Wetenschappelijk Artikel

UNIVERSITEIT GENT

FACULTEIT POLITIEKE EN SOCIALE WETENSCHAPPEN

Identification and quantification of the obstacles for the adoption of in situ small sale water harvesting techniques on degraded lands in Torodi, Tillabéri Region, Niger.

Wetenschappelijk artikel

aantal woorden: 8194

Emma Timmerman

MASTERPROEF MANAMA CONFLICT AND DEVELOPMENT

PROMOTOR: Prof. Ir. Bernard Mazijn (UGent) Dr. Germaine Ibro (INRAN)

COMMISSARIS: Sylvie Janssens

ACADEMIEJAAR 2011 - 2012

Ten geleide

In het kader van mijn masterproef voor de Manama Conflict & Development verbleef ik van begin juli tot eind oktober 2011 in Niger. Daar deed ik onderzoek naar de mogelijke obstakels voor de adoptie van waterconserveringstechnieken (Water and Soil Conservation techniques; WSC) in de streek rond

Torodi, in de Tillaberi Regio.

Het onderzoek kadert in een ruimere samenwerking tussen het departement bodembeheer van de

Universiteit Gent (faculteit bio-ingenieurswetenschappen) en het INRAN (Institut National de la

Recherche Agronomique du Niger). Naast de steun van professor Mazijn, kon ik voor mijn masterproef dan ook rekenen op die van Jasmien Wildemeersch, een doctoraatstudente bodembeheer met als doctoraatsonderwerp waterconserveringstechnieken in Niger, en Dr. G. Ibro, mijn lokale promotor en socio-econome bij het INRAN-departement natural resource management .

Als voorbereiding, ging het het onderzoek van start met een uitgebreide literatuurstudie en een reeks informele gesprekken omtrent WSC technieken. Om praktisch beter te kunnen inschatten waar deze technieken voor dienen en hoe deze geïmplementeerd worden, werd naast een theoretische voorbereiding ook enkele malen geassisteerd bij veldwerk op een proefveld rond WSC te Sadoré,

Tillaberí (50 km ten zuiden van Niamey). Bovendien werden enkele boeren opgezocht die een dergelijk techniek reeds uitvoeren (nabij Kouré, Kollo). Op basis van de verzamelde informatie, werd een lijst van hypotheses opgesteld over de mogelijke obstakels voor boeren om WSC technieken te adopteren. Deze werd vervolgens voorgelegd aan 7 key-informants die hierover werden bevraagd aan de hand van diepte-interviews, waarna de finale, verbeterde hypotheses opgesteld werden.

Op basis van deze finale hypotheses kon een gestandaardiseerde vragenlijst opgesteld worden met open, half-open en gesloten vragen. Deze vragenlijst werd getest in Sadoré- dorp en geoptimaliseerd om een finale versie te bekomen. Ook een vragenlijst voor de chefs du village werd opgesteld, met open, half-open en gesloten vragen. Het INRAN wees de regio rond Torodi aan als geschikte locatie voor het onderzoek en de survey. Met de hulp van lokale instellingen werden vervolgens 3 representatieve dorpen geselecteerd (Nikoye, Panoma & Bogoudjotou) waar de vragenlijst zou afgenomen worden. Het betreft 3 dorpen rond Torodi (65 km ten westen van Niamey) waar WSC

technieken nog geen algemene ingang gevonden hebben. Op basis van het bevolingsregister werden

100 gezinshoofden (van de 257 gezinshoofden) ad random geselecteerd, proportioneel over de bevolging van de 3 dorpen. Tussen 3 en 25 oktober werden uiteindelijk 98 gezinshoofden en 3 chefs du village geïnterviewd. Het verblijf was ter plekke, in het gezelschap van een chauffeur en een tolk, die vertaalde van Frans naar Zerma (lokale taal).

De vragenlijsten werden bij terugkomst in België verwerkt met behulp van SPSS. Een onderzoeksrapport werd op vraag van professor Mazijn opgesteld waarin de methodologie en de resultaten werden beschreven en alle gebruikte vragenlijsten werden gebundeld.

Dat onderzoeksrapport vormde uiteindelijk de basis voor het schrijven van dit thesisartikel.

Abstract

Miljoenen Nigerese boeren worden jaarlijks geconfronteerd met voedseltekorten, die grotendeels veroorzaakt worden door ernstige bodemdegradatie van het landbouwoppervlak dat voor 95% toebehoord aan zelfvoorziende boeren, die voor hun voedselproductie afhankelijk zijn van neerslagafhankelijke landbouw. Het investeren in Water en Soil Conservation (WSC) technieken is daarom een van de beste langetermijnoplossingen om zich te wapenen tegen voedselonzekerheid.

Hoewel wereldwijd verschillende pogingen werden ondernomen om WSC technieken te promoten bij boeren, is hun adoptie niet wijdverspreid. Een contextspecifieke aanpak is uitermate belangrijk in het onderzoek naar de obstakels die de adoptie van WSC technieken tegenhouden, aangezien boeren over grenzen en regio s heen in verschillende ecologische, landbouwkundige en socio-economische condities leven. Om de specifieke beperkingen voor de adoptie van WSC technieken in Torodi,

Tillabéri Region te bepalen, werd een gestandaardiseerde vragenlijst afgenomen bij een steekproef van

98 gezinshoofden. Deze paper biedt nieuwe inzichten over de mogelijke obstakels voor de adoptie van zaï en demi-lunes, de meestbelovende lokale technieken in deze regio. De resultaten tonen aan dat respondenten een gebrek hebben aan een grondige kennis van zowel erosie als van de technieken zelf, wat meteen een fundamenteel obstakel is voor de adoptie van de technieken. De langdurige aanwezigheid van een project heeft echter een positieve invloed op deze kennis en het verhoogt het bovendien het percentage van boeren die de technieken permanent uitvoeren. De meeste boeren beschikken verder slechts over weinig materiële middelen, het gebrek aan landbouwwerktuigen, transportmiddelen en mest vormt dan ook een obstakel voor adoptie. Een langetermijnstrategie zal nodig zijn opdat boeren WSC technieken adopteren, deze strategie moet voorzien in educatie rond erosie en nutriëntenbeheer, in een leensysteem voor landbouwwerktuigen en in het stimuleren van actieve participatie van boeren.

Abstract

Millions of Nigerien farmers are confronted yearly with food shortages of which the severe soil degradation is a major cause. 95 % of the agricultural land belongs, however, to subsistence farmers who completely rely on rain-fed agriculture for their food production. Investing in water and soil conservation (WSC) techniques is one of the best long term solutions to build resilience to this threatening food insecurity, but although worldwide several efforts have been made to promote (WSC) techniques to the farming population, their adoption has not been widespread. A context-specific approach to determine the obstacles for WSC adoption is of paramount importance since farmers across borders and regions live in different environmental, agricultural and socio-economical conditions. To assess the specific constraints for the adoption of WSC techniques in Torodi, Tillabéri

Region, a survey questionnaire was carried out with a sample of 98 household heads. This paper gives new insight on the plausible constraints for the adoption of zaï and demi-lunes, the locally most promising techniques in this region. The results indicate that farmers lack a profound knowledge of both erosion perception and techniques, which are both basic obstacles for farmers to adopt the techniques. A long-term project presence has a positive influence on this knowledge and it also increases the percentage of permanent adopters. As most farmers are moreover resource-constrained, agricultural equipment, means of transport and manure also prevent the implementation of the techniques. A long-term approach will be necessary to promote the adoption of WSC techniques through the provision of education on erosion and nutrient management, through the set up of a loan system for agricultural tools and through stimulating active participation among farmers.

1 Introduction 95 % of the agricultural land in Niger belongs to subsistence farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture for their food production. Oxfam (2012 ) reports that more than 6 million of these famers are currently food insecure, of which 2 million are at severe risk. According to Oxfam, investing in small scale producers is one of the best long term solutions to build resilience to these famines caused by repetitive cycles of drought and environmental degradation. As a result of population pressure and limited fertile land availability they now increasingly rely on marginal lands for their food production.

These severely degraded lands, however, generally provide a poor millet yield (0.1 - 0.5 ton ha-1 ), resulting in a dramatic decline of food output growth per capita. These poor yields are largely assigned to an increased vulnerability of water scarce regions to drought and desertification which is reframed by Slegers and Stroosnijders (2008) as agricultural drought, consisting of dry spell drought, soil nutrient drought and soil water drought. According to them drought is more related with the inefficient use of rainfall rather than with an absolute deficit of rainfall. Only a very small fraction (< 10 %) of rainfall is used by crops as productive green transpiration water and most is lost as unproductive green evaporation water (30 - 50 %) or blue run off (25 - 50 %) and deep percolation (10 - 30 %) water.

More efficient use of rainwater can be achieved by altering this water-balance in favour of productive water through harvesting runoff water and improving soil water and soil nutrient properties to reduce evaporation and deep percolation (Rockström, 1999). Worldwide, several water and soil conservation techniques (WSC) have been developed that positively modify the partitioning of rainfall to reduce agricultural drought vulnerability (Falkenmark et al., 2001). There is, however, no straight forward solution to reduce agricultural drought vulnerability. It needs area specific solutions, since it is an area specific problem depending on biophysical factors, such as climate conditions and soil properties, local land management characteristics and the socio-economic conditions of the land users.

In Niger, zaï and demi-lunes are the most promising techniques, they are both low tech treatments with locally available materials and low investment costs, which is important for the application by small scale subsistence farmers (Roose et al., 1992) (Figure 1). The zaï is an indigenous

Sahelian technique that consists of digging small pits during the dry season in which manure is added.

The pits act as rainwater catchment area and also trap wind and water - driven soil, leaves and organic particles, which provide the plant together with the added manure a favorable growing medium that improves water retention. The demi-lunes bunds, also known as half-moon shaped bunds, on the other hand are constructed with earth scooped from a basin which in this case forms the rainwater catchment area. The bunds break runoff - water, giving it time to infiltrate into the basin in which manure is mixed with top soil, which is again creating a healthy soil with improved water retention.

Figure 1: The two most promising WSC techniques in Niger, the zaï pit (left) and demi-lunes (right).

Although worldwide several efforts have been made to promote WSC techniques to the farming population, their adoption has not been widespread and the dissemination generally encounters serious difficulties. Historically, the focus of WSC research has therefore shifted from top down, imposed, high tech to low tech indigenous techniques which are often adapted to new technologies or introduced in regions with similar biophysical and socio-economic conditions. These techniques are often interesting in a developing country agriculture context, as their long evolving character implicitly makes them sustainable and their development by farmers inspires confidence in other farmers, which should make them relatively easy to extent (Ouédraogo and Bertelsen, 1997).

Nevertheless, the transfer of such practices between regions still shows adoption constraints, the adoption is absent or occurs slowly or at a very small scale. A number of empirical studies have made an attempt to investigate the factors influencing adoption of WSC techniques in Africa. This mostly concerned comparative studies which compare adopters and non-adopters (Slingerland and Stork,

2000; Anley et al., 2006; Kassie et al., 2010), or researches which try to outline the adoption process

(Tenge et al., 2007; de Graaff et al., 2008) or analyze the profile of farmers who adopt the techniques

(Baidu-Forson, 1999; Sidibé, 2005). They were carried out in all water scarce regions of the continent and on different WSC techniques; Burkina Faso (zaï: [Ouedraogo and Kaboré, 1996; Ouédraogo and

Bertelsen, 1997; Slingerland and Stork, 2000 ]; zaï and stone strip: [Sidibé, 2005 ]), Ethiopia (general

WSC:[Amsalu et al., 2007 ]; fanya juu:[Anley et al., 2007 ]; Minimum tillage: [Kassie et al., 2010 ]),

Kenia (fanya juu [Kiome and Stocking, 1995 ]), Tanzania (ngoro-pits: [Temu and Bisanda, 1996 ]; fanya juu [Tenge et al., 2007 ]), Niger (zaï and demis-lunes: [Baidu-Forson, 1999 ]), and Zimbabwe

(general WSC: [Munamati and Nyagumbo, 2010 ]). These researches all reveal that the indefinite adoption of WSC techniques is a long-term process, which can be obstructed by a spectrum of variables. Although these variables are in each research of different influencing importance and cannot be generalised, de Graaff et al (2008) succeeded in formulating a good and structured overview according to three adoption phases a farmer must go through. A first bottle neck that prevents adoption is related to a farmers perception of erosion (Sidibé, 2005; Tenge et al., 2007). If farmers do not recognize the symptoms of erosion, know its effects or perceive it as serious enough, they will not undertake action (Kiome and Stocking, 1995). A next constraint is the unawareness of adequate measures. Farmers have to be aware of the adequate measures and they have to be willing to adopt

WSC techniques. Finally, if they know them and are willing to adopt, they still have to be able to implement them, which could be obstructed by limited resources. To our knowledge the most reoccurring influencing factors concerning resource availability are on the one hand lack of labour capacity (Oudraogo and Kaboré, 1996; Wedum et al., 1996; Kronen, 1994; Slingerland and Stork,

2000; Anley et al., 2007), manure, fertilizer (Kronen, 1994; Slingerland and Stork, 2000), agricultural equipment and transport means (Wedum et al., 1996; Hassan, 1996; Slingerland and Strok, 2000;

Sidibé, 2005; Munamati and Nyagumbo, 2010) which prove to be adoption constraints and on the other hand high percentages of degraded land (Baidu-Forson, 1999; Anley et al., 2007; Atakilte et al.,

2006; Munamati and Nyagumbo, 2010) and education or training extension (Baidu-Forson, 1999;

Anley et al., 2007) which both positively influence adoption. In Niger, Baidu-Forson (1999) conducted a Tobit analysis case study in Illela in the Tahoua region to determine factors influencing

WSC techniques. Since the Tahoua region is known for its relatively widespread adoption of WSC

techniques, he specifically focused on the identification of these factors that motivate farmers to adopt by comparing characteristics of non adopters and adopters.

These researches remarkably report different factors of influence, which moreover often contradict one another. If a variable has a positive relation with adoption in one case study, it has none or a negative one in other case studies. In fact, there are more contradictions than similarities to be found between different studies (Kessler, 2006). A context-specific approach is thus of paramount importance, not only to analyse or map influencing factors in a certain region but also to promote

WSC techniques through extension programs (Giller et al., 2009). A one - size - fits - all model cannot succeed, since farmers across borders and regions live in different environmental, agricultural and socio-economical conditions (Kassie et al., 2010). Up until now research moreover focuses too much on farmers characteristics and resource availability to explain adoption problems. Given that indigenous WSC practices have a rational basis for implementation, there has been too little attention to farmers erosion perception and technique knowledge. This knowledge is however vital for long term adoption and must exist before the problem of limited resource availability is tackled. Research on variables and processes affecting the adoption of WSC is therefore still one of the biggest challenges to better understand under what settings WSC are viable or necessary options to improve current practices and which topics and factors should be targeted to promote and extend the use of

WSC techniques (Falkenmark et al., 2001).

To address these research gaps, we investigated the constraints for adoption of WSC techniques in the Tillabéri region of Niger in a study framed in an integrated research on WSC structures conducted by INRAN (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger) and Ghent

University. Since permanent adopters of these techniques are scarce in the region, we evaluated a spread of variables that can form an obstacle for adoption. This paper gives new insight on these plausible constraints for adoption of zaï and demi-lunes in the Tillabéri region. It describes the results of a survey, carried out in 3 villages around Torodi, which quantifies the importance and presence of adoption obstacles concerning farmers erosion perception, farmers WSC technique knowledge and the limited availability of resources.

2 Methodology

2.1 Study area

To address the aims of this study, a degradation vulnerable region in the Tillabéri Region was identified. Torodi (13 ° 07 N 1 ° 48 E), which is located in the Say department (232.460 inhabitants, density of 16 people km-² ) of the Tillabéri Region (2.572.125 inhabitants, density of 29 people km-² ), is situated at approximately 55 km west of the national capital Niamey, and approximately 55 km east of the boarder with Burkina Faso (Figure 2). The rural commune Torodi includes several villages and hosts a large weekly market. It is moreover historically inhabited by Zarma, Songhai, Gourmantche and Peul ethnicities, but also Tuareg, Tamajeq, Mossi, Hausa live scattered across the region.

Figure 2: Location of the study area which is situated in the rural commune Torodi in the Say department of Tillabéri region, Niger.

The region is subjected to a sudano-sahelian (BSh1 ) climate with a long, hot dry and a short cropping season (June-October). Rainfall is highly variable in space and time and has an annual average of 550

1 Köppen/Geiger climate classification

mm, whereas potential evaporation amounts to almost 2000 mm per year. The zone is dominated by smallholder farms (< 2 ha), where mainly millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) is cropped with or without cowpea (Vigna Unguiculata (L.) Walp.) or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) as intercrop. A major part of the soils is characterized by severe soil degradation and a dramatic increase of soils facing erosion problems is stated, which is mostly caused by large-scale deforestation. The cutting of trees is in many cases promoted by the government but hardly ever frames in a sustainable management which includes reforestation. After harvesting the wood, these barren lands are generally cultivated with success for one or two years, but quickly degrade, become unproductive and are left fallow, which results in large superficies of marginal land. To date, soil water conservation techniques are not widely known nor practised in the area.

The villages Nikoye, Panoma and Bogoudjotou were selected together with representatives of local institutions2 as representing villages for the survey and are located on higher topographic positions, nearby the ironstone plateaus where erosion potential is highest. In general, two different types of land use units exist in the region around Torodi, fertile sandy soils in the valley and degraded laterite soils locally known as gangani on these higher topographical positions (Boubacar et al.,

2005) Villages located on the lowest positions next to the river, which have more fertile and less degraded soils, did therefore not qualify. Since Nikoye, Panoma and Bogoudjotou are neighbouring communes, all three near Torodi (town and marketplace), bias caused by changing variables with distance was avoided. Another major benefit of selecting these three villages, was the possibility to distinguish between a village with no (Panoma), no more (Nikoye) and permanent (Bogoudjotou; which hosts a long term field experiment of Niamey University) project presence (projects with the aim of promoting WSC techniques).

2.2 Data collection & Data processing

The methods used to collect data for this study included interviews with key informants, a survey questionnaire with farmers and one with the chefs du village . Prior to the fieldwork an elaborate

2 Seido Hama, forestation engineer, responsible for environmental issues in Torodi & Halidoe Moeroe, agricultural responsible, both from a governmental institution

literature study was carried out, followed by interviews with 7 key-informants3 . These key informants provided insight in the specific conditions of the region and all had expert knowledge concerning

WSC techniques. They were selected with a snowball sampling method and interviewed with a semi- structured questionnaire. Based on the information derived from both literature and key informant interviews, a standardized questionnaire with open, half open and closed questions was formulated to investigate and quantify the presence of the obstacles for adoption of WSC techniques in the three selected villages. After the questionnaire was piloted in a village called Sadoré (Say department,

Tillabéri), a field visit was carried out to select the three villages. During this first field visit, permission to carry out the survey was asked to each chef du village , to which it was clearly stated that this study was independent and not linked with any organization, NGO or governmental department. A total of 100 household heads were selected, of which eventually, due to two drop - outs,

98 were interviewed between 3 and 25 October 2011. Household heads were chosen as units of the research population to avoid the selection of family members working on the same farmland. They were selected proportionately and randomly from the 3 selected villages; 44 out of 112 household heads in Nikoye, 23 out of 60 in Panoma and 33 out of 85 household heads in Bogoudjotou. One interpreter was trained to translate the questionnaire from French to Zarma, the local language. The 3 chefs du village were interviewed with a distinct questionnaire with open, half open and closed questions. The collected data were processed and analysed with Statistical Package for Social

Scientists (SPSS) version 19. Analyses carried out involved descriptive statistics including frequencies, graphs, cross tabulations and chi-squared tests.

3 Aboulaye Soumaila (WOCAT), Dr. Sabiou (INRAN), Dr. Dougbedji Fatondji (ICRISAT), Moustapha Amadou (ICRISAT), Souleymane Adamou (ICRISAT), Navid Dejwakh (ICRISAT), Mousa Boureima (INRAN).

3 Results and discussion

3.1 Household characterization & agricultural context

The average age of the household heads is 49.8 of which the oldest and youngest respondents respectively are 90 and 16 years old. Households moreover averagely count 8.5 persons (min. 2 and max. 26 persons) with an average number of 7.5 children (min. 0 and max. 22 children) and 1.3 wives

(min. 0 and max. 4 wives). The level of education is very low in the research population, as the majority of the respondents (59 %) do not have any form of education. Only few completed primary education, took literacy training or went to the Quran school. The inhabitants of the selected villages are multi-ethnic, which is reflected in the survey, with 5 % Zarma, 28 % Peul, 19 % Songhai, 17 %

Mossi, 14 % Tamajeq, 1 % Hausa, 5 % Gourmantche and 11 % Tuareg.

The respondents averagely own 2 large parcels (of about 1 ha) plus a small (of about 0.25 ha) or medium size parcel (of about 0.5 ha), of which the majority (67 %) are located nearby the family house. Generally, those fields which are nearest to the houses have a healthier nutrient status than those further away, as they receive household waste and are fertilized with manure from the livestock that is kept near the house (Singerland and Stork, 2000). Fertile land is, however, scarce, mainly due to an immense population growth and ongoing severe land degradation. Table 1 shows that 72 % of the respondents do not have enough fertile land and only 17 % can extend their cultural activities with fertile land. Since agricultural land is mostly obtained through inheritance, a farmers possibility to extend cultivable area with fertile land in the future is minimal. As families are rapidly growing in

Niger and a farmer generally has numerous sons, the available surface of land per household head declines every generation. In this way, land becomes a key constraint for food production. This could, according to Scoones et al. (1996), encourage the investment in WCS techniques, as conserving and rehabilitating natural resources will increase fertile land availability.

Table 1 Farmers' accessibility to fertile land in percentage of farmers (%). Yes No Enough fertile land 28 72 Possibility to extend fertile land 17 83

Besides suffering from land shortage, the region also suffers from a striking situation of food insecurity, as 96 % of the household heads do not produce enough food during the growing season for themselves and their families for the whole year. Food insecurity is moreover an increasing problem,

44 % of all respondents declare that they used to have a harvest surplus, but that they are increasingly confronted with food shortages in the recent years. Most families try to compensate these shortcomings by buying food, but 35 % do not have the financial capacity, which means they yearly cope with these food shortages. As such, the majority of the farmers do not have a harvest surplus, if they would have one, however, more than 40 % would sell it, which demonstrates that there is a potential for a market to cope with harvest surpluses. Absence of market accessibility, which could be a constraint for adoption, is thus not an issue in this case, since the three villages have relatively easy access to the weekly market in Torodi (Anley et al., 2007). Farmers are nevertheless not really market orientated, as almost a quarter of the farmers would give their harvest surplus away to families with food shortages and 34 % would just keep it for their own consumption. This proofs the solidarity mechanisms existing in the region and reveals that investing (a.o. in WSC), which market oriented farmers tend to do more, is not always a priority (de Graaff et al., 2008).

As observed from the survey, the respondents only count 14 adopters, the use of WSC techniques is not widespread in the region. Farmers characteristics have, however, no direct influence on this poor level of adoption. Although several studies discovered a relationship between a farmers age (whether negative (Anley et al., 2007) or positive (de Graaff et al., 2008)), no such relationship is found in this research, which is in accordance with the results found by Baidu-Forson (1999) in Illela in the Tahoua region. Not unexpectedly, a significant relationship between formal education and the adoption of WSC techniques is also absent. Even though Anley et al. (2007) discovered such a link, in our case there is no great variance in education level among the respondents, who mostly did not have any form of formal education or did not surpass primary level. Also Slingerland and Stork (2000) report the insignificance of formal education for adoption, whereas specified extension education, which will be discussed further on, will influence adoption to a bigger extent.

3.2 Farmers perception on ersoion

Awareness of erosion, its effects and its causes can positively influence the adoption of WSC techniques and they can be seen as three different necessary steps in the adoption process (de Graaff et al., 2008). Hence, profoundly assessing a farmers knowledge of these three components is very important, for they will not adopt WSC techniques to rehabilitate the soil if they only have a vague notion of erosion. If they are, on the other hand, firstly aware that degraded land can become fertile and vice versa, they can start grasping the use and utility of these techniques. If they are secondly, acquainted with the effects of erosion, they will be further triggered to adopt WSC techniques to try to interfere and stop these effects and they will finally adopt even more easily if they also understand why and how these techniques interact with erosion and thus also now its causes.

Table 2 shows that there are no respondents who have absolutely no awareness of erosion and that most have a slight (31 %) or a good awareness (50 %), while only few have a perfect (14 %) awareness of erosion. This means that most farmers have some sort of notion of the reversibility of a soils fertility condition and that most know that the laterite or gangani soils were fertile before degradation. They have on the other hand overall less knowledge of erosions effects. Most farmers

(51 %) only have little knowledge of the effects of erosion and only make the link with a decline in soil fertility and yield, while those with a mediocre knowledge (39 %) are aware that erosion also influences water availability in a way, but only a few farmers link erosion with reduced water retention or infiltration and fully understand the effects for soil fertility and soil water household capacity. Knowledge of the causes of erosion is more variable within the population, but is not very high either. Some of the respondents do not even have any awareness what so ever of the causes of erosion and those who have a slight awareness (27 %) only point to overpopulation or deforestation as causes. 31 % of the respondents do on the other hand make either the link with wind, water or with the removal of soil particles and 21 % mention two of the previous causes. Only a very small percentage

(6 %) of the respondents clearly understand which processes cause erosion and sum up all causing factors. It should be emphasized that only a handful of the household heads scores with perfect awareness on two categories and that none of them scores with perfect awareness on the three

categories. Farmers will not prioritize land degradation as a major problem, as a result of this lack of knowledge of erosion, which is an important obstacle for the adoption of WSC techniques, in that sense that farmers will never adopt them to combating degradation. They are thus not aware of the beneficiary effects of these techniques next to yield and will only adopt them in the frame of aiming at a higher yield production.

Table 2: Awareness level of farmers of erosion, its causes and effects in percentage of farmers (%) per level. knowledge of Awareness level no slight mediocre good perfect erosion concept 0 31 5 50 14 erosion effects 0 51 39 6 4 erosion causes 15 27 31 21 6

There are, nonetheless, some factors that can influence or explain this lack of knowledge of erosion.

Since erosion problems develop gradually, migrated inhabitants may not link certain problems to its effects and causes, as they have not cultivated fields at a fixed location long enough to notice the transformations related with soil degradation. We therefore determined the effect of migration into the region by comparing the erosion awareness of migrated and native population. Graph 1 clearly shows that the migrated population, which in total entails 20 % of the respondents, indeed scores worse than the native population concerning knowledge of the erosion phenomenon and its effects and causes.

Native population Erosion awareness Adopters Migrated population Non-adopters ) %

( 60 60 s r e m r a

f 40 40 f o e g a t 20 n 20 e c r e P 0 0 t t e e d d t t c c o o r r o o h h e e c c n n f f o o g g o o i i r r i g i g l l e e s s d d p p e e m m Erosion effects awareness ) %

( 60 60 s r e m r a

f 40 40 f o e g a t

n 20 20 e c r e P 0 0 t t e e d d t t c c o o r r o o h h e e c c n n f f o o g g o o i i r r i i g g l l e e s s d d p p e e m m Erosion causes awareness ) %

( 60 60 s r e m r a

f 40 40 f o e g a t 20 20 n e c r e P 0 0 t t e e d d t t c c o o r r o o h h e e c c n n f f o o g g o o i i r r i g i g l l e e s s d d p p e e m m Awareness level Awareness level ,

Graph 1: Awareness level of erosion, its effects and causes considering native and migrated population (left) and adopters and non-adopters (right). Percentage (%) of farmers per level is shown.

Another important factor to take into account is the inter-changeability of climate and erosion perception, as some of the effects of climate change and erosion are often mixed up by farmers. As such they do not recognize the symptoms of erosion because they are masked by climatic fluctuations.

It is for farmers difficult to distinguish agricultural drought, caused by degradation, from meteorological drought, caused by declining rainfall, when they both result in a lack of water availability for the plant (Slegers and Stroosnijder, 2008). All respondents have the perception that

climate changes, they declare that it is becoming both warmer and dryer. They often assume that this perceived drought is a result of meteorological drought and that this is the cause of their poor yield.

Slegers and Stoosnijder (2008), however, affirm that there is no evidence that the amount of rainfall has decreased or that dry spells have increased in length and/or frequency in most water scarce regions. Farmers thus wrongly perceive dry spells caused by climate changes as the limiting factor for reaching higher production, while it is rather caused by agricultural drought, resulting in reduced soil water holding and infiltration capacity due to degradation. If farmers would, on the other hand, link the drought they are aware of with soil degradation rather than with climate change, they would most likely adopt WSC techniques easier. Adopters of the WSC techniques do show, however, an overall higher awareness of the erosion concept and its processes (Graph 1).

3.3 Investment costs

Labour capacity

Both zaï and demi-lunes are labour-intensive techniques but the prerequisite level of labour that needs to be invested does not surpass a farmers labour capacity. Slingerland and Stork (2000) calculated that the labour input for zaï in Burkina Faso was on average 855.3 man - hours per household, included digging the pits, gathering the compost, transporting the compost and spreading compost in the pits

(although these numbers apply to Burkina Faso, similar numbers are expected for Niger). For the digging of the pits specifically they calculated 306 man-hours on average, which means that farmers have to dispose of time and labour force themselves or have money or additional labour force to be able to complete the preparations. Although the respondents have secondary activities or migrate during the dry season (Table 3), labour capacity does not form an obstacle.

Table 3: Percentage of farmers (%) performing secondary activities next to farming. Secondary activity No 27 Wood harvest 30 Herding 24 Trade 9 Fishing 5 Gardening 5

Migrating is a common practice because it often provides some income, but it does not prevent extra labour availability, as it are mostly the children (38 %) and not the household heads (28 %) that migrate. The majority of the household heads (86 %) can moreover still execute more farm labour during the dry season (a high number when taking into account that 23 of the respondents are 65 +) or can compensate individual shortage of labour force with additional help. 89 % of the respondents declare to have easy access to additional labour force and they can averagely count on 4.5 persons to perform field work (Table 4).

Table 4: The amount of persons farmers have access to for additional labour support, in percentage of farmers (%) per category. Persons 0 11 1 to 2 29 3 to 5 33 6 to 10 20 >10 7

In addition to free help, which is often provided by family, does 26 % of the population annually pay for external labour force and 11 % occasionally pay for it. In spite of the big demand of additional labour force to implement WSC techniques, it is not a major constraint, as additional labour force is available and these extra demands moreover occur during the dry season, when the need for field work is absent or low compared to the rainy season. Note that conditions for fieldwork in the dry season are however extremely harsh due to the high temperatures and hot harmattan wind from the Sahara desert.

Nevertheless, once the zaï pits or demi-lunes structures are installed, they last for 3 years, which means farmers can gradually enlarge their field surface with the techniques. Since re-installing the structures after 3 years is moreover less labour demanding, the biggest investments can be expected in the initial years (Munimati and Nyagumbo, 2010).

Nutrient management

Shortage in fertilizer appeared to be an obstacle to adopt WSC techniques. A very poor nutrient status is, next to limited water availability, a major crop limiting factor in Nigerien soils, which must be tackled in any suggested improved WSC practice. The zaï and demi-lunes techniques therefore include

nutrient management in the form of manure, fertilizer, compost or household waste in order to improve yields effectively. 65 % of the farmers already have the habit to apply a form of nutrient management of which 63 % add manure, 20 % fertilizer, 4 % domestic waste and 35 % collect manure

(some farmers use more than one form of fertilizer), but 35 % of the respondents do not fertilize their land at all. Table 5 furthermore shows that almost half of the farmers that do apply some kind of nutrient management can not apply it on all their lands and 40 % of these farmers only apply it on less than 50 %. We must moreover take into account that even the 54 % who do fertilize all their land, do not use enough according to the key-informants. All of them point as a matter of fact to a general lack of manure, as farmers do have manure but not sufficiently to fertilise all of their land or to do it adequately. Hassan (1996) demonstrates the positive impact on millet yields when WSC techniques are implemented in combination with 5 to 6 ton manure ha-1. Compared to a cultivation without intervention, their yields more than doubled in a year with low and irregular rainfall and more than triples in a year with good rainfall. Fatondji et al. (2006) report on the other hand that the optimal amount of manure is only 3 ton ha-1. Increasing the rate of manure to 5 ha-1 only gave an additional

12 % yield increase in their study which does not cover the extra manure cost. When the level of manure was further decreased from 3 to 1 ton ha-1 , however, than yield did decrease significantly with

115 %.

Table 5: The part of land, in percentage, that farmers are able to fertilize, from n, the population that fertilizes land. n= 65 100% 53 75-100% 2 50-75% 5 25-50% 26 0-25% 14

Because manure is of major importance to implement WSC techniques successfully and it moreover appears to be a paramount constraint, it is interesting to sort out the current conditions of livestock possession in the region. Table 6 shows that 24 % of the respondents do not possess any cattle and that

30 % only possess very little cattle. Despite the higher quality of cattle manure, they moreover generally have more small ruminants and poultry than cattle. Manure of small ruminants has in its turn on the other hand a higher quality than that of poultry. 8 % of the household heads does not possess

any cattle nor ruminants and 22 % had no more than 5 of both categories. The lack of manure is in these cases thus largely explained by the lack of livestock. Adopters of WSC techniques nonetheless do not posses more livestock, there is no significant relation found between adoption and the number of cattle, ruminants or poultry a farmer possess. Hence, a lack of livestock is no constraint to the adoption of WSC techniques. Yet, 93 % of the adopters do use manure, which demonstrates again the need for manure when adopting the techniques.

Table 6: Percentage of farmers (%) owing the number of cattle and small ruminants. 0 1-5 6-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 40+ Catlle 24 30 19 17 4 2 4 Small ruminants 8 33 16 25 10 4 4 Poultry 11 28 16 19 8 7 11

Farmers clearly do not only gather manure from their own animals however, they gather manure from livestock grazing in the bush and can even enter into an agreement with the farmers owing the cattle about this (Slingerland and Stork, 2000). Besides collecting manure, farmers can alternatively buy manure, which is however not a common practice among subsistence farmers, as only 7 % of the respondents have the habit to do this. Buying manure is moreover not evident, not only because of the high cost, but also due to the difficult transport from the market to the field, which will be discussed further on. A viable alternative to adding manure to the WSC techniques is to add household compost, which was also suggested by the key-informants, but none of the farmers appears to know or to use it.

They do know and apply some other forms of nutrient management on the other hand, such as leaving the animals on the farm (34 %) or leaving the stubble on the field (52 %), but these are harder to combine with the implementation of WSC structures.

It is moreover clear that only the lack of amount of manure is a constraint for the adoption of

WSC techniques and not the lack of knowhow to improve the soil nutrient quality. Although they do not know compost, most farmers (90 %) appeared to be very willing to improve their soils nutrient quality, 51 % give 2 options to do so and 15 % even give 3. Table 7 lists these farmers suggestions of how they would improve their soils nutrient quality. Farmers, however, only try to upgrade their land to obtain a better harvest, they do generally not aim to upgrade their lands in terms of economic value

with the goal of buying up or selling land. Upgrading land to increase its value can however be a trigger to adopt WSC structures, as Hassan (1996) recorded the emerge of a land market for degraded land in the Illela district of Niger, with spectacular price-rises. This is nevertheless currently subordinate to satisfying the need for food in the region around Torodi.

Table 7: The percentage of farmers (%) suggesting different methods to improve soil quality from n, the population that thinks about improving soil quality. n= 90 Manure 77 Fertilizer 24 Ploughing 19 WSC techniques 16 Apply household materials 13 Apply water 6 Stone barriers 5 Breaking the soil crust 5 Slash and burn 1 Restore gullies 1 Fallow 1 Mulch 1 Reforest 1

Agricultural equipment and transport facilities

Although zai and demi-lunes are fairly easy implementable, some agricultural equipment is necessary.

This concerns a daba (Figure 3) or hand hoe for the zaï and a spade and daba for the demi-lunes

(Wendum et al., 1996; Sidibé, 2004). Both techniques require the breaking of the erosion crust in the catchment area of which the earth must be scooped or mixed with the applied manure.

Figure 3: Farmer cultivating his land with a daba, an agricultural tool that is needed to dig zaï pits and demi-lunes.

Taking the labour-intensity of these techniques into account, a number of persons and therefore a number of dabas, hand hoes or spades are necessary to prepare a certain field surface, but most farmers do not have enough material to cultivate their lands with WSC techniques (Table 8).

Nonetheless, it is possible to practice the techniques without owing the necessary implements, as respectively 21 % , 50 % and 43 % of the farmers who adopted them do not own a daba, spade and hand hoe. These farmers presumably lend agricultural equipment from other farmers, which suggest that borrowing materials might, thus, be a solution to the lack of equipment. This is thus no constraint to adopt the techniques as such, but if, on the other hand, all farmers would practice these techniques, the number of tools in the community would evidently not suffice and more tools would be required.

Table 8: Percentage of farmers (%) owning the number of tools and transport means. 0 1 2 3 4 5 Daba 31 19 16 12 11 9 Spade 65 25 3 3 1 1 Hand-hoe 65 11 10 4 5 3 Wheelbarrow 92 6 0 0 0 0 Cart 55 38 5 0 0 0 Bike 38 55 3 1 1 0 Motercycle 83 14 1 0 0 0

Besides implements to construct the WSC structures, transport facilities are often required to transport and collect manure (Slingerland and Stork, 2000). As demonstrated in Table 8, there is a general lack

of means of transport. Especially wheelbarrows and carts, which are most appropriate to transport manure, are scarce. When comparing non-adopters with adopters, we moreover observe that 30 % of the former has no means of transport compared to 0 % of the latter, 36 % compared to 29 % have one,

20 % compared to 36 % have two and 14 % compared to 36 % have three or more means of transport.

The lack of transport facilities can thus clearly obstruct the adoption of WSC techniques.

3.4 Farmers knowledge of WSC techniques

Farmers obviously need to be acquainted with WSC techniques in order to be able to adopt them, but it is of even greater importance that they know them profoundly. 24 % of the respondents are not familiar with the techniques at all, which thus prevents these respondents to apply them. Unawareness of the techniques advantages obviously also obstructs their adoption and only 64 % of the respondents know that WSC techniques improve harvest. This is, however, the most direct and evident advantage for farmers, as most of them struggle with food shortages and as it is an easy perceivable result. Their awareness of additional, less obvious advantages is furthermore rather poor, 50 % of the respondents know that the techniques rehabilitate gangani , their unfruitful eroded farm lands and a meagre 7 % mentioned the rehabilitation of vegetation. As expected, do farmers generally know more about the positive effects the WSC techniques have in their ability to combat erosion than that they know about what they are combating as such. 33 % are aware that the techniques improve the water balance of the soil, but only 7 % know that the aim of the techniques is to prevent the wind and water erosion are causing the soils degradation. This is off course also related with their general lack of knowledge of erosion. Respondents thus generally lack a complete understanding of the techniques, which is a great obstacle in the adoption process of farmers. The more farmers are convinced of the direct and indirect benefits of the techniques, the more they will be motivated to adopt them. Comparison between adopters and non-adopters confirms that knowledge of techniques, even when incomplete improves adoption. Table 9 clearly shows the differences in knowledge between non-adopters and adopters, who score better in all categories.

Table 9: Knowlegde of the advantages of WSC techniques; comparing non-adopters versus adopters (%). Non- Adopters adopters Better harvest 60 93 Devastation of gangani 46 71 Rehabilitation of vegetation 2 7 Improve water balance 27 64 Prevent wind and water erosion 5 32

3.5 Project presence

The presence of a project not only improves farmers knowledge of erosion (Figure 4), it also greatly encourages their adoption of WSC techniques, as almost all adopters have been benefiting from external support of a project (13 of 14 adopters).

Erosion awareness 80 ) Acqainted with a project % (

s Not Acquainted with a project r

e 60 m r a f

f 40 o e g a t

n 20 e c r e P 0 t e d t c o r o h e c n f o g o i r i g l e s d p e m Erosion effects awareness 80 ) % ( s r 60 e m r a f

f 40 o e g a t

n 20 e c r e P 0 t e d t c o r o h e c n f o g o i r i g l e s d p e m Erosion causes awareness 80 ) % ( s r 60 e m r a f

f 40 o e g a t

n 20 e c r e P 0 t e d t c o r o h e c n f o g o i r i g l e s d p e m Awareness level Graph 2: Awareness level of erosion, its effects and causes considering whether farmers are acquainted with a project introducing WSC or not. Percentage (%) of farmers per level is shown.

A project is on the other hand no assurance for adoption, as a lot of non-adopters exist within villages in which a project operated. Former research largely assigns this phenomenon of temporary adoption to a projects incentives for cooperation, in which e.g. fertilizers, manure, equipment are supplied (de

Graaff et al., 2008). When the project is terminated and the support stops, however, farmers often revert to their former crop management practices because they believe implementation without incentives is impossible. In our case study, 48 respondents got acquainted with the techniques through project presence, of which only 27 % adopted the WCS techniques entirely, and 73 % did not change

their crop management. A lot of interventions have been very successful in the short run, however, but unfortunately proved to be unsustainable in the long run (Atakilte et al, 2006). It is therefore crucial that project managers or extension officers make sure that farmers know the techniques profoundly if they aim at long-term adoption. The chances of profoundly knowing them and consequently of permanently adopting them increase when farmers effectively cultivated their lands with WSC techniques throughout the period of project presence. 63 % of the 48 farmers who got acquainted with the techniques through projects, effectively practiced them. Of these 63 %, most farmers (68 %) continue using the techniques independently. Doing it themselves shows the farmers the feasibility of implementing the techniques and ensures a detailed follow up of the positive effects, as the farmer is daily confronted with it on its own field. Table 10 furthermore indicates the importance of long-term presence of a project. Although both villages have a similar percentage of farmers with knowledge of

WSC techniques, 30 % of the farmers in Bogoudjotou practice WSC techniques, whereas only 9 % of the farmers in Nikoye practice them. This difference originates from the duration of the projects and proofs the positive effect of long-term project presence. Farmers in Bogoudjotou have been continuously in contact with the permanent field experiments form Niamey University that are located in their village, but the project in Nikoye was only a non-permanent one.

Table 10: The percentage of farmers (%) with knowledge of WSC techniques gained from a project and the percentage of adopters for each village. Panoma Bogoudjotou (n=33) Nikoye (n=44) (n=23) Knowledge of WSC techniques 63 61 9 through project Adopters of WSC techniques 30 5 9

Although project presence has a good influence on adoption in this case, it may not always be the case, as in many developing countries farmers have associated WSC measures with those forced upon them during colonial times, and farmers may still be wary of interventions promoted by the state (de Graaff et al. (2008). The key-informants all conclude however that there would be no case of overall scepticism towards external interference, which was confirmed by a high level of participation among respondents. They stated that farmers can always be reluctant towards new techniques, as is the case all over the world, but they all agreed that farmers would adopt these techniques if they are really

convinced of the benefits. The situation of food shortages is moreover serious enough to assume that, when farmers could improve their yield and harvest more food, they will be more than willing to do so and adopt the new techniques. Based on the information from interviews with key-informants and field observations, cultural or social restrictions do thus not seem to obstruct farmers in the region from adopting the WSC techniques. Note that both zaï and demi-lunes are indigenous techniques, which are already being used for decennia by farmers in the central Sahelian Region (Hassan, 1996;

Ouédraogo and Bertelsen, 1997). The likelihood that these locally developed will be implemented in the research area is realistic, whereas much more reluctance can be expected when foreign techniques are imposed from outside.

4 Conclusions All respondents encounter threatening food shortages and live in a permanent sphere of food insecurity. The population increases furthermore continually, the cultivable land surface per family reduces each generation and only few farmers can, until future notice, expand their agricultural activities with fertile land. There are on the other hand a lot of marginal, degraded lands with which farmers will have to extend their agricultural activities and the portion of degraded lands is moreover still increasing. Consequently, there is a great need to act against further soil degradation and to rehabilitate the existing marginal land with the aid of WSC techniques. These techniques which can increase the available cultivable land surface, are based on indigenous knowledge and are low-tech and low-cost which makes them more or less easy applicable. Nonetheless, there appear to be some obstacles for farmers to adopt them, as the dissemination encounters difficulties. Since these constraints are context-specific, depending on the region conditions and farmers resources constraints, a context-specific research had to be executed for the region around Torodi.

The results show that not all farmers are aware of the existence of WSC techniques and those who are, often lack a profound knowledge. If farmers would have perfect knowledge of WSC techniques, however, they would automatically be stimulated to adopt them. Farmers, moreover, have to be aware of the beneficial effects of these techniques, as a better harvest, more vegetation and the rehabilitation of their degraded and unfruitful farm lands would encourage technique adoption.

Although a better harvest will be the key incentive for farmers to implement these techniques, it is crucial that they also know the more indirect benefits of the techniques for their soils conservation.

The rehabilitation of their soil and the re-greening of the environment have for example indirect positive consequences for their farming activities. Re - vegetation entails a larger surface of grazing land for their cattle, due to a better soil quality. Re - greening will also provide a descent in temperature and it could positively influence rainfall. It will stop furthermore the destructing powers of run - off, which destroys road and creates gullies in farmers fields. To grasp the utility of the techniques completely, also a profound knowledge of erosion is necessary. It appeared that although most farmers are aware of the concept of erosion, they lack knowledge of its effects and causes. The importance of

this knowledge to stimulate the adoption of the techniques is shown by the fact that adopters have more knowledge of both WSC techniques and erosion perception. To impart the necessary knowledge to farmers, a form of education and training is, hence needed. This form of education should thus entail profound knowledge of the concept, effects and causes of erosion as well as of the use and usefulness of the techniques. Although most farmers did not have any formal education, knowledge can be passed on by programs or projects, with a focus on the WSC techniques and without the need for the farmers to be literate as such. It appeared that those farmers who got acquainted with the techniques and gained knowledge on erosion get their information through projects, as project participating farmers, score better on both variables. However, active participation is thereby very important, farmers who effectively practiced the WSC techniques during a projects presence are more likely to adopt them on a long-term.

Beside the intellectual substance to provide farmers with the requisite know-how, farmers need to have the necessary material to implement WSC techniques at their disposal, which include a daba or hand hoe for zaï and a daba and spade for constructing the demi-lunes. Means to transport and gather manure are even of bigger importance, since farmers can presently lend their equipment from other farmers if they do not posses enough tools themselves. There is nevertheless a shortage of tools, if we consider the optimal scenario that the majority of the farmers will practice WSC techniques on their lands. The final, biggest shortage undoubtedly proves to be manure, as more than a third of the respondents do not use any form of fertilizer and the ones that do use a form of fertilizer, mostly cannot fertilize all their lands. Even the ones that do fertilize all their land, end up not using the perquisite amount that is needed to rehabilitate the gangani soils.

5 Policy implications Water and Soil Conservation can not only proof its importance on an individual scale, it can also greatly contribute at state level, since the country largely consists of subsistence farmers, who are dependent on soil resources for their livelihoods. Beside securing food production at a national level, the re - greening and rehabilitation of degraded soils also are of major interest to governmental policy.

Nigerien farmers yearly rely on food aid, which aid can only alleviate the harsh effects of food shortages, but it does not provide a long-term sustainable solution to the causes of these food shortages. The implementation of WSC techniques, which tackles the major causes of the food insecurity there where it is needed at small scale level, should therefore be stimulated. Because of the big variation in environmental, agricultural and socio-economic conditions throughout the country, a region-specific policy is necessary. Preparatory studies can therefore be useful and can play an important role in enabling the set up of interventions tailored to local conditions. The intervention of projects positively influences farmers knowledge on erosion and the use of the techniques, which is why extension education should be encouraged, as long as some instructions are taken into account.

The importance of a long-term project presence should therefore be stressed, as villages with permanent project presence result in a bigger percentage of WSC technique adopters. The risk of temporary efforts entails the possibility that farmers revert to their former practices once the project officers leave. Development agencies and policy makers should moreover avoid that farmers participate only for the incentives offered in exchange for project participation. They should rather focus on motivating farmers by convincing them of the benefits of WSC techniques, through the provision of in depth knowledge about the techniques and through the demonstration of yield profits after adoption. When risk reduction can be stressed by explaining besides long-term benefits also short-term benefits the probability of adoption can moreover be enhanced (Baidu-Forson, (1999).

Furthermore it is of major importance that farmers participate actively and learn practically how to construct the techniques correctly, as this increases permanent adoption. Apart from that, special attention should be given to migrated farmers, who appeared to have less knowledge on the causes and effects of erosion.

Next to the importance of human capital development agencies and policy makers have to take farmers lack of resources into account. Farmers with adequate resources of land, manure and labour will adopt more easily, but the biggest challenge is to promote WSC to the majority of the farmers which are resource-constrained and need the increase of their soils quality and food production the most (Giller et al., 2009). Farmers can be stimulated to make agricultural investments, but alternatively a loan system for agricultural equipment could be established. Since manure is the

biggest constraints, but very important for the practice of WSC techniques, education about nutrient management is very important. Although farmers will always be limited, more efficient uses of manure could be introduced, such as the making of compost, which so far is not known among farmers.

Acknowledgments

This research is part of a research project funded by the Flemish Interuniversity Council-University

Development Cooperation (VLIR UOS) Belgium, to which we are greatly indebted. We are moreover enormously thankful to the participating villages and farmers to which this study is dedicated.

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