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Agriculture in semi-arid Burkina Faso is dominated by mixed crop-livestock smallholder farms with limited investment capacity in production factors, such as improved seeds, fertilizer and equipment. Hence, to make a living, farmers try to make the best use of available resources based on principles of agro-ecology, including crop diversity and nutrient and biomass recycling. We investigated farm-level management of resources (soil, crops and livestock) through time to assess whether the current management options were able to sustain crop and livestock production and fulfil household food requirements. We ran a one-year detailed farm monitoring campaign in collaboration with 22 volunteer farmers representing the diversity of the farming system in our study area. We quantified inputs and outputs in the cropping system (177 fields) for one rainy season. In addition, the weekly dynamics of crop residues left on field were quantified. Moreover, inflow and outflow of resources at farm level were quantified weekly. The cropping system was characterized by a negative nitrogen balance of about 12 kg N/ha/year, with market-oriented farms and large livestock owners having the most negative balance. Legumes grown (sole and intercropping) contributed to alleviate the nitrogen depletion by adding 15 kg N/ha/year to the nitrogen inputs through atmospheric fixation. However, cereal-legume intercropping did not significantly reduce the nitrogen deficit in comparison to sole cereal cropping mainly because of the small proportion of legumes (8%) in intercropped fields. Livestock grazed crop residues left on the soil (739 kg dry matter/ha on average) at a rate of 26 − 76 kg/ha/week, thus strongly reducing the potential for mulching in the region. Livestock protein requirements were rarely met from farm-produced feed with average feed gaps ranging between 40% and 89% of the daily requirements for small and large herd keepers respectively. Large livestock (cattle) owners relied on trans

Crop yields in sub-Saharan Africa need to increase to keep pace with food demands from the burgeoning population. Smallholder farmers play an important role in national food self-sufficiency, yet many live in poverty. Investing in inputs to increase yields is therefore often not viable for them. To investigate how to unlock this paradox, whole-farm experiments can reveal which incentives could increase farm production while also increasing household income. In this study we investigated the impact of providing farmers with a US$ 100 input voucher each season, for five seasons in a row, on maize yields and overall farm-level production in two contrasting locations in terms of population density, Vihiga and Busia, in western Kenya. We compared the value of farmers’ produce with the poverty line and the living income threshold. Crop yields were mainly limited by cash constraints and not by technological constraints as maize yield immediately increased from 16% to 40–50% of the water-limited yield with the provision of the voucher. In Vihiga, at best, one-third of the participating households reached the poverty line. In Busia half of the households reached the poverty line and one-third obtained a living income. This difference between locations was caused by larger farm areas in Busia. Although one third of the households increased the area farmed, mostly by renting land, this was not enough for them to obtain a living income. Our results provide empirical evidence of how a current smallholder farming system could improve its productivity and value of produce upon the introduction of an input voucher. We conclude that increasing yields of the currently most common crops cannot provide a living income for all households and additional institutional changes, such as alternative employment, are required to provide smallholder farmers a way out of poverty.

Purpose To support the sustainable development of smallholder farms, bridging the gap between generic scientific knowledge and local knowledge relevant to farmers' socio-ecological niches represents a challenge for advisory services. We explore two approaches supporting farmers in the tailoring of technical options to their own farm systems. Design/Methodology/Approach We present two case studies in which farmers are supported in the adaptation of sustainable cropping practices and describe the mechanisms at play for the tailoring of technical options using the concept of tailoring effort. Findings In the case of Farmer Field Schools (FFS), the tailoring occurs during discussions with the farmers, when the facilitator contextualizes technical options to suit farmers' expressed priorities and constraints. Each farmer can then choose what is relevant to their situation. In the case of crop models (CM), the tailoring happens when researchers parametrize the model as closely as possible to farmers' environments and practices, and then use simulation results in discussions with farmers. Practical implications Possible complementarity between FFS and CM could be explored for advisory services. Advisors need to acquire the skills for collaboration with farmers and facilitation approaches that support the tailoring of generic knowledge to farmers' priorities and constraints. Theoretical implications We highlight the importance of considering what is required from the different stakeholders to make the tailoring process to a socio-ecological niche effective, when supporting farmers in transition towards sustainable agricultural systems.

Despite many years of establishment of exclosures in the semi-arid environments of north Ethiopia for rehabilitation of degraded areas, its effectiveness is constrained by water deficit. There is lack of empirical data on the response of vegetation to additional water (spate irrigation) application. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of spate irrigation using storm runoff on the growth of trees in exclosures. Two exclosures (May Ba'ati and Adi Kolakol), in Dogu'a Temben district, Tigray, north Ethiopia, were used for this study. Each exclosure was divided in two blocks (irrigated and non-irrigated) to allow comparison of change of vegetation using several diversity indices as well as contrasts in tree ring widths. The amount of spate irrigation water diverted onto the exclosures (762 mm) was in the same order of magnitude as the direct rainfall on the sites (645 mm). The results show that the irrigated exclosures have larger species richness, Shannon–Weaver diversity index, tree density, abundance, evenness and basal area than the non-irrigated areas. Following low rainfall (353 mm) in 2015, these indices decreased in the non-irrigated area, whereas most indices remained much higher in the irrigated area. The findings indicate that diverting runoff to exclosures results in an average 15% increase in ring width as compared to non-irrigated trees. In addition, there is strong abstraction of storm runoff in gullies in the study area. Besides the promotion of forestry in washout semi-arid areas of existing spate irrigation systems, we suggest to apply spate irrigation to exclosures in order to improve their productivity.

Smallholder farming systems face many adversities including poor soil fertility, poor access to inputs, and high dependence on climate variability. On top of that, ongoing climate change is expected to exacerbate the effect of abiotic and abiotic stresses on farm performances, and poses additional challenges of adaptation to climate change. This chapter presents the effect of climate change on the different components of the farming systems (crop, livestock, grassland and tree), in the context of low-input systems. After this account, we argue on the need to have a more integrative approach to assess the effect of climate change on farming systems as a whole. We expose different approaches: coupling of models, use of optimization model. We finally highlight the importance of involving farmers in the process of using models to co-design relevant adaptations to climate change in the context of low input systems.

Smallholder farming systems are vulnerable to disruptions. The COVID-19 pandemic weakened the financial ability of the Malian government in the 2020–21 growing season to subsidize cotton farmers’ access to mineral fertilizers and the cotton company (CMDT) could not offer a good cotton price. Consequently, farmers refused to grow cotton, leading to a cotton crisis with implications on crop production and farmers’ livelihoods. We used data collected over three consecutive growing seasons in the old cotton basin of Koutiala and analysed them using two-way mixed ANOVA over selected indicators related to farm and household components. The analysis was done for farms of different resource endowment, through comparing the cotton crisis season to the two previous normal seasons. Besides the abandonment of cotton, the total cropped area and area devoted to maize reduced in 2020–21, while the area allocated to millet, sorghum and cowpea increased, especially for cotton farmers with medium and high resource endowments. In addition, the nitrogen use intensity dropped at the farm level and particularly for the cereal crops, but without negative effect on yields of maize, millet and sorghum. Food self-sufficiency and income per capita significantly increased for the medium resource farms, while income dropped for the high resource farms with large herds. The farming system was able to absorb the shock of limited access to fertilizer for one season, due to the elimination of otherwise strong labour competition between cotton and cereal crops, favourable weather conditions and farmers’ responsive coping with the cotton crisis. This study revealed the importance of disaggregated livelihood evaluations, because resource endowments have implications not only for the actual effect on livelihoods, but also for farmers’ adaptive capacity.

Farm households in Burkina Faso face many challenges including poor soil fertility, climate variation and land constraint due to migrants arrived from the North of the country. Low soil fertility prevents farmers from achieving food self-sufficiency and food security. The present study aims at co-designing and testing in a participatory setting, sorghum-based cropping systems to improve soil fertility and yield as soil infertility was mentioned by farmers as their main constraint. Researchers and farmers suggested three rotations which were tested in on-station trials in two contrasted communities. The experiment was designed following a fisher block with four repetitions. In the first year, cowpea, mucuna and crotalaria were grown in sole crop system. In Tanvousse, all the plots received organic manure 2.5t/ha and in Nagreonkoudogo all the plots received NPK, 75kg/ha with localized application. Cowpea and mucuna biomass were harvested but crotalaria biomass was left in the plot. For the second year, sorghum was grown in all plots with the same conditions of fertilization, therefore, we had sorghum preceded by cowpea (T1), sorghum preceded by mucuna (T2), sorghum preceded by crotalaria (T3). During the growing season, two participatory evaluations were conducted. Results showed that T1, T2 and T3 produced respectively 900 kg/ha, 900 kg/ha and 800kg/ha of sorghum grains in Tanvousse and 2100 kg/ha, 1900 kg/ha, and 2100 kg/ha in Nagreonkoudogo. Striga impact was recorded because farmers consider it as fertility indicator. For striga impact in “striga/100 sorghum plants”, T1, T2 and T3 got respectively 72, 140, 55 in Tanvousse and 180, 60, 65 in Nagreonkoudogo. At the flowering stage, farmers first choice was T2 in Tanvousse and T1 in Nagreonkoudogo. At the maturity of sorghum, farmers first choice was T1 in both communities which also got the highest yield in both communities. Farmers opinion seems to be context dependent.