Small holder Conservation Agriculture Promotion (SCAP) in west and central Africa
This grant project is a work in progress, building with a participative approach; an important step of the process was the Ouagadougou workshop in May 2006 (Refer to the article dedicated to this event). You will find bellow a summary of the draft project document; it will be officially submitted to IFAD until the end of 2006.
The project development objective is to raise the productivity and improve the sustainability of natural resources in WCA, as a way to reduce rural poverty and to improve the rural poor’s access to technology and natural resources including land and water.
The specific objective is to promote conservation agriculture (CA) - based community and smallholder-driven NRM, cropping and farming systems. The latter would be “crafted” according to the environmental, social and economic conditions. The modifications and improvements in the productive, economic and social conditions for the farmers implementing these technologies would be identified, together with the appropriate dynamics / itineraries to introduce alternative CA techniques into existing farming systems. In order to provide for up-scaling through investment projects, the legal, social and environmental prerequisites for a CA-based component will be identified. Moreover, a farmer innovator network will be established as a means for achieving large-scale adaptation of CA systems and dissemination of local/indigenous and exogenous knowledge.
The project is a solid contribution to the IFAD’s strategy for rural poverty reduction in WCA. It contributes directly to the second strategic thrust which is to “raise agricultural and natural resource productivity and improve access to technology”; it further complements this strategic provision as it aims at improving the sustainability of the natural resources. The project also addresses some of the key areas emerging from the recently approved IFAD Action Plan including fostering innovation and knowledge management.
Contact : Florent Maraux f.maraux@ifad.org