BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATIONS

Created in 2000 to defend the interests of family farms, ROPPA has consistently promoted the peasant vision of agricultural development in West Africa.

 

This is based on the firm conviction that West African Agriculture must be

(i) Modern and sustainable agriculture capable of assuming economic, social and ecological functions of wealth creation; preservation of family and national solidarity; and equitable and sustainable management of natural resources;

(ii) Agriculture capable of ensuring sufficient and stable income and a decent standard of living for agricultural producers; to generate surpluses for export and to contribute significantly to the creation of national wealth; to provide healthy food to the national and sub-regional population;

(iii) Agriculture that restores dignity to the African producer and citizen and aims to promote sustainable development that is more respectful of African values ​​and culture.

 

ROPPA’s conviction has always been that the goal of such prosperous agriculture in West Africa cannot be achieved without agricultural policies deeply oriented towards the search for food sovereignty. This implies a significant increase in agricultural food production, the development of a processing industry to meet local demand, the development of intra-regional trade and the protection of the agricultural market and farmers at the regional borders. It is in this perspective that ROPPA fought and obtained from the OIERs (UEMOA and ECOWAS) that regional agricultural policies (PAU and ECOWAP) fundamentally recognize family farms as the basis for agricultural development. But all observers agree that one of the major challenges facing West African agriculture is undoubtedly that of climate change, which increases the vulnerability of rural communities to food insecurity, hunger and poverty.

 

Food sovereignty threatened by climate change

Climate change, which must be distinguished from natural variations in climate, constitutes one of the most serious threats to the sustainable development of African countries, especially those of West Africa. This compromises the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indeed, climate change affects the food security of populations through its effects on agriculture, which remains the main source of food and income and which contributes more than 35% of the GDP of economies and employs more than 85% of the population. the population in West Africa. Extreme events (drought and flooding) are more and more frequent with negative consequences on the means of production and subsistence. Climate change could help reduce agricultural productivity and stability as well as income in many regions that already face high levels of food insecurity, while global agricultural production will need to increase by 70% over the course of over the next four decades to meet the food needs of a growing population. They also contribute to accentuating the degradation of land and other natural resources with expected adverse effects on, among others: economic activity, human health, water resources, physical infrastructure, etc.

 

Africa is considered to be the region most vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to the fragility of the economies. In its latest report, the IPCC confirms that during the 21st century, global warming in Africa will be greater than at the global level. The average temperature rise between 1980/99 and 2080/99 will range between 3 and 4 ° C across the continent, 1.5 times higher than globally. This increase will be less strong in coastal and equatorial areas (+ 3 ° C) and highest in the western part of the Sahara (+ 4 ° C).

 

Vulnerability of rural households

 

Climate change affects farmers, agricultural producers, and their societies as well as other actors in the rural world. Indeed, frequent droughts and floods result in the modification of the flows of rivers and streams, the extension of the areas affected by infectious diseases such as malaria, the increase in desertification, the precariousness of habitats. in coastal areas due to flooding and erosion, consequences of sea level rise.

 

The obvious consequences will be a reduction in the areas suitable for agriculture and pastoral purposes, increased pressure on natural resources, reduced yields and a very fluctuating food supply. The risk of food insecurity is therefore real, if appropriate adaptation and mitigation measures are not developed and made available to producers and other rural development actors.

 

According to a study carried out in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger by the Agrhymet Regional Center, the average yield of millet and sorghum crops, the staple food of Sahelian populations, would decrease between 15 and 25% of here 2080. Conversely, the average yield of rice cultivation (rainfed and irrigated) would increase.

 

Climate change could seriously disrupt the livestock sector. , which would have various consequences depending on the size of the herd. Some studies tend to show that when the temperature rises, small farms which breed more drought tolerant small ruminants (goats and sheep) are more viable. On the other hand, an increase in precipitation will most likely harm grazing animals because it will translate into a transformation of pastures into forests and possibly an increase in harmful disease vectors and, also, a displacement of livestock activities towards cultivation activities.

 

With regard to the forestry sector, it is expected that variations in temperature and rainfall will directly affect (positively or negatively) agroforestry and forestry production and uses. Adverse impacts could include changes in the levels of productivity and regeneration of trees and in the geographic distribution of pathologies and pests.

 

In coastal areas, for example, mangroves are expected to dry out, which will have repercussions on the human communities (in particular fishermen and rice farmers) who depend on them.It could also have a rise in sea level with risks aggravated by coastal erosion and real threats to oil palm and coconut plantations in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire.

So, whatever the case, climate change will transform farming and pastoral systems as well as fishing systems. This makes farmers, pastoralists, and fishermen, especially smallholders, the most vulnerable to climate change for all of West Africa. It is also recognized that women will be particularly exposed to the consequences of climate change.

 

Adaptation and mitigation: local knowledge to be used to achieve food sovereignty

 

In the past, agricultural producers and other users of natural resources have developed endogenous adaptation strategies in the face of climate variations and changes. Among these adaptation strategies we can cite the selection and diversification of adapted species and varieties, more appropriate exploitation and management practices of natural resources and water, water control and use. lowlands, integrated soil fertility management. To this must be added social adaptation measures such as mutual aid and solidarity, diversification of activities, migration, beliefs, rituals etc.

 

Thus producers make decisions aimed at minimizing climate risks and exploiting climate opportunities by using traditional knowledge than that derived from science; For example, they try to determine the planting period of their crops so that it coincides with the start of the rainy season. Likewise, water managers seek information and make decisions that aim to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on rivers and water reservoirs. Climate risk management is therefore already practiced at different levels, and with diversified effectiveness across sub-Saharan Africa; but we can do more. Africa is not yet benefiting from all that climate science has to offer. Climate information, which automatically enters decision-making in developed countries, hardly ever reaches users (decision-makers, farmers, extension workers, etc.) in a useful and usable way in Sub-Saharan Africa (IRI , 2006).

 

Likewise, it must be recognized that the products and services developed by the scientific community on the climate and on risk and disaster management have not been as useful as they could have been. It seems obvious that an integrated approach that incorporates scientific knowledge for adaptation to climate variability and change in multidisciplinary development projects and plans is required. Above all, the approach must be participatory, involving all grassroots stakeholders in order to ensure that their real needs are taken into account. The climate tools used in such an approach will improve decision-making by stakeholders by providing new information that is relevant, up-to-date and easy to implement. A case study very often cited as an example of success is that of the agro-meteorological assistance project in Mali. Integrating climate data into development efforts has the potential to induce synergistic results. For example, faced with an uncertain climate, farmers tend to “play it safer” by adopting conservation management strategies. They choose not to invest in new technologies and opt for less risky crops, but also less profitable, even when the weather conditions are good enough.

 

Therefore, properly communicating existing climate information, climate-smart agriculture technology options, could help reduce this instability, and thus could directly affect their livelihoods in a sustainable way as farmers will be more confident and will be able to increase their productivity through innovation while safeguarding the environmental health of production ecosystems (Pramod et al., 2013).

 

ROPPA-CCAFS partnership

 

It is in such a situation that ROPPA has established a partnership since 2012 with the CGIAR program on climate change, agriculture and food security (CCAFS), a research and development program which aims to (1) develop adaptation and mitigation technological and policy innovations for rural food systems, adaptive capacities and livelihoods; but also (2) to establish a diagnosis and an analysis which, from the sub-national level to the global level, will support the inclusion of agriculture in policies related to climate change, as well as that of climate issues in agricultural policies , so as to generate profits for the benefit of the rural world. The goal of the CCAFS program is to help improve the resilience of millions of farmers around the world, especially smallholders in West Africa.

This partnership materialized among other things by the organization in December 2012 of regional days of the West African peasant on the theme “Food Sovereignty in a context of climate change: the responses of regional policies”, a forum during which the program CCAFS shared with nearly 250 participants, information on promising practices and technological options of climate-smart agriculture. Building on the interest shown in this information, the forum recommended, among other things, that ROPPA undertake a large-scale promotion of good agricultural practices that would increase agricultural productivity, increase resilience and mitigate effects of climate change, particularly at the level of family farms; The participants also insisted on the need to undertake a capacity building of the network and its members to lead at the national, regional and international level, advocacy which is based on up-to-date information on strategies and policies of adaptation of the agricultural sector and food security. It should be noted that ROPPA also contributed to events organized by CCAFS such as the high-level seminar organized in Ouagadougou in October 2012 on “Climate change in West Africa: research and policy links for smart agriculture. facing the climate ”; the parallel session during the FARA science week in Accra in 2013 on the theme “Adaptation of the agricultural sector to climate change in West and East Africa: contribution of the climate-smart village model”.

 

Likewise, ROPPA and CCAFS are members of the small monitoring team for the establishment of a sub-regional alliance on CSA, under the aegis of ECOWAS. It is in this perspective that as part of its policy of food sovereignty and promotion of family farms, the Executive Secretariat of ROPPA wishes to develop collaboration with the CCAFS West Africa program in order to ensure capacity building. of its members for a better knowledge and use of the practices and technological options of climate-smart agriculture. Indeed, the CCAFS program and its partners are testing and developing climate-smart approaches, practices and technologies in pilot sites in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal. Its climate-smart sites or villages constitute veritable knowledge laboratories whose products could be used in similar contexts in West Africa. To this end, the farmer universities of ROPPA could constitute privileged places for sharing up-to-date information on the concept of AIC and the fields of application. Following the training in this area, pilot actions could be carried out with the national ROPPA platforms to assess AIC options in the context of family farms.

 

II. GOALS

 

The general objective of this partnership is to strengthen the capacities of ROPPA and its platforms on the concept of CSA and its fields of application in the context of the promotion of nourishing and income-generating family agriculture. More specifically, it will be:

 

2.1) Training of trainers on CSA:
(a) inform and raise awareness among farmers’ organizations on the issues and challenges of climate change and its impacts on the life of family farms;
(b) exchange knowledge, peasant experiences and the anticipation capacities of family farms in terms of adaptation and climate change;
(c) share knowledge on promising CSA options that can help improve the adaptive capacities of family farms;

 

2.2) Implementation of AIC pilot actions in the field with national platforms:
(a) on the basis of the CSA options successfully tested in the CCAFS pilot sites and deemed to be widely available, conduct test field schools with certain family farms that are members of the ROPPA national platforms;
(b) monitor and evaluate the uptake / scaling of AIC options and document lessons learned on the conditions for success and scaling up;

 

2.3) Sharing and mainstreaming of scientific and technical information on CSA in ROPPA’s agricultural development plans and strategies:
(a) communicate to producers up-to-date scientific and technical information on the promotion of climate-appropriate agriculture through the communication channels of ROPPA and its platforms (ROPPA policy, ROPPA productivity, policy briefs, Information notes, etc. .)
(b) ensure that the climate change dimension is taken into account and in particular by integrating and promoting AIC in ROPPA’s development plans and strategies.
(c) Capitalization of the AIC implementation experience

 

III. EXPECTED RESULTS

 

The main expected results are as follows:

 

1. FOs are trained and better understand the issues and challenges of food sovereignty in the context of climate variability and change
2. Knowledge, experiences, peasant practices as well as anticipatory capacities in terms of adaptation to climate change are capitalized and reinforced by scientific knowledge on CSA and their integration into the management of climate risk by family farms.
3. The POs that are members of ROPPA use in field schools and family farms AIC options that have been successfully tested in the CCAFS pilot sites and deemed to be widely disseminated.
4. ROPPA has made AIC the engine of sustainable and income-generating agriculture for the achievement of food sovereignty in a context of change in West Africa, which has resulted in targeted investments. on AIC.