1. Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to Climate Change Impacts 27-28 November 2014, Nairobi Kenya Enhancing rainwater and nutrient use efficiency for improved crop productivity, farm income and rural livelihood in the Volta Basin D. Fatondji, R. Tabo

2. Project Information  Location: Dissin and Ziga (Ouahigouya) in Burkina Faso and Navrango (Bolgatanga) and Tamale in Ghana  Timeframe: 5 years  Total Cost: 1.5 M $US  Primary Beneficiaries: Local, Community, District, Municipal, National, Regional, Global, Females, Youth of Dissin and Ziga in Burikina Faso and Navrango in Ghana  Project contact information: Drs Tabo Ramadjita and Dougbedji Fatondji (ICRISAT); Sawadogo K. Seraphine (INERA – B. Faso); Mathias Fosu (SARI, Tamale Ghana) Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

3. What Risk Has been addressed  Food insecurity resulting from crop failure due to:  Unreliable rainfall  Unreliable onset of the rainy season and frequent dry spells  Increasing soil degradation (decreasing soil fertility and crust formation) resulting from inappropriate management practices and over- grasing  Dwindling farm size resulting form demographic growth Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

4. The objective  To develop, evaluate and adapt, in partnership with farmers, integrated technology options that improve water and nutrients use efficiency and increase crop productivity in the Volta Basin.  To develop and validate methodologies, approaches and modern tools (GIS, models, farmer participatory approaches) for evaluating and promoting promising water, nutrient and crop management technology options.  To improve market opportunities for small holder farmers and identify market institutional innovations that provide incentives for the adoption of improved water, nutrient and crop management technologies.  To build the capacities of farmers and rural communities to make effective demands to research and development organizations, and influence policies that promote the adoption of sustainable water and nutrient use technologies.  To promote and scale up ‘best bet’ crop, water, and nutrient management strategies in the Volta Basin through more efficient information, methodology and technology dissemination mechanisms Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

5. Project sites  BURKINA FASO  1: Dano  2: Ouahigouya  GHANA  3: Navrongo  4: Tamale Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

6. Methodology & Implementation  Community level meetings to determine constraints to agricultural productivity and identification of experimental sites  Pre-season meetings involving all stakeholders to select pilot farmers and assign responsibilities for activities implementation Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

7. Methodology & Implementation  Prioritization of technologies using pair wise ranking.  Discussion of farmers’ coping strategies for the listed production constraints.  Discussion of technologies that can address farmers’ production constraints from list of technologies.  Farmers make technology choices to address their production constraints to which proposed technologies by the projects were added Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

8. Methodology & Implementation  Implementation of water harvesting structures at farm and landscape scale that improve in-situ soil nutrient and water condition and biodiversity regeneration leading to increased crop production, water table recharge and pasture improvement Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

9. Methodology & Implementation (Microdosing and Institutional arrangements) Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

10. Methodology & Implementation  Open field day and inter-farmer exchanges visits with involvement of local authorities and state technical staff to extend project coverage Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

11. Addressing & enhancing food security – Technologies performance Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

12. Addressing & enhancing food security – Commodities used warrantage Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts SiteProductTotal stock (kg) Intended for sale (kg) Intended for consumption (kg) Intended for seed (kg) ZigaWhite sorghum242911123180 Millet1100 0 Cowpea134310123310 Unshelled groundnut 3872209601776 SaalaRed sorghum44264360 Maize379082229680 Rice28701435 0 Cowpea313 00 Unshelled groundnut 7202884320 Sesame88 00 Soybean370 0

13. Addressing & enhancing food security Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts SiteValue at storage (VS) Credit requeste d Present value of stock Addition al value of stock (VA) Pledged savings (EN) Intere st paid (IR) Fees for file and credit manageme nt (FDC) Storage expense s (CS) (CFA) Gain of the operation = [VA + EN]- [IR + FDC + CS] Gain % compare d to VS Ziga684320635 807928500244180107 24423 39826 35812 360289 30842,28 Saala512700461 430670800158100026 76113 6159 720108 00421,07

14. Addressing & enhancing climate adaptation  Most of the technologies implemented in this project are climate relates constraints averting. Therefore exposing the communities to them not only help to cope with actual situation but also guide in preparing for the future. These are: Technology combining crops, trees, and water harvesting structures to enhance crop production Water conservation and nutrients management to increase crop production Crop input management to improve efficiency Inventory credit system to provide means to farmers to invest in crop production and household welfare improvement Inventory credit system to provide alternative options to farmers to improve household livelihood Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

15. The big Picture  The concerned project was implemented at 4 sites and involved at least one farmers organization per site with a minimum of 30 farmers per organization directly involved projects.  The number of impacted farmers increased considerably with inter-farmer exchange visit and the open field days.  However an impact assessment study was not conducted to provide figures of the extent to which they have impacted livelihood of local communities Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

16. What are Emerging opportunities and how can the ecosystem approach help change the current agriculture paradigm in Africa  Field and farm level activities were implemented in this project. However these lay the ground for opportunities to improve land use planning  And in the design of public policies that provide incentives for managing natural and agricultural ecosystems in sustainable ways  The activities involved land recuperation and water harvesting as well as modeling component that was used to construct scenarios depicting alternative land and water management interventions in rainfed areas Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

17. What are Emerging opportunities and how can the ecosystem approach help change the current agriculture paradigm in Africa  Some activities of the project involve enhancing in- situs water infiltration that may affect water dynamic at field scale at farm scale but probably at landscape and maybe at a larger scale. Here comes in the question of upstream-downstream effect.  Plantation of trees as done in this project impacts the ecosystem  Providing incentive for provision of ecosystem services does not seem the right way. Sensitization and proof provision seems more sustainable Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

18. Feeding Africa and creating Jobs for the youths and others  The implementation of the warrantage (inventory credit) system increased use of microfinance networks by farmers association. The project findings have led to a plan for warrantage systems to be set up in 10 new communities by a new donor  The farmers observe and study on their own the fluctuation of prices before selling their products that were stored under the warrantage system  The existing farmers’ organizations/associations in the project villages were strengthened in community spirit around the DEF field  The multi-disciplinary nature of the project enabled a positive interaction between all partners involved. A new perception of complementarities and participatory research was sustained throughout the project life Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

19. Suggestions for future research  The impact of restoration of degraded land at landscape level must be studied  Potential impacts of impending climate change on hydrology and crop production in rainfed areas  Constructing scenarios that include combinations of improvements in NRM and the availability of new crop varieties better suited for future conditions  Sustainability of the inventory credit system. Role of on socio-economic and environmental factors Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to El Nino Impacts

20. Workshop on Enhancing the Horn of Africa Adaptive and Responsive Capacity to Climate Change Impacts 27-28 November 2014, Nairobi Kenya D. Fatondji; R. Tabo