Overview of challenging context
Extreme microclimatic variability. Poverty remains prevalent in rural environment and the living conditions of the rural households remain precarious. The farmers located the Sahel zone are agro-pastoralists whose main livelihood activity is transhumance and they practice agriculture on subsistence scale. They set up the socio-economic groups whose existence is precarious in terms of income, opportunities and capacities.
IFAD program and project context with linkages to this one
New IFAD program, initiated September 2007. Projects in water focus on irrigation and small dams and micro irrigation – translation into practice. Central issues are land tenure and using irrigation to negotiate better access to land and water. Service providers are weak, focus on niche markets for high value. Focus on increased investment in soft technologies at community level, participation and maintenance.
Specific project linkages:
- Small scale Irrigation and Water Management Project: The general objective is to contribute to the reduction of rural poverty and the improvement of food safety. The project will support access to and management of water resources for agricultural and pastoral use.
- Sustainable Rural Development Program: The program aims to help the poor rural people to reinforce their capacities of organization, planning and management of soils (productive land resources) through stabilisation of basins slopes and the construction of irrigation networks.
- Community investment plan for the agricultural productivity: The program aims at increasing agricultural productivity through the use of soil and water conservation technologies.
IFAD products and processes to benefit from inputs from this project: broadening conclusions of existing projects through linkage to conclusions on past projects, cross project and location exchanges, COSOP and Project review.
Potential partners
- CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF)
- Volta Basin Authority (VBA)
- Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
- African Union Technical Office for the promotion of Semi-Arid Agricultural Research for Development (AU-SAFGRAD)
- Ecole Inter-Etas d’Ingenieur de l’Equipment-Rural (EIER-ETSHER)
- Institut National de l’Environnement et de la Recherche Agricoles (INERA)