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Land use change and climate-smart agriculture in the Sahel

By: , , and 
Edited by: Leonardo A. Villalón
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.12

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Abstract

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Sahel experienced recurrent drought and famine. Farmers and their development partners reacted to this crisis by developing climate-smart agricultural practices and changes in land use, including water-harvesting techniques to restore degraded land to productivity. In several densely populated parts of the Sahel, farmers began to protect and manage woody species that regenerated naturally on their farmland. Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is a foundational practice that produces multiple benefits, such as maintaining or improving soil fertility, which raises crop yields, and increasing the production of tree-based fodder, fruit, and firewood. In Niger’s Maradi and Zinder Regions alone, farmers have applied FMNR practices on 4.2 million hectares. The findings presented in this chapter suggest that the future of agriculture in the Sahel will be largely determined by whether low-income smallholder farmers will manage to improve soil fertility, which will depend on maintaining substantial densities of on-farm trees thus increasing tree cover.

Study Area

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Land use change and climate-smart agriculture in the Sahel
Chapter 11
DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198816959.013.12
Volume III
Year Published 2021
Language English
Publisher Oxford Academic Press
Contributing office(s) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Description 22 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Subtype Monograph
Larger Work Title The Oxford handbook of the African Sahel
First page 209
Last page 230
Country Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Guinea-Bisseau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan
Other Geospatial Sahel Region
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details