Search

Water scarcity is a global issue that disproportionately affects small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Through geospatial analysis, we estimated that less than 37% of small-scale farms probably have irrigation in water scarce regions across LMICs, compared with 42% of non-small-scale farms. Through a literature synthesis assisted by machine learning, we then systematically mapped the existing research for on-farm interventions that improve the incomes or yields of small-scale farmers in water scarce regions. We mapped over 888 on-farm interventions used to combat water scarcity from 560 publications and showed a research bias towards yields rather than livelihoods. We found gaps in evidence for many commonly proposed solutions, including livestock management, digital technology and solutions to protect natural resources at the farm-level, such as buffer strips. Our findings can be used to set a funding agenda for research on the geographies that are most at risk of water scarcity and the interventions that most lack evidence. A geospatial estimate of water scarcity in middle- to low-income countries finds that less than 37% of small-scale farms have irrigation. However, there exist considerable gaps in evidence for most commonly proposed, on-farm interventions.

Trees in dryland forests and wooded areas provide key ecosystem services such as animal feed, timber, fruits and, regulation of soil and water cycles. Equally, the presence of livestock in dryland woody areas can also play an important role in the local ecosystem; not only are they a source of income for local communities, but they also help vegetation and mobilise stored biomass. When both of these ecosystem elements are wisely combined – livestock and trees – it creates an integrated agricultural system that can boost the local ecosystem, representing a welcome agro-ecological transition in livestock farming. The ‘Grazing with Trees’ report gives a thorough assessment of the positive role that optimized extensive grazing livestock farming can play in the management and restoration of drylands’ forests and lands with trees. It assesses and provides sound evidence on the benefits of applying an integrated landscape approach and utilizing farmers and pastoralists’ knowledge to halt desertification, increase resilience, and enhance food security under the actual changing scenario. The report confirms the importance of agroforestry as a primary pathway for forest restoration in dryland areas as recommended by FAO’s State of Forests 2022, and its recommendations encourage landscape planners and decision makers to consider livestock as allies, carefully restore tree cover and accelerate action to promote healthy ecosystems.

Evidence-based livestock policies are needed to raise rural incomes and improve dietary diversity in low-income countries where the majority of populations depend on livestock for their livelihoods. Yet these contexts exhibit unique challenges on both information supply and demand sides, which widen the gaps between research and policy-making. This paper reviews the constraints to evidence-based policy-making and identifies knowledge areas most suitable for building a persuasive narrative that capture the attention of busy decision-makers. These promising spaces for production of new data and methods focus on livestock contribution to the economy, trade, food security and resilience. The examples discussed show the potential of current and future research for leveraging synergistic interests from multiple actors and improving livestock policy interventions.

Pastoralists make the most of resources distributed unevenly over space and time to provide a range of goods and services. Operating in a shock-prone environment, pastoralists deploy endogenous strategies such as mobility, diversification in agriculture or in non-agricultural activities, management of social networks, etc. However, accurate and reliable knowledge about the economics of pastoralism is yet to be understood and absorbed at the local, regional and national levels, based on reliable data. In the absence of such knowledge, governments and private firms neglect investment that would allow those systems to better connect to markets, and are unable to provide appropriate services, infrastructure and tenure security. With Argentina, Chad and Mongolia as pilot cases, this study by CIRAD, commissioned by FAO, funded by IFAD and facilitated by pastoralist associations (Fundacion Gran Chaco, Reseau Billital Maroobe, and the National Federation of Pasture User Groups), aimed to fulfil this knowledge gap through a multifunctional assessment of pastoral production systems and their economic contribution. Importantly, incorporating self-consumption of pastoralist households' productions themselves as an key component of gross revenue shows a significant increase in their contribution to national GDPs. The diversified sources of revenue and the importance of self-consumption also indicate that pastoral systems fulfil a range of functions (income, food security, flexible labor, etc.). Further, the study promotes close cooperation between pastoralist associations, research institutions and development partners. Such new partnerships allow strengthening the capacity of those pastoralist associations in collecting and managing their own data, as well as using this data in policy dialogue.

This study analyzes the Laiterie Du Berger (LDB)’s milk supply chain and its contribution to strengthening the food security and socioeconomic resources of Senegalese Sahelian pastoral households. Porter’s value chain model is used to characterize the innovations introduced by the LDB dairy in its milk inbound logistics and supplier relationships. A socioeconomic food security index and qualitative data are used to assess the dairy’s supply chain’s contribution to strengthen smallholder households’ livelihoods. Data for this research were obtained through individual surveys, focus groups and in-depth interviews of LDB managers and milk suppliers. Results show that milk income contributes significantly to household food security. Suppliers who stabilize their dairy income between rainy and dry seasons, diversify income sources and have larger herds are more likely to remain food secure. The LDB innovations contribute by helping herders access biophysical and economic resources, leading to better livestock feed and household food security.

PPR remains a major challenge to smallholder farmers in Mali. To understand the drivers of low adoption of vaccination by farmers, we analyzed the socio-economic factors influencing farmer WTV during and in the absence of vaccination campaigns. Given that the costs associated with vaccination are largely borne by farmers, we assessed factors that associated with farmer willingness to pay (WTP) more than the current price (150 XOF per dose) by considering two attributes of improvement of the vaccines empirically highlighted as potential leverage points for intervention: access of farmers to vaccines (reducing the distance to the vaccine) and availability of information about the quality of the vaccine (introducing a vaccine viability detector). Data were collected in Mopti and Sikasso regions from 304 producers. Overall (n = 304), 89 percent of respondents vaccinated their herds during official vaccination campaigns. They are associated with receiving information on the campaign calendar more quickly if information is relayed at places of worship and if they have an awareness of the benefits of vaccination, including the protection of third parties. Only 39 percent of respondents vaccinate outside vaccination campaigns. They are positively linked to the credibility of private veterinarians and a recognition of the vital importance of vaccines but are negatively associated with ignorance of vaccination needs and concern about vaccine side-effects. Both distance-effects and quality-tracker effects are associated with farmer willingness to pay more than the current vaccine prices. Farmers practicing semi-intensive production systems are willing to pay 20 percent more than the current vaccine prices, as are users who believe in the beneficial effects of vaccination, users who consider the prices of vaccines as fair, and those who believe that some vaccines are more important than others. Factors that discourage producers from vaccinating or from paying more for vaccination would be more effectively managed with better communication on vaccine benefits through targeted information dissemination campaigns by Malian authorities. Greater price transparency throughout the vaccine production and deployment chain is critical, while timely availability of vaccine tested for viability would increase the willingness to vaccinate while improving access.

The livestock sector contributes around 14.5 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Developing mitigation strategies is a serious challenge, especially if we anticipate a rapid growth in the consumption of animal products in Low-Income (LI) and Lower Middle-Income (LMI) countries. Across the planet, livestock systems are highly diverse and the livestock sector offers many possibilities for carbon sinking that can help to reduce emissions. In particular, carbon sequestration in grasslands, rangelands and feed crop fields and manure recycling are crucial in the assessment of the carbon efficiency of livestock value chains. Supporting sustainable livestock production systems, together with sustainable animal product market chains and consumption, requires the completion of GHG inventories based on landscape carbon balances.

International audience; Sahelian pastoralists use mobility, diversification, and even pluriactivity as main adaptation strategies to the asymmetrical distribution of multifaceted resources. Complex relations vis-a-vis this risky environment hide slowing transitions from a traditional inward-looking to an outward-looking economy, which is characterised by increasing use of a remunerated workforce. The growing commodification of the economy of Sahelian pastoralists could generate new forms of uncertainty. The authors of this paper use a principal-agent model to analyse the remunerated workforce and demonstrate the mixed results of this strategy in the context of structural risk in the Sahel. The authors then highlight the conditions under which trust and reputation are developed to stabilise employment relations and better cope with and/or mitigate various shocks.

Cet article étudie les liens entre les dynamiques du taux de change réel et du surendettementdans les pays en développement (PED). Deux versions de la soutenabilité de la dette sontutilisées pour analyser l’impact d’une dette externe sur le taux de change réel d'équilibre. Ledéficit du compte courant trouve son origine dans le déséquilibre de la balance des biens etservices et la dynamique d’accumulation de la dette. Cette contribution inclut, de façon inédite,la version forte de la soutenabilité pour déterminer le taux de change réel d'équilibre dans lesPED. Ainsi, une situation de surendettement tend à apprécier le taux de change réel., This paper studies the relationship between real exchange rates and debt overhang dynamics indeveloping countries. Two definitions of debt sustainability are used to study the effects ofexternal debt on equilibrium real exchange rates. The current account deficit is due to balanceof trade disequilibrium and debt accumulation dynamic. The original contribution of this studyis to introduce strong version of debt sustainability for the determination of the equilibrium realexchange rates in developing countries. Thus, the debt overhang tends to appreciate theequilibrium real exchange rate.

In the Sahelian context of shocks and structural uncertainties, transhumant breeding has proved its resilience by relying on traditional strategies such as mobility and diversification. Today, 25 percent of the investigated encampments of Ferlo have used a salaried workforce, renewing the delegation of tasks usually handled at the family scale. This article shows wage-labour as a strategy for copying with uncertainties inside the family (workforce availability) and outside (diversification of species and natural resource scarcity) to ensure continuity of herd management as the central pillar of pastoral food security.

Based on primary data obtained through investigations in Ferlo (Senegalese Sahel) during a whole year, from the rainy season of 2005 to the rainy season of 2006, this article presents a thorough analysis of the market income distribution of several pastoral communities and sees it in its political perspectives. The global Gini index of this pastoral region, 52.8%, is explained particularly by between-sites inequality at 79%, although within-site inequality represents only 21%. Paradoxically, there is no bigger equality in areas well served by basic infrastructures. The efficiency of national livestock policies and area planning should be questioned. At the economic analysis level, these results show the need to maintain and secure herders’ movements and thus complete the current research with an ecological point of view.

Une reforme en cours au Senegal privatise la gestion de l’eau des forages pastoraux du Ferlo ; les pasteurs quant a eux gerent leurs ressources naturelles, eau et pâturages, d’une maniere integree en accommodant divers principes d’acces. Au-dela des amenagements locaux imposes a la gestion comptable, cet article montre quelles regles dominent et structurent l’organisation sociale de la gestion des infrastructures. Mais cette pluralite de logiques ne se revelerait-elle pas aussi, sous d’autres configurations, dans des societes plus marchandes ? Un debat est ouvert sur les limites des modes de tarification theoriques de l’eau, bien economique et social vital. Pour la socio-economie, les pratiques renvoient aux questions d’interet personnel, de gestion des ressources, de cohesion sociale.

Au Ferlo (Sahel sénégalais), la durabilité de l’élevage pastoral repose sur la diversité et la flexibilité des régimes de mobilité. Depuis les années 90, le Projet d’Appui à l’Elevage (PAPEL) intervient dans la zone pour organiser la gestion des ressources naturelles à l’échelle des unités pastorales (UP), avec l’objectif affiché d’assurer le contrôle et la durabilité de cette activité. Nous avons tenté d’évaluer la pertinence de la généralisation de ce projet d’envergure à l’aune des caractéristiques propres au pastoralisme, dorénavant reconnu comme la meilleure forme de mise en valeur dans l’environnement incertain du Ferlo. Même si les unités pastorales de gestion des ressources ont prouvé leur intérêt dans plusieurs cas de la première phase du projet en zone pastorale, il semble que dans le contexte sénégalais actuel de politique sectorielle agricole, et d’accaparement privé des ressources foncières, la généralisation systématique du schéma des UP sur tout le territoire risquerait plutôt de menacer la durabilité de la mobilité pastorale. In Ferlo (Senegalese Sahel), the sustainability of the livestock farming depends on the diversity and the flexibility of the regulations of mobility. Since the 90s, the PAPEL (Senegalese Support Project for Livestock) has intervened in the area in order to manage the natural resources on the scale of the pastoral units (UP) with the declared objective to ensure the control and the sustainability of this activity. We tried to estimate the relevance of the general implementation of this large-scale project by the yardstick of the characteristics peculiar to Pastoralism, henceforth known as the best valorisation form in the uncertain environment of Ferlo. Even if the pastoral units as tools of the natural resource management have demonstrated their interest in many cases of the first stage of the project in the pastoral area, it seems that, in the present Senegalese context of the agricultural and land sectoral policy of private monopolizing of resources, the systematic general implementation of the pattern of pastoral units throughout the whole country would be likely to threaten the sustainability of the pastoral mobility.

Le pastoralisme joue un rôle prépondérant dans l'économie des pays du Sahel et de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (AO) et participe à la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle des ménages ruraux et urbains (Wane et al., 2009). La contribution du secteur élevage au PIB atteint 5 à 10% et les systèmes pastoraux fournissent plus de 50% de la production en viande et en lait (De Haan et al., 1999). Le pastoralisme s'avère économiquement viable et écologiquement adapté à la valorisation durable d'une ressource naturelle fragile et éparse dans la zone sahélienne (Toutain et al. 2012). Plus encore, le système de production mobile fournit de meilleurs rendements en termes de production annuelle de protéines animales par hectare par rapport au système de ranching ou autres systèmes intensifs à vocation commerciale. Ces systèmes d'élevage sont confrontés à de nombreux défis, liés notamment, à la marginalisation des populations pastorales dans les instances de gouvernance locale, et à la compétition croissante pour l'accès aux ressources. Dans ce contexte, les pasteurs et les politiques manquent d'informations et d'indicateurs spécifiques sur les enjeux et la viabilité de ce système de production (flux saisonniers de transhumance, vulnérabilité des ménages pastoraux, variations des prix des animaux et de denrées alimentaires¿) insuffisamment pris en compte par le cade des systèmes d'information et d'alerte précoce sur la sécurité alimentaire existants (Touré et al 2012). A cette asymétrie d'informations s'ajoute l'absence de cadre officiel de concertation entre les pasteurs, leurs organisations de producteurs faitières et les institutions techniques nationales, régionales et internationales en charge des politiques agricoles en général et de sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle des populations pastorales en particulier. Partant des enseignements tirés de la mise en oeuvre du système d'information sur le pastoralisme au Sahel (SIPSA) dans six pays du CILSS (Burkina, Mali, Mauritanie, Niger, Sénégal et Tchad). Cette présentation va mettre en exergue ses acquis (scientifiques, méthodologiques, pédagogiques¿ ), ses limites et ses défis (structurels, politiques..) en vue d'une amélioration des interventions publiques en période de crise.

Communication en libre accès, document est disponible en ligne : http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.au-ibar.org%2Fcomponent%2Fjdownloads%2Ffinish%2F86%2F1619&ei=9KE6U8imG8nH0QWt54HADw&usg=AFQjCNH3UAWZcijWK8vsdCwfVCjyIGNCoQ; National audience

Au Ferlo (Sahel sénégalais), la durabilité de l’élevage pastoral repose sur la diversité et la flexibilité des régimes de mobilité. Depuis les années 90, le Projet d’Appui à l’Elevage (PAPEL) intervient dans la zone pour organiser la gestion des ressources naturelles à l’échelle des unités pastorales (UP), avec l’objectif affiché d’assurer le contrôle et la durabilité de cette activité. Nous avons tenté d’évaluer la pertinence de la généralisation de ce projet d’envergure à l’aune des caractéristiques propres au pastoralisme, dorénavant reconnu comme la meilleure forme de mise en valeur dans l’environnement incertain du Ferlo. Même si les unités pastorales de gestion des ressources ont prouvé leur intérêt dans plusieurs cas de la première phase du projet en zone pastorale, il semble que dans le contexte sénégalais actuel de politique sectorielle agricole, et d’accaparement privé des ressources foncières, la généralisation systématique du schéma des UP sur tout le territoire risquerait plutôt de menacer la durabilité de la mobilité pastorale.In Ferlo (Senegalese Sahel), the sustainability of the livestock farming depends on the diversity and the flexibility of the regulations of mobility. Since the 90s, the PAPEL (Senegalese Support Project for Livestock) has intervened in the area in order to manage the natural resources on the scale of the pastoral units (UP) with the declared objective to ensure the control and the sustainability of this activity. We tried to estimate the relevance of the general implementation of this large-scale project by the yardstick of the characteristics peculiar to Pastoralism, henceforth known as the best valorisation form in the uncertain environment of Ferlo. Even if the pastoral units as tools of the natural resource management have demonstrated their interest in many cases of the first stage of the project in the pastoral area, it seems that, in the present Senegalese context of the agricultural and land sectoral policy of private monopolizing of resources, the systematic general implementation of the pattern of pastoral units throughout the whole country would be likely to threaten the sustainability of the pastoral mobility.

Pastoralists make the most of resources distributed unevenly over space and time to provide a range of goods and services. Operating in a shock-prone environment, pastoralists deploy endogenous strategies such as mobility, diversification in agriculture or in non-agricultural activities, management of social networks, etc. However, accurate and reliable knowledge about the economics of pastoralism is yet to be understood and absorbed at the local, regional and national levels, based on reliable data. In the absence of such knowledge, governments and private firms neglect investment that would allow those systems to better connect to markets, and are unable to provide appropriate services, infrastructure and tenure security. With Argentina, Chad and Mongolia as pilot cases, this study by CIRAD, commissioned by FAO, funded by IFAD and facilitated by pastoralist associations (Fundación Gran Chaco, Réseau Billital Maroobé, and the National Federation of Pasture User Groups), aimed to fulfil this knowledge gap through a multifunctional assessment of pastoral production systems and their economic contribution. Importantly, incorporating self-consumption of pastoralist households' productions themselves as an key component of gross revenue shows a significant increase in their contribution to national GDPs. The diversified sources of revenue and the importance of self-consumption also indicate that pastoral systems fulfil a range of functions (income, food security, flexible labor, etc.). Further, the study promotes close cooperation between pastoralist associations, research institutions and development partners. Such new partnerships allow strengthening the capacity of those pastoralist associations in collecting and managing their own data, as well as using this data in policy dialogue.

Les institutions et structures en charge des questions de sécurité alimentaire au Sahel utilisent une diversité de systèmes d'information et d'alerte précoce. Toutefois les indicateurs utilisés pour caractériser la vulnérabilité des ménages pastoraux manquent d'efficacité en raison des méthodes et dispositifs élaborés plutôt pour les systèmes de cultures et ne prennent pas bien en compte la mobilité caractéristique des systèmes d'élevage pastoral au Sahel. Pourtant, le suivi de la pluviométrie et de la biomasse permet de caractériser l'évolution des ressources fourragères et hydriques et d'anticiper une situation difficile pour des populations dont l'activité économique d'élevage reste profondément tributaire des ressources naturelles. Aussi, des programmes régionaux tels que l'AMESD (African Monitoring of Environment for a Sustainable Development) piloté par l'AGRHYMET tentent de donner des indications précoces sur l'évolution de la végétation et des eaux de surfaces. A l'image des indicateurs biophysiques, cette étude propose une méthode permettant d'anticiper l'occurrence des crises alimentaires au Sahel en se basant sur les prix de marchés qui sont les principaux paramètres des termes de l'échange en milieu pastoral. Notre analyse va se fonder sur l'économétrie des séries temporelles des prix des biens constitutifs des termes de l'échange dans la zone pastorale Kidal-Gao du Mali qui, en mars 2010, a connu une grave crise alimentaire et nutritionnelle.

Many research and development institutions advocate the integration of economic sectors to markets to benefit from them and reduce poverty. This is not so simple for Sahelian pastoralists living in uncertainty and absence of contingent markets. Sahelian pastoralists use livestock markets but these markets don't systematically influence their production and marketing decisions. Based on the case of Senegalese Sahel, we use a spatial panel model to estimate the magnitude impacts of spatial and time factors on pastoral income generation. Then, we extent discussions to show that Sahelian livestock keepers alternate homo oeconomicus and bounded behaviours vis-à-vis the markets that they know well even if markets don't know much about them-and that is one reason it can be hard for a real structural transition. The problems of pastoral marketing systems are still examined from the perspectives of infrastructure buildings while it is also necessary to reduce transaction costs and information asymmetry to boost livestock marketing.

La mise en place d'un plan d'échantillonnage dans une population mobile habitant dans une vaste zone avec une dispersion entre les maisons très importante dans un même site nécessite de réfléchir sur la meilleur e façon de tirer un échantillon représentatif. Ce papier s'est intéressé sur la population pastorale occupant le Sahel sénégalais où cohabitent pasteurs et agropasteurs pratiquant la transhumance pour s'adapter face aux changements et à la disposition de fourrage pour leurs animaux. Jusqu' à présent, il existe un déficit notoire de procédure adaptée dans ce type de population pour laquelle des statistiques fiables sont presque inexistantes. Des méthodes d'analyse de données comme l'analyse des correspondances multiples (ACM) et la classification ont été utilisées pour faire le tirage des sites au premier degré. Il s'inscrit dans une approche pluridisciplinaire pour mieux rendre compte de la complexité des systèmes de production pastoraux. Il combine des techniques d'échantillonnage mixtes (analytique et statistique).