Agro-input packages for Farmers in West Africa
Date
2022
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Abstract
Low agricultural productivity in West African countries and Chad is partly linked to low use of appropriate agricultural inputs, including improved seed varieties and appropriate fertilizers. Indeed, in this regard, it is generally mentioned that in this region the rate of coverage of needs for certified seeds is on average quite low around 25% and that the quantity of nutrients used on average in the ECOWAS zone was approximately per hectare of cultivable land of 17 kg/ha in 2017 and in 2020 of 20 kg/ha of nutrients below the 50 kg/ha advocated by the Abuja, Nigeria summit of June 2006 for the 2015 horizon and is lower than the average of 24 kg of nutrients per hectare for Africa and far from the annual average of 123 kg/ha of nutrient levels in 2017. Among the many reasons that can be cited to justify this state of affairs, training, awareness , access to knowledge and adequate information could play an important role. EnGRAIS1 and PAIRED are two projects funded by USAID2 and implemented respectively by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF). IFDC and CORAF, as part of close cooperation between their two projects, have among other mandates to develop and make agricultural input packages (PIA) available to West African producers.These PIAs are sets: Adapted improved seeds and appropriate fertilizer recommendations accompanied by good agricultural practices (GAP) specific for each agroecological zone (AEZ) across West Africa and Chad. This desire of the two organizations is put into practice by the EnGRAIS and PAIRED projects, which both aim to contribute through their common objective: to develop and make available to producers in West Africa PIAs and a tool for decision support which will allow actors in the agricultural sector to have information on improved seeds, appropriate fertilizer recommendations, and GAP for the main crops in the region and this according to the different AEZs in order to boost yields and agricultural productivity. For this purpose they developed PIAs and the FeSeRWAM3 platform (https://feserwam.org/fr/accueil-2/), whose ancestor, focused on fertilizers, was FeRWAM4, is deployed online as well as the PIAs associated and will be available to all stakeholders. The PIAs are contained in the FeSeRWAM platform, online accessible via the internet, on cell phones, computers, and several other means of dissemination are planned. The FeSeRWAM platform helps generate PIAs including improved seeds, appropriate fertilizer recommendations, and GAPs for key priority crops in West Africa. It is on the sidelines of this collaboration that EnGRAIS has produced and disseminated more than 250 PIAs including 80 PIAs for the 2022 fiscal year, the 110 in 2021, after the 20 PIAs in 2020 and the 40 PIAs in 2019, to increase the range options always with the aim of continuing to contribute to awareness, information and training to widely disseminate these PIA. In this book, PIAs are organized by country and culture. It is a summary of the technical information selected with some illustrations to guide the technician in his dialogue with the producer so that specifically for his locality,the producer can produce efficiently through a judicious choice of crops, the appropriate fertilizers but also have a good technical route which will guide him to optimal production. This is why the PIA provides information on the crop (varieties, varietal characteristics, local names, performance, resistance to various stresses), fertilizer (nutrient recommendation, the right fertilizer, the right dose, the right period and the best location, and organic fertilizer), crop management (tillage, water management, weed management, crop residue management, management of organic manure, and organo-mineral amendments), and the locality (regional ZAE, country ZAE, localities, and much other information)
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Agricultural Inputs