Soil and Water Conservation in Burkina Faso, West Africa

Nyamekye, Clement; Thiel, Michael; Schönbrodt-Stitt, Sarah; Zoungrana, Benewinde J.‐B.; Amekudzi, Leonard K.

doi:10.3390/su10093182

Cited by 57 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…1c extends to the Black Volta basin and corroborates the findings of Le, et al 38 who found large-scale land degradation and concluded that around 65% of the entire Volta river basin had undergone human-induced degradation of vegetation productivity. In another study of the Black Volta basin, Nyamekye, et al 39 found that approximately 18% of the natural vegetation in the area was converted into agriculture and non-vegetated surfaces from 1999 to 2011, and this activity was the primary driver of the negative trends they observed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Similar patterns were also found by Mueller, et al 46 who characterized the southern coast of West Africa as an "ecoregional extreme" for NDVI increase driven primarily by land management. Similarly, the positive residual trends in parts of Burkina Faso are also the product of both increases in rainfall and land rehabilitation efforts such as stone bunds, agroforestry and mulching 28,39 . The greening trends were also attributed to the expansion of irrigation by Boschetti, et al 47 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural productivity in relation to climate and cropland management in West Africa

Mechiche-Alami

Abdi

2020

Sci Rep

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the climate of West Africa is expected to become more arid due to increased temperature and uncertain rainfall regimes, while its population is expected to grow faster than the rest of the world. As such, increased demand for food will likely coincide with declines in agricultural production in a region where severe undernutrition already occurs. Here, we attempt to discriminate between the impacts of climate and other factors (e.g. land management/degradation) on crop production across West Africa using satellite remote sensing. We identify trends in the land surface phenology and climate of West African croplands between 2000 and 2018. Using the combination of a an attribution framework and residual trend anlaysis, we discriminate between climate and other impacts on crop productivity. the combined effect of rainfall, land surface temperature and solar radiation explains approximately 40% of the variation in cropland productivity over West Africa at the 95% significance level. The largest proportions of croplands with greening trends were observed in Mali, niger and Burkina faso, and the largest proportions with browning trends were in nigeria, the Gambia and Benin. climate was responsible for 52% of the greening trends and 25% of the browning trends. Within the other driving factors, changes in phenology explained 18% of the greening and 37% of the browning trends across the region, the use of inputs and irrigation explained 30% of the greening trends and land degradation 38% of the browning trends. These findings have implications for adaptation policies as we map out areas in need of improved land management practices and those where it has proven to be successful. Over the last 100 years, average near-surface temperatures in Africa have increased by 0.5 °C 1,2. Projected increases in temperature exceeding average temperature variability experienced in the twentieth century are expected to occur 10 to 20 years earlier in Africa, particularly the Sahelian and tropical regions of West Africa, compared to the rest of the world 1,3. Consequently, the climate of West Africa is expected to gradually become more arid as humid zones recede mostly due to temperature forcing, although variability in local rainfall is also important 4. These projected changes in climate will occur in addition to the intra-and inter-annual variability of rainfall that has historically caused extreme droughts and floods 5. As such, both the projected trends and climatic variability pose a challenge for rainfed agriculture, which forms the foundation of food security, fulfilling 80% of the needs of the population and employing about 60% of the workforce in West Africa 6-8. These challenges include changes in the start and length of growing seasons, harvest success, and subsequently agricultural production 6,9. In West Africa, the main staple crops such as maize, cassava, millet, and sorghum are mostly dependent on rainfall 10. The region is influenced by large-scale climate teleconnections 11 and some of the largest deficits in crop produ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural productivity in relation to climate and cropland management in West Africa

Mechiche-Alami

Abdi

2020

Sci Rep

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“…Land-use practices that are favourable or unfavourable to the regeneration of woody species were identified and described by direct observation and semi-directional interviews with populations in the field. The practices with high potential for woody plant regeneration cover soils and water conservation/soils protection and restoration (SWC/SPR) and agroforestry practices, developed in the Sahel region [8,13,[28][29][30]. Land-use practices that may affect the establishment and development of woody plant include: agricultural expansion, bush fire, pasture, urban development, gold panning, and wood harvesting.…”

Section: Land-use Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Land-Use Practices on Woody Plant Cover Dynamics in Sahelian Agrosystems in Burkina Faso since the 1970s–1980s Droughts

2019

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The 1970s–1980s droughts in the Sahel caused a significant degradation of land and plant cover. To cope with this situation, populations have developed several biophysical and social adaptation practices. Many of these are agroforestry practices and contribute to the maintenance of agrosystems. Unfortunately, they remain insufficiently documented and their contributions to the resilience of agrosystems insufficiently evaluated. Many authors widely link the regreening in the Sahel after droughts to the resumption of rainfall. This study examines the contribution of agroforestry practices to the improvement of woody plant cover in the North of Burkina Faso after the 1970s–1980s droughts. The examination of practices is carried out by integrating the rainfall, soil, and geomorphology variables. Landsat images are used to detect changes in woody plant cover: increasing, decreasing, and no-change in the Enhanced Vegetation Index. In addition, 230 field observations, coupled with interviews conducted on the different categories of change, have allowed to characterize the biophysical environment and identify land-use practices. The results show a variability of vegetation index explained to 9% (R2 = 0.09) by rainfall. However, Chi-Squared independence tests show a strong dependence between changes in woody plant cover and geomorphology (p = 0.0018 *), land use, land cover (p = 0.0001 *), and land-use practices (p = 0.0001 *). Our results show that rainfall alone is not enough to explain the dynamics of agrosystems’ woody plant cover. Agricultural and social practices related to the dynamics of farmer perceptions play a key role.

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“…Burkina Faso is a landlocked country with an economy largely based on agriculture. Crop production is largely based on rainfall farming systems and remains vulnerable to climate hazards (1,2). It is in this context that over 13 million (3) people owe their food to a subsistence agriculture strongly dominated by cereals, leguminous, tubers and some minor crops (4).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory analysis of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) cropping system and production constraints in Burkina Faso

Boubacar

Desmae²,

Miningou³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) is one of the major legume crop grown as food and cash crops across the agro ecological zone in Burkina Faso. It is ranked 2nd legume crop in the country, in term of importance, for household food, nutrition and income generation for both rural and urban zone, contributing significantly to food supply and the country economy. However, groundnut was downgrade long ago, forsaken and the groundnut sector is still struggling, with a low productivity, disorganized groundnut sector and a weak breeding program, due to several constraints. Assessing and describing the present groundnut cropping system and production constraint will eventually serve as a basis to guide efficiently the groundnut breeding activities. Methods: A Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) study was conducted in three groundnuts production areas (Central-Eastern, Central-Northern and Central- Western). A total of 124 farmers were involved in the study to collect data on socio-demographics, farming system, cropping practices and identified production constraints. Analysis was carried out for qualitative and quantitates variables using STATA 14. Mean variance were determined across regions and gender, and pairwise ranking were used to assess the level of agreement for variables ranking among the three regions using Kendall's W. Pearson's correlation was carried out to assess the relationship between variables. Results: The study revealed a cropping system of groundnut in an environment largely affected by climate change, and in a subsistence and extensive agriculture. There is a variance in groundnut cropping system across the regions with similarities in the cropping practices. Gender plays a key role in the production of the groundnut and 48.39% of women are engaged in groundnut cropping with less access to land and production resources. A yield gap between men and women has been observed denoting a huge inefficiency between men and women. Production constraints, although similar, are perceived and appreciated differently across the region. The lack of improved varieties, Absence of agricultural credit, lack of materials, high price of seeds, high price of fertilizer, drought and disease are some of the important constraints compromising the crop. Conclusion: This study provides a recent view of groundnut cropping, allowing good understanding of farmer’s situation. The result, will contribute to an efficient refining of breeding priorities and guide further activities in groundnut breeding in Burkina Faso.

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Soil and Water Conservation in Burkina Faso, West Africa

Cited by 57 publications

References 74 publications

Agricultural productivity in relation to climate and cropland management in West Africa

Agricultural productivity in relation to climate and cropland management in West Africa

Effects of Land-Use Practices on Woody Plant Cover Dynamics in Sahelian Agrosystems in Burkina Faso since the 1970s–1980s Droughts

Participatory analysis of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L) cropping system and production constraints in Burkina Faso

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