1. Case Study 4: Senegal Adaptation and Mitigation Through "Produced Environments": The Case for Agriculture Intensification in Senegal.
- Author
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Seck, Moussa, Mamouda, Moussa Na Abou, and Wade, Salimata
- Subjects
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DROUGHTS , *CLIMATE change , *AGRICULTURE - Abstract
The Senegal case study looks at one example of how adaptation and mitigation can be usefully combined in a way which enhances incomes and diversifies livelihoods of the poor, while also securing benefits for biodiversity, gender equality and carbon sequestration. The case study describes how a pilot farm in Niayes, Senegal, launched in the 1970s, has evolved over time to address significant variations in climate change. The Sébikotane programme has had to adapt to successive droughts, a drying climate and a growing population increasingly gravitating to urban centres. Planting dense perennial hedges that act as windbreakers helps to generate an agriculturally conducive microclimate. Traditional predominantly rain-fed forms of agriculture have been replaced by irrigation-based commercial crops. The windbreakers fight wind-related soil erosion and desiccation of crops, which had not previously been addressed. They also provide valuable fuelwood for cooking, lessening the burden on girls and women to collect wood. The use of windbreaks to "produce the environment" has led to increased production of fruit and vegetables for commercial sale in domestic and high-value export markets as well as demonstrated carbon sequestration benefits. It also provides employment for young people and has helped train a new generation of farmers. The innovations and adaptation practises used in Sébikotane have been taken up nationally and supported internationally as being relevant to other sub-Saharan countries, as they illustrate an innovative, integrated way of managing the environment to provide adaptation and mitigation benefits locally as well as globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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