Peace Corps/Burkina Faso
AGRICULTURE &
NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
TECHNICAL MANUAL
Revised: January 2007
Adapted for Burkina Faso: July 2009
Introduction
Landlocked, with minimal infrastructure, and situated on the cusp of the Sahara, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of the 14 million Burkinabe are dependent upon rain fed agriculture. Agriculture is an inescapable fact of life for the Burkinabe and for the Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) who live side by side with them.
Peace Corps Burkina Faso (PCBF) is dedicated to helping the Burkinabe meet their need for skilled people. PCBF accomplishes this through formal programs in small enterprise development, secondary education, health, and gender equity.
Though PC Burkina Faso does not currently host an Agriculture program, motivated PCVs have been extremely active in the sector, most notably through the actions of the Food Security Committee (FSC). This manual, sponsored by the FSC, has been developed to support the activities of Burkina PCVs.
The manual is relatively comprehensive- covering a range of topics including agroforestry, agrobusiness, gardening, rainy season crops, soil conservation and resource management. At first glance, the scope of the manual and the depth of the technical material can appear daunting, but it is not. Rest assured in was developed for an audience of PCVs with a high level of motivation and curiosity, but a low level of prior technical knowledge.
Most of this manual comes from documents compiled from other Peace Corps countries in West Africa. We are especially indebted to Peace Corps Niger for their assistance in the development of this manual. Indeed, most of this manual was adapted from a Niger template. Thanks also to Peace Corps Togo for their agribusiness guide. Peace Corps Mali also provided us with many short technical papers that we integrated into the bulk of the information here. PC Cameroon and Guinea provided us with a PACA guide for agricultural projects. We were also helped greatly by PC Washington for their documents on food security and their paper on ideas on agricultural projects. In Burkina Faso, we give thanks for INERA (Institut de l'Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles) for their technical papers on various agricultural techniques whose information we integrated into the manual.
In addition, the manual is and will always remain a work in Progress. PCVs are encouraged to submit materials to the FSC for inclusion into future editions of the manual.
Coming soon, the Food Security Committee will be creating a smaller, easier-to-read guide on these same topics to be distributed to each volunteer. This document will help encourage every volunteer to try out secondary agricultural projects and evaluate their success in this country.
We will also distribute a short gardening guide adapted from PC Senegal to jump start gardening projects at site.
Also see the lengthier “Teaching Environmental Education Manual” and “Burkina Environmental Status Report” in sharepoint. What information lacks in this manual, sharepoint should contain.
We are indebted to PCVs Garret Emslie and David Duckworth, who gave up a week in their village to proofread and ‘Burkinafy’ the final text. We are indebted to the members of the FSC, whose tireless avocation has been core to jumpstarting Agriculture and Environmental activities at PC Burkina.
Sincerely,
Burkina Faso Food Security Committee.
Table of Contents
Ideas for Food Security Projects ……………………………………………. / 7
Chapter 1: Ecology of Burkina Faso…………………………………………. / 11
Chapter 2: Soil Info…………………………………………………………… / 20
Chapter 3: Soil Conservation/Restoration…………………………………… / 29
Chapter 4: Fertilizing and Compost…………………………………………... / 39
Chapter 5: Traditional Crops……...... / 50
Chapter 6: Pests……………………………………………………………….. / 62
Chapter 7: Veggie Garden…………………………………………………….. / 70
Chapter 8: Tree Propogation/Nurseries……………………………………….. / 79
Chapter 9: Agroforestry………………………………………………………. / 95
Chapter 10: Animal Traction/ Traditional Tools……………………………. / 102
Chapter 11: Animal Husbandry……………………………………………… / 107
Chapter 12: PACA Information………………………………………………. / 117
Chapter 13: Agribusiness Guide……………………………………………… / 124
Appendix A: How to Get Seeds………………………………………………. / 150
Appendix B: Links to Useful Websites and Organizations…………………... / 151
Appendix C: Forestry and Agricultural Vocabulary…………………………. / 160
Appendix D: Metric Conversions…………………………………………….. / 166
Appendix E: Major Tree Species of Niger……………………………………. / 167
Appendix F: Important Plant Species………………………………………… / 168
Appendix G: Tree Species and Agroforestry Uses…………………………… / 170
Appendix H: Organizations Working in Food Security………………………. / 174
References…………………………………………………………………….. / 175
(The following excerpt is taken from: Attacking Poverty – Making Markets Work for Peru’s Poor; James T. Riordan, Enrique Vásquez H., Roberta van Haeften, Fred L. Mann, Carlos Figueroa A.)
A PRIMER ON FOOD SECURITY
The meaning of food security, like beauty, lies in the eyes of the beholder. There are so many aspects of food security that different people conceive it different ways. As a result, it is appropriate to conclude this chapter with a primer on the overall formal analytical framework that underlies much of this document, especially the diagnosis of Peru’s food security problem in Chapter 2.
DEFINITION OF FOOD SECURITY
The definition of food security used in this document is:
Food security is access by all people at all times
to enough food for an active and healthy life
This is the definition used in the first Food Security Strategy. The World Bank popularized it originally. It also is the definition used in the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990, which made important changes in the U.S. international food assistance program. USAID's 1992 Policy Determination Number 19 defines food security as "when all people at all times have both physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life." Both definitions emphasize the accessibility of food or effective demand. This contrasts with earlier definitions that focused more narrowly on food availability or supply.
DETERMINANTS OF FOOD SECURITY
The definition of food security used in the original Food Security Strategy encompassed three basic elements: availability, access, and utilization. Some analysts have begun to make a distinction between food security (which they define to consist of the elements of food availability and access) and nutritional security (which they define to include the concept of food security as more narrowly defined, plus all the dimensions included in the concept of food utilization). In this strategy, food security is defined in its broader sense to include availability, access and utilization. This is consistent with the approach taken in the earlier strategy. It also requires one to take a more holistic and multi-sectoral view both in defining the problem and in identifying solutions.
● Food Availability
Food availability can be a problem at the national, household, or individual level. A country cannot achieve food security unless available food supplies are sufficient to supply every person in the country with an adequate diet. The food supplies necessary can be produced domestically; they can be imported commercially or through concessional aid programs; and, in the short-run, they can be drawn from stocks. Food availability also can be a problem at the household or individual level. If food supplies are inadequate at the national level, there is not going to be enough food available to feed all households and all individuals, even if distributed equally among them.
In a world increasingly integrated through trade and political-economic ties, global availability of food is of increasing importance to household food security. Availability of food at the household level also requires that food be available in local markets, which also requires relatively smooth market operations, functioning infrastructure, and a free flow of information.
● Food Access
Achieving food security in a country also requires that households have the ability -- that is, the purchasing power -- to acquire sufficient food. Some households will be able to produce sufficient food to feed themselves. Others will have to rely on earnings from farm and non-farm activities or on income transfers, food subsidies, etc., to be able to purchase a nutritionally adequate diet. Food, in other words, is a commodity, access to which is governed by the same factors that govern access to any other commodity. That is why poverty and food insecurity are so closely linked. Access also is a concept that has relevance at the national level: if countries earn sufficient foreign exchange from exports of goods and services, it does not matter if they do not produce enough food to feed their populations adequately. They can buy it on the international market.
● Food Utilization
People also can be said to experience food insecurity when they fail to consume proper diets, even when food is available. Similarly, food insecurity can occur when people consume proper diets, but poor health stands in the way of their bodies absorbing sufficient nutrients. Given food accessibility, improper food utilization is the result of personal tastes, culture, peer pressures, lack of knowledge, inadequate household processing and storage, inadequate food labeling, misleading advertising, and lack of access to or utilization of health, water, and sanitation services.
TIME DIMENSION OF FOOD INSECURITY
In theory, two types of food insecurity -- chronic and transitory -- can be distinguished, but, in reality, they are closely intertwined. Chronic food insecurity is consistently inadequate diet caused by inability to acquire food. It affects countries and households that persistently lack the ability to acquire food, whether by producing it themselves or by buying it, bartering it, borrowing it, sharing it, etc. Chronic food insecurity is rooted in poverty. Transitory food insecurity, on the other hand, is a temporary decline in a country's or in a household's access to food. At the country level, it results from instability in food production or in export earnings. At the household level, it results from instability in production, household incomes, employment, or food prices. In its worst form, transitory food insecurity can result in famine. Typically it is the chronically food insecure who are hit hardest by transitory food insecurity problems.
WHAT FOOD SECURITY IS NOT
Food security differs from:
● Food Self-Sufficiency
Food security does not mean food self-sufficiency. Since most foods can be traded internationally, national self-sufficiency only makes sense when a country has a comparative advantage in producing them. In addition, food security is achieved only when all households have the ability to buy food. Thus, there is no necessary link between food self-sufficiency and food security. In fact, empirical studies tend to confirm that food self-sufficiency has no intrinsic value in eliminating chronic food insecurity. In some countries, excessive concern with food self-sufficiency has led to costly and uneconomic investments. The investments have tended to undermine, not only per capita income growth, but also food self-sufficiency itself, by diverting resources from otherwise productive uses.
● Agricultural Development
Food security focuses on who the food insecure are and how to promote their access to food. In many cases, one of the better ways to promote access of the food insecure to food is to stimulate agricultural productivity and growth. Additionally, since demand for rural non-farm goods and services often stems from the agricultural sector, food security may depend in part on increased agricultural growth. Even in rural areas, however, the need to find ways to assist households at risk to generate additional income quickly moves the scope of analysis and action beyond the agricultural sector into more generalized rural growth.
● Broadly Based Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction
Combating food insecurity requires more than a commitment to broadly based economic growth and poverty reduction, although the three are closely related. A strategy directed to the achievement of broadly based, economic growth differs from a food security strategy in its geographic scope and in its time frame. In the first case, the scope is countrywide and the time frame is long-term; in the second case, the strategy is more location-specific and medium-term. A strategy directed toward poverty reduction, like a food security strategy, also will be targeted to the poorest geographical regions, occupations, ethnic groups, etc., but, like a strategy to achieve broadly based economic growth, will be oriented toward the longer term.
● Feeding Programs
Feeding programs do not food security make. Rather, they are one particular response to a food security problem. Their geographic focus is location-specific and their time frame is immediate.
Ideas for Food Security Projects
May 14, 2008
Dear Country Directors, Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps staff:
I am pleased to provide the following ideas to support Peace Corps Volunteers in their need to immediately address food security issues at site. These ideas have been field tested during my experience in delivering emergency relief aid in the Sudan and Northern Uganda.
Any response to a food crisis should ideally address specific contexts (e.g. urban vs. rural, net food sellers vs. net food buyers). Each Volunteer must therefore look at their local context carefully to determine which areas need to be targeted. Here are 11 ideas, grouped into 4 categories (A,B,C, and D) that Volunteers can act on today to alleviate food security issues in their communities:
A)The more food produced and available locally, the less money people have to spend on high-priced food imported from other regions or other countries.
Volunteers can:
1) Start a vegetable garden. As food prices increase, purchases are concentrated on staple foods, while vegetables, which provide essential nutrients, are often the first to disappear from the family table. This can have a detrimental impact on health, especially for young children. Volunteers can start a vegetable garden near their house and share the harvest with their neighbors. In urban contexts, climbing beans and micro-gardens in poly-bags can maximize production in a small space. Micro-gardening enables the most vulnerable households to produce large quantities of vegetables in the small space immediately adjacent to their huts. Beneficiaries plant their vegetable seeds either in large soil filled polythene bags such as those that carry 50 kgs of sugar or grain or on the ground in small fenced plots. Some vegetable types like carrots can be transplanted to the poly-bags so that they grow out of all sides of the bags; others are climbing varieties that can climb up to cover the roofs of the huts. We implemented this micro-gardening project in many IDP/refugee camps in 2005 in Northern Uganda. The most successful households consumed 150 bundles of spinach, 80 onions, 180 tomatoes, 10 kg of beans, and 160 carrots from their micro-gardens, in addition to generating over 75,000 USh (US$42) from the sale of vegetables.