Phoeniciculture, or date palm cultivation plays a major socio-economic and ecological role. However, few studies have quantified the drivers of date palm cultivation and its socio-economic and environmental benefits in West African Sahel. Therefore, this study assessed the effect of anthropic and environmental factors on quantitative and qualitative production of dates palm in Niger. We conducted an ethnobotanical survey to collect data in the Sahelian and Saharian zones of Niger. We used permutation regression test to assess the influence of climatic conditions, fidelity of cultural practices implementation and the socio-economic level of producers on the date palm profitability. The Spearman rank correlation coefficients between the economic parameters and the geographical position of palm groves were also estimated based on the Spearman rank permutation test. A total of 60 producers were surveyed in ten villages of Sahelian and Saharian zones known as two main phoenicicultural areas in Niger. This analysis showed that date palm production varies quantitatively and qualitatively across agro-ecological zones. The study revealed also that ethnic groups influence the quantitative aspect of date palm production (P = 0.023), by socioeconomic parameters (P = 0.005) and by the index of fidelity to the cultural practice implementation (P = 0.035). The date palm production varies quantitatively (P = 0.001) and qualitatively (P = 0.033) according to the agro-climatic zones. The Spearman rank test shows a significant correlation between the quantitative and qualitative production, the geographical position of the palm groves and the depth of the water table. The profitability of the date palm seems not to be up to the phoenicicultural potential that can be the consequence of the poor implementation of the cultural practices, the socio-economic level of the producers and the environmental conditions.

Climate–land interaction over West Africa has often been assessed using climate simulations, although the model-based approach suffers from the limitations of climate models for the region. In this paper, an alternative method based on the analysis of historical land cover data and standardized climatic indices is used to investigate climate–land interactions, in order to establish climatic conditions and their corresponding land cover area changes. The annual variation in land cover area changes and climatic changes are first estimated separately and then linked using various spatiotemporal scales. The results show that incidences of land cover change result from abrupt changes in climatic conditions. Interannual changes of −1.0–1.0 °C, 0–1.5 °C, and −0.5–0.5 °C, and up to ±50 mm changes in precipitation and climatic water balance, lead to 45,039–52,133 km2, 20,935–22,127 km2, and approximately 32,000 km2 changes, respectively, while a ±0.5 °C and ±20 mm change represents normal climate conditions with changes below 20,000 km2. Conversely, conversions of cropland, forest, grassland, and shrubland are the main land cover change types affecting the climate. The results offer a basis for the re-evaluation of land cover change and climate information used in regional climate models simulating land–climate interactions over West Africa.

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Prosopis africana is a species of great socio-economic importance, threatened with extinction from its natural habitat in Niger due to overexploitation. The main objective of this study is to determine the potential geographic distribution of P. africana in Niger. Climatic and botanical data has been collected and used to model the distribution, on the basis of principle of maximum entropy (MAXENT) using MAXENT 3.3.3k, DIVA-GIS 7.5, and ArcGIS 10.0. programs. Rainfall and temperature are the most significant variables in the distribution of P. africana in Niger. Thus the southern band of the country (from the sudanian zone to the sahelio-soudanian zone), the wettest, is the area conducive to the development of P. africana (128,692.32 km 2 in total, 10.16% of the territory). Given the extent of this area revealed by this study, a reforestation policy implementation of P. africana would allow to restore its stands in Niger.