Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in Niger: A Key to Environmental Stability, Agricultural Intensification, and Diversification

A study to assess the extent of farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR) and its impacts on agriculture and people’s well-being as well as to determine what motivated farmers to practice natural regeneration at a larger scale was conducted in the southeastern part of Niger (Zinder). Farmer managed natural regeneration is so called when farmers deliberately and actively protect and manage sprouts and germinating plants in their fields in order to recreate tree vegetation. Most of the tree species are of economic value. This practice differs from tree plantation (for village woodlots, windbreaks, etc.) or management of natural stands in the forest outside farmer’s fields. FMNR in Zinder could reach 1 million ha, with high dominance of gao (Faidherbia albida) and baobab (Adansonia digitata). Natural forests have almost disappeared. The farmers interviewed said that ecological crisis which occurred during the 1970s and 1980s motivated them to protect and manage more systematically and massively young trees than they did in the past. Other policy aspects went in favor of this farmer’s innovation. The high pressure on natural resources has also motivated farmers toward agricultural intensification. The systematic protection of young F. albida has contributed to the creation of agroforestry parklands which help to maintain or improve soil fertility. This helps agricultural intensification and diversification in many villages. Despite this favorable evolution, some villages still have young parklands with little effect on soil fertility. These village territories are in the transitional phase of intensification. The production systems are being complex with a better integration of crop–livestock and trees. Despite the fact that the macroeconomic and macropolitic conditions in Niger were less favorable between 1985 and 2000, farmers have spontaneously continued to intensify the production system and at the same time improve their environment.