Agroecology in West Africa

This project to promote agroecology in West Africa began in November 2016. It is focused mainly in Senegal's Fatick region, Burkina Faso's Est region and Togo's Savanes region. These areas are used primarily for growing grains and currently face problems linked to rainfall and the degradation of farmland and natural resources. 

The project therefore seeks to assess and utilize agroecology techniques tried and tested by different actors in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Togo in order provide practitioners, political bodies and associations with:

• technico-economic, social and environmental references about these agroecology techniques, and

• tools for analyzing the potential brakes and levers for developing such techniques, in order to enhance discussion between actors, brainstorming and decision-making.

A report summarizing these on-the-ground studies, supplemented with other tests carried out in the sub-region, will then be drawn up and broken down into two products to be distributed at the end of the project:  i) a document describing useful agroecology techniques for actors involved in agricultural development, and ii) a summarizing note to enrich dialog and advocacy with political bodies in the region and financial backers. A sub-regional workshop for discussing useful techniques will be organized.

Lastly, the results of this project need to be used to help these innovative agroecology techniques be taken into account and expanded through public policies and initiatives to help smallholder families become more resilient.

This project was supported by the ECOWAS Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF).