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Hope for a desert country: custom-made technologies
revolutionize irrigated rice farming in Mauritania
In a country where over 90% of the land is desert, where over a quarter of the population live below the poverty line of $1 a day, a suite of improved technologies and
decision-making tools is offering new choices to rice farmers and enhancing the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of irrigated rice farming.
Scientists from WARDA and the national research and extension system in Mauritania, in partnership with local farmers, have shown
that even a partial adoption of these technologies by irrigated rice farmers has resulted in 60% increase in farm yields and 85% increase in profits.
Just over 40 years ago, most of the people of Mauritania used to lead a quiet nomadic life. But recurrent droughts and the relentless
advance of the desert have driven many people to leave their traditional way of life. The agricultural sector now employs about
65% of the labor force representing approximately 25% of GDP.
Rice is a staple food in Mauritania where the local cuisine is based on rice, lamb and goat. Paddy rice — grown almost exclusively on
irrigated land in the fertile Senegal River Valley — has expanded considerably in recent years and now accounts for about 50% of cereal output. However, local rice production doesn’t meet the country’s demand, since yields are generally far below the potential.
WARDA researchers have discovered that the relatively low productivity of irrigated rice-based systems in Mauritania and in the other Sahelian countries of West Africa is partly because most research approaches assume that such environments are homogenous and have, therefore, developed ‘one-size-fits-all’ or uniform technologies.
“In fact, the Sahelian environment is very complex and the constraints and priorities within the same region vary considerably as do farmers’ perceptions and knowledge base,” explained Dr K
Miezan, Leader of WARDA’s Irrigated Rice Program. “Therefore, unless this variability is taken into account and farmers are integrated into the technology generation and adaptation process, they will reject the uniform technologies as
these do not fit with their conditions,” he added.
Step-wise Integrated Crop Management (ICM) approach
Realizing that irrigated-rice farmers in West Africa need a wide palette of improved technologies from which to choose, combine and adapt to suit their specific conditions, WARDA and its partners used ‘the step-wise or progressive ICM approach’ that offers farmers ample flexibility and autonomy.
As part of this approach, a wide range of improved technologies that are still in the prototype phase are made available to farmers and are then adapted to the locally prevailing conditions through a progressive integration process, resulting ultimately in a basket or a comprehensive toolbox of ICM options for different types of irrigated rice-based systems.
The ICM basket includes options for improved fertilizer, weed, and water management, improved varieties and efficient post-harvest technologies as well as decision-making tools, such as optimum sowing date, seeding and fertilizer rates and timing of fertilizer application, based on crop modeling research.
The ICM technologies are fine-tuned in farmers’ fields, with a high degree of farmer involvement in the adaptation process. The technology
that is of greatest interest to farmers and that addresses the major constraints is integrated first. Often the integration of one component
requires the subsequent integration of complementary technologies, thus resulting in rapid adoption of improved technologies by farmers.
To ensure the success of ICM in the long term, WARDA is placing greater emphasis on the sustainable management of the natural resource
base, including maintenance of soil fertility, avoidance of salinity build-up, and biodiversity conservation.
ICM impact in Mauritania
WARDA, in collaboration with various partners — the Centre national de recherche agronomique et de développement agricole
(CNRADA), the Société nationale de développement rural
(SONADER), the Association générale d’études techniques agricoles
(AGETA), and farmers’ organizations — has introduced the ICM approach with great success in the irrigated rice-based systems in Mauritania. The work has been supported by the
World Bank, the Government of Mauritania, the Department for International Development
(DFID), and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency
(JICA).
Building on the success of its initial on-farm research with
AGETA, a cooperative of relatively large-scale rice farmers, who were able to obtain yield increases of 1–2 tonnes per hectare from improved fertilizer and weed management, WARDA and its partners launched a 2-year project in 1999, to better understand the linkages between socioeconomic factors, farmers’ choices of crop and resource management practices, and the productivity
of irrigated rice systems.
While confirming that irrigated-rice farmers can significantly increase productivity by using improved ICM technologies, the results in the second year of the project showed that sample farmers could increase farm productivity by 60% and profitability by 85% by partial adoption of ICM components.
“The lessons learned from the Mauritanian ICM project will be valuable in adapting ICM to different irrigated rice production environments in West Africa”, stated Dr
Miezan. “With WARDA’s increased attention to inland valley systems, the ICM system originally developed for high-input irrigated systems offers real opportunities for spillover to the low- to
medium-input rainfed lowland systems,” he added.
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