Feb. 2009 -- Shamie Zingore and Jeroen Huising

1. Sentinel Site: Nogossire village, Kayes Region

Climate

The site is located in the semi-arid northern edge of the Sudan climatic zone. Annual rainfall averages about 600 mm/yr and falls in a unimodal pattern (June-August). 

Soil and Soil Fertility

The soils around the village are mostly Aridic Haplustalfs – sandy to loamy soils with moderate production potential. These cover 40% of the area. The soils are used for cereal crop production (millet, sorghum and maize). The landscape has flat/gentle sloping terrain. Low rainfall is the main factor limiting crop production.

Soils with vertic properties are present as well. We found them in the higher elevation out-fields. Clayey soils may also be present in the in low-lying areas (bottom lands). They may have high production potential, but are severely limited by wetness.

Farming system description

Farmers practice sedentary integrated crop-livestock systems where crop production and livestock rearing (cattle, goats and sheep) cohabit. Livestock (mainly cattle) predominate and are used as savings. Farmers receive veterinary services and invest in medicines to treat cattle diseases. They also buy commercial supplementary feed for cattle (cereal and possibly legume by-product: 8000 CFA for 50 kg – 1000 CFA transport cost). However, farmers have no access to extension services (extension agent in Kaye 60 km away) and grow crops with no external inputs. Use of cattle manure and rotation of crop fields are the main practices used to maintain soil fertility. Cattle provide draught power for cultivation of crop fields. Of 96 families 10 might have a plough. Outfield reported to be continuously cultivated for three years and one year fallow.

Farmers/families can be split into three groups: those with animal husbandry as main activity, those that practice dual purpose (crop-livestock), and those that have cropping as the main activity which is reported as being the biggest group. All families have cattle, but to different degrees.

Farmers identify soil fertility decline and poor access to water for domestic and livestock consumption as the major challenges they face. The village consists of a compound of houses surrounded by homefields within a radius of 0.2 km from the compound. Cattle are tethered in fenced homefields at night and provide manure. Outfields found at long distances (greater than 1 km) from homesteads receive less manure and are considered less fertile than homefields (was actually not confirmed by the one field we saw).

Ownership of land and livestock varies substantially among farmers.  Arrangements are made between transhumant Fulani, who migrated into the area in search of grazing and water during the dry season, and households that want manure to fertilize their fields.

*IER has conducted detailed characterization of farming systems in areas around Nogossire village.

Crop and cropping system

• Sorghum (loose panicle type)
• Maize
• Millet

They produce about one ton per family, which is down from four tons previously (as reported not known on how much land).

Additional crops: peanuts and cowpea. Guinea grass is planted around the village from about June 15 to July 15.

Off farm income

Remittances from family members who have gone abroad (US, Europe and in the region).

Natural resources and rangelands

The rangeland areas around the village are severely degraded and almost completely bare during the dry season. Scattered trees are dominated by Mimosaceae. This is mainly due to overgrazing – grazing is not controlled or organized.  Farmers report that they travel four km to fetch firewood and 20 km to find good grazing ground and for watering their cattle.

Vegetation in low-lying areas in some parts of the landscape with consist of few species adapted to temporary flooding.

The native vegetation is dominated by baobab, acacia trees, and pennisetum grass.

Farmers depend on perennial water ponds along river beds or in depressions for livestock drinking water. The water ponds are associated with hydromorphic acacia and palm trees.

Other observations

Hardly any termite mounds

Priorities and expectations

High on the list of what they want to improve – vision for 5 years:
-    Improvement of crop production. Farmers are food insecure for 5 – 6 months. During this period they do off-farm work (brick making, casual labour) and they might even sell cattle to get money to buy food.
-    They consider feed for the cattle a big problem and diseases of cattle as result of poor feeding.
-    Improve water resources. The whole village (96 families with up to 20 people per family) has only one water pump at its disposal.

2. Try village, Koutiala and Koloko village, Dioila

Climate

The sites are located in the Sudano-Sahelian zone with annual rainfall ranging from 700-1300. The rainfall pattern is unimodal (May-September). 

Soil and soil fertility

The landscape is flat and uniform, mostly consisting of sandy soils (Alfisols) derived from sandstone with low inherent fertility. Smaller areas are under heavier soils derived from dolerite, while heavier vertic soils occur in depressions. Farmers identify declining soil fertility as a major problem they are facing, particularly on the fragile sandy soils.

All trees are useful for nuts, feeds etc. This landscape is also characteristic of Koloko, whereas Try is more undulating, with lateritic caps and shallow soils in some places. Also in Koloko there are places with bushy vegetation that do not seem to be suitable for cropping. Plinthite seems to occur is patches and may be a problem here. In these places we also find very hard soils that we could not penetrate with the auger and seem to be heavy textured.

We do find textural variability in the agricultural land with some fields showing cracks in the soil. It seems that land use and crops are also adjusted to those conditions as they are growing rice on these fields, besides other crops.

SOM: reported is 0.6% SOC, but that is considered high; at 15% clay you would expect 1% in fallow land, going down to 0.4% in cultivated fields.

Farming system description

The two villages fall under the Mali ‘cotton zone’, where cotton is an important cash crop. Unlike Nogossire, farmers in Try and Koloko villages are food secure, and have better houses (roofed with iron sheets vs. thatched). Farmers grow cotton in rotation with cereal crops (sorghum, millet and maize) and grain legumes (groundnut and cowpea). Fertilizers are mainly targeted to cotton and other crops are grown on residual fertility (150 -200 kg cotton blend per ha). Farmers used to receive extension support and fertilizer through the SMDT cotton support programme, but this has stopped, following privatization of SMDT.

There has been a decline in cotton production, due to low prices, and farmers are increasingly shifting to cereal production. Farmers in Koloko perceive fertilizers as detrimental to soil fertility – ‘because fields that were under intensive cotton production are now less productive compared to the period before intensive cotton production.’ Rice is an important crop in areas susceptible to water logging in Koloko village.

Farmers in Koloko report that selection of crop is based on perceived fertility status of the fields. They mention cotton to be grown on poor fields, because they recieve fertilizers for this. Peanuts are also grown of the poor fields. Farmers say that no fertilizer is used except for cotton, but they do seem to use fertilizer they get for the cotton for other crops as well. Report difficulty in purchasing fertilizer, but there are ways of getting some.

Cultivated fields can be distinguished by distance from homesteads – fields around the village ‘homefields’ receive most organic and inorganic inputs, and tend to be more fertile than outfields. No land is available for fallowing due to high land pressure. Farmers do not systematically target manure to homefields and outfields. Manure is allocated to fields in rotation. Millet is also targeted to the least fertile fields.

Farmers use plough and seeders, animal traction.

Animal herds represent a means of investing and accruing capital. Owning livestock is complementary to growing crops. It provides animal traction for use in the fields, a source of manure, and a variety of animal products. In Try, dairy milk production is an important source of income. Due to shortage of fodder, farmers in Try send cattle for herding about 40 km away to Segue during the dry season. Fulani herders are accommodated in the villages during the dry season.

*NUANCES project have been operating in Try village over the past 3 years. Work done includes farming system characterization (using PRA and RFM), experiments to test supplementary fodder for cattle, soil fertility management interventions to efficiently allocate resources to home- and outfields.

*ESPGEN, an IER-led project implemented by farming systems unit operated in Try village for many years. The project monitored land use and livestock production to support farmers prevent land degradation.

Income sources

Income depends largely on agricultural activities (cotton, milk, etc.) but we see all kinds of other activities employed in the village: making clothes, repairing bicycles and some processing of agricultural goods.

There were very few people who migrate to other countries and if so it was in neighbouring countries. No mention of remittances.