Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor, 1993

IMPROVING INDIGENOUS SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION TECHNIQUES: DOES IT WORK? - Chris Reij

In the last few years most people have come to agree that soil and water conservation (SWC) projects in Africa have largely failed. If performance is to improve, there must be new approaches. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD, a United Nations agency) has been exploring new possibilities by designing programmes which begin with indigenous techniques. The results look promising, as IFAD's programme in Niger shows.

Various reports (including Reij, et al. 1986) put forward many reasons for the failure of soil and water conservation (SWC) projects. Techniques introduced by outsiders did not become familiar to the beneficiaries. Techniques were often too complex, or projects relied on heavy machinery for the construction of conservation works. This required too much maintenance work from land-users without producing sufficient short-term benefits. Failure in SWC is related to the failure to maintain conservation works. Structures built often at great cost per hectare quickly fall into disrepair. Failure also occurs when land-users fail to make the SWC techniques their own. As soon as the donor agency withdraws, all activities come to a grinding halt.

Different approach

The poor performance of most SWC projects in Africa is evidence that an entirely different approach to SWC is needed. If land-users are to play a key role in SWC, conditions should be created which enable them to practise SWC techniques with little or no external support. This will be possible only if techniques have the following characteristics: simple, low-cost, low-maintenance, and efficient: i.e., quickly resulting in increased yields. A recent policy document of the International Fund for Agricultural Development on SWC in sub-Saharan Africa (Critchley et al., 1992) has identified and analyzed a range of issues for designing SWC and planning strategies. The document states, "The first step in the design process of a new SWC programme should be the identification of indigenous farming systems, and the next step should be to determine whether and how these conservation techniques can be used as starting points or building blocks for a new programme, and how their efficiency can be improved." (Critchley et al., 1992: 43)

In some of its projects in sub-Saharan Africa, IFAD is trying to put this policy into practice. For instance, the soil and water conservation section of IFAD's programme for Niger is proceeding systematically from indigenous techniques. An analysis of this SWC subprogramme yields some important insights.

Case study: Improving traditional planting pits in the Ader Doutchi Maggia, Niger

Historically, most SWC projects in Niger have been concentrated in the hilly areas of the Tahoua Department (450 km. east of the capital, Niamey). This region, called the Ader Doutchi Maggia, has pockets of high population density. Its fertile valleys alternate with badly degraded plateaus. In the past, the valley bottoms (fadama) were flooded regularly, with the floodwaters depositing fertile sediments each time. But vegetation on the valley slopes is now badly degraded as well, which means that water rushes down the slopes and causes damage downstream. Large and small gullies have appeared both on the slopes and in the valley floors, concentrating and speeding up the runoff. As a result, the slow spread of floodwater (e'pandage de crue) has become a rare phenomenon. Since the early 1960s, several SWC projects have intervened to treat valley slopes and/or plateaus. The technique most commonly used calls for contour earth bunds, which are often carpeted with stones to protect them from wind and heavy rainfall. The construction of contour earth bunds (fosse's ados) is often combined with subsoiling.

Most SWC projects intervening in this region have until recently completely ignored the techniques traditionally used by the farmers to rehabilitate barren, degraded plateaus (Haussa term: fako). This is remarkable, especially since it is impossible not to notice rows of stones (gandari) everywhere on the plateaus; often they are laid out in a grid pattern. Their purpose is to trap sand blown by the winds from the desert (harmattan) and to conserve water. Farmers usually have to wait at least five years before enough sand has been deposited to permit cultivation. Gandari are conspicuous throughout the entire area. Less visible are the traditional planting pits (tassa), which in some villages were also used to rehabilitate degraded land. These pits were small; the excavated earth could be put anywhere alongside the pit and no manure was used.

The IFAD-funded SWC programme based in Badaguichiri started in 1988; its zone of intervention is limited to the Illela district. Annual rainfall in this area varies greatly, but usually ranges between 250 and 600 mm. In 1989 the project included a study trip. Fifteen farmers, three of whom were women, went to the Yatenga region of Burkina Faso, where they learned two important lessons. The first was that farmers in the Yatenga perform SWC on their fields themselves, without a food-for-work arrangement, and the second was that the improved planting pits (zay) used widely and successfully in the Yatenga to rehabilitate degraded land looked very much like their own traditional planting pits. Upon their return to the Illela district, some farmers improved their tassa in three ways: by increasing their size (diameter 25 - 40 cm., depth 15 - 30 cm., spacing 80 - 100 cm.); by putting the excavated earth downslope to allow runoff water to concentrate in the pits; and by applying manure. In 1989 farmers treated three hectares with the improved type of tassa and since that moment the rate of adopting tassa has been increasing spectacularly.

Area of the Illela district treated with tassa

(estimated number of hectares)

1989: 3 ha. 1990: 70 ha. 1991: 400 - 500 ha. 1992: >1000 ha.

These figures are higher than those given in the official project report. According to project statistics, 585 ha. were treated with tassa up to September 30, 1992. To this should be added another 148 ha. treated with a combination of tassa and stone bunds. This gives a total of 733 ha., a figure that still reflects only the work of farmers who were directly monitored by the project's extension agents. But the number of farmers using improved tassa has grown so rapidly that the project's ten extension agents are no longer able to keep track of all the farmers now engaged in rehabilitating degraded land. In several villages virtually all land owners with access to degraded land are investing their own money and energy in the digging of improved traditional planting pits. Staff members of other projects and departmental technical services, struck by the enthusiasm with which farmers dig tassa to rehabilitate degraded land, now also actively promote this technique.

Why this success?

Several reasons can be put forward to explain the rapid adoption of improved tassa.

(1) The region is characterized by considerable population pressure on limited agricultural resources. Farmers living on degraded plateaus with no access to fertile land in the valleys clearly have an interest in rehabilitating degraded land. The often sandy soils they now cultivate are exhausted and infested with weeds (e.g., Striga).

(2) Tassa are very cost-effective. On untreated land yields are zero, but on land treated with tassa, yields in a year of good rainfall (1991) average between 500 and 600 kg./ha., and can reach as high as 800 to 1000 kg./ha. Even in years of low rainfall (1990, 1992), yields are perceptibly higher on rehabilitated fields than on untreated fields.

(3) Farmers are treating degraded land that is their own. This reduces to a minimum the land tenure problems that often plague large-scale SWC projects using heavy machinery.

Improved tassa have acted as a catalyst for development in the Illela district. Some land-users hire labour to rehabilitate degraded land, paying 10,000 to 12,500 CFA per hectare for treatment with tassa. (In October 1992 U.S.$1 = 250 CFA). Other farmers organize traditional work parties (gaya) to dig tassa, and it is quite possible that this traditional institution, which was in decline, will be revived as a result. Villages with access to a large amount of barren, degraded land with sandy-clay soils (fako) are increasingly seeing this land as an asset. Only three or four years ago such land was regarded as a problem, because nothing would grow on it and the runoff it generated caused damage downstream. Now some farmers have even started to buy degraded land. In one village (in October 1992) the price of one hectare of 'good fako' was said to be 40,000 CFA (U.S$ 160). This shows that land-users fully recognize its potential value. Some of the sandy soils which have been cultivated for many years are now left fallow.

Virtually all farmers put manure into the pits (roughly two to four tons per hectare). This is an innovation; manure was not often used in rainfed agriculture in this region. The concentration of runoff and manure in the pits is a first major step towards creating the basic conditions for rational use of limited quantities of fertilizers. The first experiments with tassa + manure + fertilizers show yields increasing by an average of 280 kg./ha. compared with the combination of tassa + manure alone. The limited availability of fertilizer on the various markets in the region is a problem, however. It seems safe to predict that the rate at which land-users adopt tassa in parts of the Tahoua Department will accelerate, and that the technique will also be adopted in other areas of Niger where similar physical and socio-economic conditions prevail. Farmers from neighbouring districts have begun to visit the villages where the IFAD SWC project is being conducted, and project authorities from Dosso, Zinder and other departments of Niger have started to bring project staff and farmers to the Illela district for site visits.

This example from Niger clearly demonstrates that it is possible to build upon indigenous techniques of soil and water conservation. But tangible results cannot be achieved within a few years. First the attitudes of donor agencies will have to change considerably. The situation in the Illela district is now such that the land-users will no doubt continue to rehabilitate degraded fields using tassa. The IFAD-funded project currently provides them with tools and training, but even if the project stopped today, land-users would continue to dig tassa. This is certainly an exceptional achievement for a soil and water conservation project.

Chris Reij Task Force for Natural Resource Management Centre for Development Cooperation Services Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1115 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31-20-548 5030 Fax: +31-20-646 2320

References

Critchley, W., C. Reij and S.D. Turner (1992) Soil and water conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa: towards sustainable production by the rural poor. Rome: IFAD.

Reij, C., S.D. Turner and T. Kuhlman (1986) Soil and water conservation in Sub-Saharan Africa: issues and options. Rome: IFAD.

New Video

Building on traditions: conserving land, alleviating poverty

This is the title of a new educational video produced by Countrywise Communication (United Kingdom) for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Centre for Development Cooperation of the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

The video reports on how farmers in drought-stricken sub-Saharan Africa benefit from simple solutions based on traditional techniques of soil and water conservation.

No fewer than 21 countries in East, West and Southern Africa have benefitted from the special programme for Sub-Saharan countries affected by drought and desertification (SPA), since the programme's establishment six years ago by IFAD, a United Nations agency based in Rome.

At a time when drought and war dominate the news from the African continent, this video brings encouraging reports of small but significant improvements which have the potential of improving the lives of the rural poor in a number of countries.

Emphasis throughout the video is on local participation to ensure that improvements are both appropriate and sustainable. Techniques for capturing and concentrating rainfall such as demi-lunes and tassa, the erection of stone bunds to prevent soil erosion, and the planting of trees have all played a role in helping the rural poor.

The video features striking examples from Burkina Faso and Niger in West Africa and from Lesotho in Southern Africa. Available in English and French, it includes sequences showing construction methods and illustrating the encouraging results achieved by these soil and water conservation techniques. Local farmers and project technicians are enthusiastic about the changes they have made and the resulting benefits.

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