. Labor accounts for up to 45% of the production cost in vegetable gardens irrigated by hand, where 80% of the producer time is spent on irrigation. The total labor requirement for the drip irrigated AMG was on average 1.1 man hours per day against 4.7 man hours per day for the Farmers Practice on a 500 m 2 garden. Returns on labor are at least double for the AMG against the other treatments. The returns on land from eggplant were found to be US$ 1.7, 0.8 and 0.1 per m 2 for the AMG, IM and FP respectively. The returns on water for the cultivation of eggplant are around US$ 2 per m 3 in the AMG, against US$ 0.1 in the Farmers Practice. This experiment showed the strong positive impact of drip irrigation and improved crop management practices on profits at minimal environmental costs, indicating that transformation of existing practices poses a considerable potential towards sustainable agricultural development.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.