Contribution of Climate-Smart Agriculture Technologies to Food Self-Sufficiency of Smallholder Households in Mali

Bouba Traore, Birhanu Zemadim Birhanu, Seydou Sangaré, Murali Krishna Gumma, Ramadjita Tabo and Anthony Michael Whitbread
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Bouba Traore: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey BP 12404, Niger
Birhanu Zemadim Birhanu: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey BP 12404, Niger
Seydou Sangaré: AMASSA Afrique Verte, Bamako BPE404, Mali
Murali Krishna Gumma: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey BP 12404, Niger
Ramadjita Tabo: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey BP 12404, Niger
Anthony Michael Whitbread: International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Niamey BP 12404, Niger

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Climate change has resulted in food insecurity for the majority of farming communities in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Mali. In this paper, we present a methodology for scaling climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies such as Contour Bunding (CB), Microdosing (MD), Intercropping (IC), Zaï pits, and Adapted crop Variety (AV) treatments, and evaluated their contribution to smallholder households’ food self-sufficiency. We used the participatory technology selection method and on-farm demonstration in order to tackle farm-related constraints. The study found that there has been a major shift in the spatial distribution of land use/land cover (LULC) classes between 2016 and 2020. About 25% of the areas changed from other land use/land cover to cropland. Crop yields obtained from CSA-treated fields were significantly higher than yields from farmers’ practice (FP). The application of CSA technologies resulted in millet yield increases by 51%, 35%, and 23% with contour bunding (CB), microdosing (MD) and intercropping (IC), respectively. With Zaï pits and adapted variety (AV) treatments, the yield increases were 69% and 27%, respectively. Further, the use of IC and MD technologies reduced the food-insecure household status to 13%, which corresponds to a food insecurity reduction of 60%. The application of Zaï technology reversed the negative status of food-insecurity to +4%, corresponding to a reduction in food insecurity of more than 100%. In the case of food-secure households, the application of CSA technologies led to increased food production. However, notwithstanding this, prospects for CSA in the Sahel hinge on the capacities of farming households and local extension agents to understand the environmental, economic and social challenges in the context of climate change, and consequently to self-mobilize in order to select and implement responsive technologies.

Keywords: millet yield; sustainability; food security; Sudano-Sahelian; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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