Livelihoods Zoning “Plus” Activity in Niger
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LIVELIHOODS ZONING “PLUS” ACTIVITY IN NIGER A SPECIAL REPORT BY THE FAMINE EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS NETWORK (FEWS NET) August 2011 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................. 4 National Livelihoods Zones Map ................................................................................................................... 6 Livelihoods Highlights ................................................................................................................................... 7 National Seasonal Calendar .......................................................................................................................... 9 Rural Livelihood Zones Descriptions ........................................................................................................... 11 Zone 1: Northeast Oases: Dates, Salt and Trade ................................................................................... 11 Zone 2: Aïr Massif Irrigated Gardening ................................................................................................ 14 Zone 3 : Transhumant and Nomad Pastoralism .................................................................................... 17 Zone 4: Agropastoral Belt ...................................................................................................................... 20 Zone 5 : Rainfed Millet and Sorghum Belt ............................................................................................. 23 Zone 6: Cropping/Herding with High Work Outmigration .................................................................... 26 Zone 7: Southern Irrigated Cash Crops .................................................................................................. 29 Zone 8: Southwestern Cereals with Fan-Palm Products ....................................................................... 32 Zone 9: Niger River Irrigated Rice .......................................................................................................... 35 Zone 10: Dallols – Seasonal Water-course Irrigated Crops .................................................................. 38 Zone 11: Southeastern Natron Salt and Small-Basin Irrigated Dates .................................................... 41 Zone 12: Komadougou Irrigated Peppers .............................................................................................. 44 Zone 13: Lake Chad Flood-retreat Cultivation with Fishing .................................................................. 47 Annex I: Administrative Areas by Livelihood Zone ..................................................................................... 50 1 Acknowledgments This work was done by Famine Early Warning Systems Network in collaboration with its partners Government of Niger: The Agriculture General and Regional Directorate of Ministries of Agriculture and Livestock, the Early Warning System, Information Communication Unit, WFP, FAO, Oxfam, National Institute of Statistics. The profiles were produced as a knowledge base for FEWS NET’s Food Insecurity Monitoring activities in the country. This report was prepared by Julius Holt and Rachel Cipryk of FEG Consulting. The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. 2 Introduction The present exercise was a revision of the national livelihoods zoning originally created by FEWS NET and partners in 2003/2004. The intention was to see a) whether some zones needed to be split, or new ones added; b) whether the boundaries of retained zones needed to be modified; and c) to update zone descriptions. Livelihood zoning offers a form of economic geography adapted to food security analysis. Administrative divisions may sometimes reflect natural features, with rivers or mountains as boundaries, but they have not usually been developed to reflect local economies. Livelihood zones therefore may cross administrative boundaries. At the same time, for early warning, as for most other purposes, populations also need to be identified in relation to administrative units: therefore administrative boundaries are always clearly laid over the zones in any livelihoods map. As of 2011, Niger has a total population of approximately 16 million people of who upwards of 14 million live in rural areas. The rural population includes crop farmers and herders, and the degree to which they rely on the one or the other activity is highly determined by the amount of annual rainfall received, and the inter-annual rainfall variability, which increases the farther north one goes. This therefore fundamentally shapes the livelihoods map, although other considerations also impinge: soil conditions, proximity to main market centers and cross-border trade, and special local resources such as salt deposits. From north to south of the country, the variation in the mean annual precipitation is great, ranging from 50 mm or less in northern desert areas to around 800 mm at the southernmost tip of the country. Rainfall dictates the limits of pastures before true desert takes over (the zone of pastoralism), the limits of crop cultivation before pastures take over (the agropastoral zone), and in the main rainfed cultivation zone the relative emphasis on different types of crops (notably between millet and sorghum). However, to a surprising degree another moisture factor plays a role in differentiating areas: groundwater. It is this that distinguishes eight of the thirteen livelihood zones identified for Niger, amongst them three new zones, admittedly together containing only a minority of the country’s rural population. The relevance to food security is that serious losses of harvest are caused not only by an absolute shortage of rain but by the failure of showers at critical stages in the crop growing cycle, especially germination and flowering. Access to groundwater for total irrigation or simply to enhance rainfed growth protects farmers against such rainfall irregularities. There are several types of groundwater. In the north-west desert there is a string of oases that support date-palm plantations and gardens. At the extreme south-east of the country is Lake Chad, and here cultivation is done using the residual soil moisture as the annual ‘flood’ or rise of the lake recedes after the general region’s rainy season (‘flood-retreat cultivation’). A little to the west there is irrigation from the Komadougou river that runs along the frontier with Nigeria and into the lake. A little further west again, on a semi-arid plain of bush and grass there is a quite different source of groundwater for irrigation: small depressions or basins – ‘cuvettes’ – into which an aquifer releases water – somewhat like an oasis. Still further along the frontier, in the centre-south of the country, there are major stretches of lower-lying land sitting on a near-surface water table which allows extensive irrigation. Far to the north, rising above the desert, is the Aïr Massif with its own rainfed water-table from which water is drawn through wells to irrigate garden crops and small fields of wheat. To the south-west of the Massif an ancient drainage area gave rise to tributaries to the Niger river long since dried; but these are now rainy-season water-courses (‘dallols’ is the local term) that retain sufficient water to allow irrigation along a total of some hundreds of kilometers down to the south-western tip of the country. Finally there is the Niger river itself on which a series of irrigation schemes have been developed for rice cultivation, from north to south along its course through the far west of the country. 3 Methodology The revision of the Niger national livelihoods zones map was carried out in a four-day workshop in Niamey April 4-8, 2011 with participants from government and agency partners. This Livelihoods Zoning “Plus” product was created with reference to a rapid livelihoods assessment approach that aims to identify and describe trends and patterns in livelihoods that can be used as a starting point for early warning analysis. It is based on the Household Economy Analysis (HEA) methodology that FEWS NET uses as a foundation for its livelihoods activities. Representatives from each region, together with national-level officers, together and in working groups revised and further delineate the livelihood zones on the national map, i.e. areas with similar livelihoods activities, agro-ecology, and access to markets. Description formats of each livelihood zone were then filled by the participants, identifying the key characteristics of livelihoods found in each zone, as well as the Seasonal Calendar. These have been made into the livelihood zone description summaries in this report (below). For more details on the Household Economy Analysis and principles, please visit the livelihoods section on www.fews.net or download the paper ‘Application of the Livelihood Zone Maps and Profiles for Food Security Analysis and Early Warning’. Modifications to the original livelihoods zone boundaries Livelihood zone 1 – Northeast Oases: Dates, Salt and Trade: boundaries reshaped to reflect the position of oases. Livelihood zone 2 –Aïr Massif Irrigated Gardening: shape extended