International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
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Livestock feed markets across seasons in periurban areas of Niger: seller and buyer profiles, feed price and quality
Get PDFLivestock productivity in West African Sahel is constrained by seasonal scarcity of feed and by its low quality in the dry season. Feed resources scarcity in the region has also been aggravated by the increase in livestock population, which has heightened the demand for feed, particularly in periurban areas. Livestock feed markets have thus sprung up in many cities and towns. To understand the dynamics of these markets, surveys were conducted in five of them in Maradi and five others in Niamey, Niger, in the early dry season (October-November 2019), late dry season (March-June 2020), and wet season (August-September 2020) with a semi-structured questionnaire. Results showed that diverse feed types were sold or bought, and mainly by adult male vendors or buyers, in both markets across seasons. The buyers gave as major reasons for purchasing livestock feed the insufficient household feed biomass, the poor-quality household feed, and the need for supplementary feeds to maintain and improve animal performance. Prices of
livestock feeds at both markets varied significantly with season, market location and feed type. In both sites, prices of legume residues (cowpea hay, cowpea husk, groundnut haulm) were higher than the other feed types. Results further showed that there was no clear relationship between price and nutritional quality across seasons
Agronomic Performance of Chickpea Affected by Drought Stress at Different Growth Stages
Get PDFSusceptibility to drought stress has restrained chickpea productivity at a global level, and the development of drought-tolerant varieties is essential to maintain its productivity. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate genetic divergence in selected genotypes of chickpea and their morpho-physiological responses under irrigated and stressed conditions to identify the traits that account for the better performance of these genotypes under stressed conditions, as well as genotypes with improved drought tolerance. The genotypes were evaluated for two years under irrigated and drought stressed conditions, and significant variation was found amongst the genotypes
for different morpho-physiological and yield traits. The maximum reduction was observed for plant yield (33.23%) under stressed conditions. Principle component analysis (PCA)-based biplots and correlation studies established its strong positive correlation with relative water content (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI), chlorophyll index (CI), secondary branches (SB) and yield traits and negative correlations with drought susceptibility index (DSI), days to maturity (DM) and 100 seed weight (100 SW) under drought stress, suggesting their use in selecting drought-tolerant germplasm. Ten genotypes with high values of RWC, MSI, CI, SB, yield traits and lower DSI were identified as drought-tolerant and might serve as ideal donors in the forthcoming breeding of elite chickpea cultivars. The seed-filling stage began earlier in these genotypes, with significantly reduced days to maturity under stressed conditions. Our results indicate selection for earliness offers a promising strategy for the development of drought-tolerant chickpea cultivars
Current knowledge on practices targeting soil fertility and agricultural land rehabilitation in the Sahel. A review
Get PDFImplementing sustainable production practices to rehabilitate soils is a grand challenge of our day, particularly for resource-poor farmers. The West African Sahel requires attention to balancing the need for increasing agricultural production against harsh environmental conditions. While there is much research documenting technologies for soil regeneration in the Sahel, there has been limited focus on how agricultural practices contribute or exacerbate these efforts. Previous assessments of agricultural practices in this region have been largely descriptive, and some soil ameliorating practices have been promoted with little empirical evidence on their effectiveness. Here we systematically review the literature on soil fertility and conservation practices that have been studied within West African Sahelian agricultural systems. We identified practices in the West African Sahel that
have been tested to improve soil fertility and reduce land degradation, and summarized the outcomes of these practices. A unique contribution of this review is the assessment of site-specific conditions and contexts under which practices are most effective in studies which recorded these specific characteristics. We found that research in this area is dominated by chemical fertilizer and organic amendment practices, with moderate to few studies focused on soil and water conservation, crop diversification, or agroforestry. Additionally, most studies consisted of single practices rather than combining practices that target the range of
biophysical limitations farmers face in agricultural production. These limitations highlight the need for increased research testing combinations of practices across long-term on-farm studies to generate stronger evidence of conditions under which practices best perform. These findings provide key lessons for research and extension on sustainable agricultural management under the challenging conditions of the Sahel
Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum) Seedlings Transplanting as Climate Adaptation Option for Smallholder Farmers in Niger
Get PDFPearl millet is the most widely grown cereal crop in the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, and in Niger in particular. To determine an optimized management strategy for smallholder farmers in southern Niger to cope with crop production failure and improve cropping performance in the context of climate change and variability, multi-site trials were conducted to evaluate the impacts of transplanting on pearl millet growth and productivity. Eight treatments viz. T1-0NPK (100% transplanting without NPK), T1-NPK (100% transplanting + NPK), T2-0NPK (100% transplanting of empty hills without NPK), T2-NPK (100% transplanting of empty hills + NPK), T3-0NPK (50% transplanting of empty hills without NPK), T3-NPK (50% transplanting of empty hills + NPK), T4-0NPK (farmer practice without NPK), and T4-NPK (farmer practice + NPK) were included in the experiment. Compared to farmer practice, transplanting significantly reduced time to tillering, flowering, and maturity stages by 15%, 27%, and 11%, respectively. The results also revealed that T1-NPK significantly increased panicle weight, total biomass, grain yield, and plant height by 40%, 38%, 27%, and 23%, respectively. Farmers’ evaluations of the experiments supported these findings, indicating three substantial advantages of transplanting, including higher yield (37.50% of responses), larger, more vigorous and more panicles (34.17% of responses), and good tillering (28.33% of responses). An economic profitability analysis of the system revealed that biomass gain (XOF 359,387/ha) and grain gain (XOF 324,388/ha) increased by 34% and 22%, respectively, with T1-NPK. Therefore, it can be inferred that transplanting is a promising strategy for adapting millet cultivation to climate change and variability in southern Niger
Microdosing of Compost for Sustainable Production of Improved Sorghum in Southern Mali
Get PDFThe depletion of soil organic matter is one of the major challenges constraining agricultural production in the southern zone of Mali. This study evaluated the effects of compost types, methods, and dose applications on the productivity and sustainability of sorghum. Two types of compost (farmer practice and cotton stems) were applied to sorghum at two rates (microdosing at 2.5 t ha−1 and broadcasting at 5 t ha−1) and evaluated on 30 farmer fields in 2019 and 2020. The treatments used included CPA (cotton stem compost at 5 t ha−1 + 100 kg ha−1 DAP), CPA (cotton stem compost at 2.5 t ha−1 + 100 kg ha−1 DAP), CP (farmer compost at 5 t ha−1 + 100 kg ha−1 DAP), CP (famer compost at 2.5 t ha−1 + 100 kg ha−1 DAP), control (100 kg ha−1 DAP), and control. The results showed that regardless of the compost type, applying a microdose of 2.5 t ha−1 improved the growth rate, plant height, grain yield, and biomass yield by 15%, 18%, 47%, and 27%, respectively, when compared to the control. No statistical difference was observed in the yield of 2061 kg ha−1 between applying compost by microdosing at 2.5 t ha−1 and broadcasting at 5 t ha−1. It can be inferred that the application of compost by microdosing makes it possible to achieve a 100% fertilized surface compared to broadcasting, with a nitrogen use efficiency of more than 55%. The application of compost by microdosing at 2.5 t ha−1 resulted in an economic gain of 334,800 XOF ha−1, which was 27% higher than that obtained with the application of compost by broadcasting at 5 t ha−1. Conversely, the contribution to the improvement of soil nitrogen stock varied from 12–20% with a microdose of 2.5 t ha−1 compared to 100% for broadcasting compost at 5 t ha−1 per application. Therefore, the availability of cotton stems in the southern zone of Mali presents an opportunity for farmers to implement compost microdose technology to double the fertilized area and improve sorghum productivity
Welfare impacts of improved groundnut varieties adoption and food security implications in the semi-arid areas of West Africa
No full textThis paper investigates the welfare impacts of improved groundnut adoption in Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria using three-year balanced panel data collected from 2,868 households. We apply the Cragg double hurdle model to understand the adoption process and a fixed-effects instrumental variable approach to estimate the impact on gross margins, household income, per capita income, food security, and poverty. The results show that a 10% increase in the area planted with improved groundnut varieties is associated with a 25.6%, 14.8%, 6.9%, and 23.6% increase in groundnut gross margins, household income, per capita income, and food consumption score, respectively. Likewise, this leads to a 3.6% poverty reduction. The highest average impact is found in Nigeria, followed by Ghana and Mali. Furthermore, disaggregating the impacts by adoption history reveals that households that continuously adopted the improved groundnut varieties benefited more than other categories of adopters. They enjoy a 6.6% poverty reduction compared to 1.9% for households that cultivated improved groundnut varieties for a single year. We conclude that improved groundnut varieties' adoption is a promising pathway for rural poverty alleviation and food security improvement. Hence, encouraging households to adopt improved groundnut varieties for consecutive years could help capitalize on income gains and contribute to raising households above the poverty threshold
Biomass feedstocks for advanced biofuels: Sustainability and supply chain management
Get PDFCircular economy is increasingly being seen as a sustainable route to development. The utilization of traditional waste streams for wealth generation is experiencing increased focus from policymakers. Agricultural activities globally generate billions of metric tons of waste biomass annually, which includes solid, liquid, and gaseous residues. Valorization of such agro-waste as feedstock for bioethanol production seems to be the only feasible route toward the achievement of the national blending target of 20% ethanol-blending with petrol. The cellulosic agro-wastes offers a more sustainable option compared to 1st generation biofuels which were dependant on food crops such as sugarcane, corn, and oil seeds. Particularly, in geographies with limited land and water resources, the dilemma to choose between food crop and energy crop has led to food vs fuel and sustainability issues. Major energy sources of feedstock may be switchgrass, miscanthus, high biomass, or energy sorghum, as well as crop residues, such as rice straw, wheat straw, corn stover, and corn cobs. Governmental policies that regulate agriculture, industry, and trade significantly influence the profitability of biofuels and play an important role in the development of a country's energy sector. However, there needs to be an increased awareness about these policies at the grass root level. While doing site selection for any advanced biofuel plant, one of the key criteria is sustainable availability of feedstock with an efficient and robust biomass supply chain management system. Biomass is a sustainable low carbon source that can replace fossil carbon via multiple thermo-chemical and biochemical technologies to produce almost all advanced biofuels for road/aviation transport. This chapter reviews the various feedstocks available for advanced biofuel production, supply and process chain analysis, sustainability, and industrial optimization. Though examples for bioethanol are given, but the discussed biomass can also provide fungible fuels, methanol, and Hydrogen by various technology platforms
Investment planning to minimize climate risk in agricultural production: an optimization model for a semi-arid region in India
No full textThis study undertakes a prioritization of investments for upscaling context-specific climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies across several districts in the semi-arid Telangana state of India. We first analysed the trade-off between expected agricultural income in these districts and deviation from it under drought and normal weather scenarios. We extended the conventional MOTAD model with climate-smart technologies to assess their role in minimizing this trade-off under various weather scenarios. For our analysis, we relied on a five-year (2010–2011 to 2014–2015), district-level panel dataset on the cost of cultivation and crop production of 11 major crops under six different climate-smart technologies and farmers’ traditional practices (FTPs). This dataset included a collation of official statistics on the cost of cultivation, focus group interviews with farmers over the years and data from experimental plots operated by regional agricultural research stations. We found that the adoption of CSA technologies in Telangana, compared to FTPs, led to a 16% reduction in production risk while achieving optimum levels of crop income. Under FTPs, in a scenario of the high probability of drought, the production risk is increased by 12% while the adoption of CSA technologies reduced this risk by 25%. Our study suggests that increasing investments in farm ponds and unpuddled machine transplanting of rice can minimize the risk-return trade-off in a higher drought frequency scenario. The study fills a critical gap by generating evidence, and developing a robust planning tool, for policymakers to make informed decisions on investments in resilience-enhancing CSA
Sorghum yield response to NPKS and NPZn nutrients along sorghum-growing landscapes
Get PDFGrain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the major cereal crop used as staple crop in the arid and
semi-arid regions of Ethiopia. Low sorghum yields are attributed to soil, climate and topographic factors.
We investigated sorghum yield response to factorial combination of nitrogen and phosphorous (NP) as
well as potassium (K), sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn), and how the position of farmers’ fields belonging to
different landscape positions (i.e., upslope, mid-slope, and foot slope) could explain fertilizer response
and yield variability. The analysis in this study made use of dataset from two sets of on-farm experiments
where trials were set at two farmers’ fields for NPKS and three farmers’ fields for NPZn experiments in
each landscape position. The experiments were implemented at two sorghum-growing locations (i.e., Hayk
and Sirinka) in parts of the north-eastern Amhara region in Ethiopia. Sorghum yield response to fertilizer
application was strongly linked to the spatial variation along landscape positions and varied over locations.
Fertilizer response was significantly higher at foot slopes compared to mid-slopes and upslope positions,
where fields at foot slopes exhibited relatively homogeneous responses. Application of combined nitrogen
(N) and phosphorus (P) fertilizers, landscape position and the interaction of fertilizer application and landscape
positions strongly affected sorghum yield. There was a linear and significant increase in sorghum
yield with the increase in the NP rates. The combined application of NP with different levels of KS as well
as NP with Zn fertilizer rates did not result in significant yield difference. The results indicated that local
factors were much more influential when accounting for the heterogeneity in sorghum yield response to
fertilizer. This further acknowledges the importance of a landscape-based fertilizer management approach
to respond yield potential variability related with the farmers’ fields and landscape environment. Further
investigation is needed to develop homogeneous fertilizer response units based on spatial variability of soil
and topographic attributes along the landscape
Genetic mapping of drought tolerance traits phenotyped under varying drought stress environments in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)
Get PDFGenomic regions governing water deficit stress tolerance were identified in peanut using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from an elite variety TMV 2 and its narrow leaf mutant TMV 2-NLM, which was evaluated over six-seasons at Dharwad (non-stress) and Tirupati (water-stress) in India. Stress condition could differentiate the RILs much better than the non-stress condition for the physiological traits. A linkage map with 700 markers was used to identify the quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Three sets of best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were estimated for the drought tolerance traits for the rainy and post-rainy seasons at Dharwad and post-rainy seasons at Tirupati, and employed for single marker analysis, composite interval mapping and multiple QTL mapping. Of the 305 significant marker-trait associations for the 11 traits, only 21 were of major effect for pod yield per plant (PYPP), specific dry weight at 70 days after sowing (SDW_70) and specific leaf area at 70 DAS (SLA_70). Three major main effect QTLs were identified for PYPP with the highest phenotypic variance explained (PVE) of 10.5%. Nine QTLs with the highest PVE of 18.4% were identified for SDW_70, of which four QTLs were also governing SLA_70 with the highest PVE of 15.7%. A few of them were also involved in epistatic interactions, and formed multiple QTL mapping models. Five major QTLs for SDW_70 were stable over both the locations. Candidate genes with SNPs and AhMITE1 insertion were identified for the major QTL regions. A rare nonsynonymous SNP at Ah02_1558700 within the gene ArahyW1P0U6 governing PYPP was detected. Functional analysis of these candidate genes may be useful for future genetic modifications in addition to validating and using the linked markers for improving drought tolerance in peanut