Programme for the development of strategies for in situ conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources in desert-prone areas of Africa

Background

The drylands of sub-Saharan Africa are bioclimatic zones subject to extensive meteorological and spatial variability. The biodiversity of the drylands reflects the dynamic interaction with these conditions. A large number of genotypes and allele complexes well adapted to dryland habitat conditions have evolved over millions of years, and drylands are the source of some of the most important smallholder crops, including sorghum, millet and various pulses.

Traditional farming systems in the desert-prone drylands are often characterized by the rich within-species diversity present in traditional crop varieties that farmers choose to maintain, even when modern cultivars are available. The local varieties are preferred for a number of reasons, including indigenous knowledge and perceptions about their adaptation in arid conditions, food or nutritive value, as well as tastes and habits that have become part of the social fabric over generations. The propensity of farmers to make these choices and to continue to adapt and select material to their own consumption patterns and production requirements is an essential component of sustainable agriculture, particularly in dealing with environmental stress. Where environments are highly variable, with marked unpredictable aridity or salinity stress, diversity can ensure that a minimum level of productivity is achieved, even under the most unfavourable conditions.

Desertification, increasing population pressure and competition for grazing have placed production systems under stress, undermining the formerly effective buffers against production losses. The original thinking of the project was probably that desertification caused loss of diversity. This has evolved toward the idea that that farmers maintain and use diversity to mitigate some of the effects of desertification, thereby providing buffers against production loss. Farmers therefore need support in optimizing the availability of diversity and its use.

Farmer motivations for maintaining diversity can be broadly categorized in three main natural resource management strategies:

• Risk management: variation in rainfall is the most frequently cited risk factor, and different varieties perform well in different years.
• Optimization of production factors: farmers frequently explain that they select different varieties to match differing conditions, such as differences in soil water regimes, even within the same field.
• Diversity of uses: a diversity of crops plays an important role in maintaining a balanced diet, while varietal diversity may relate to a large number of different uses. Thus sorghum grain is used for porridge, boiling, brewing beer, etc., while the stalks are used for fencing, thatching, chewing, etc., and no one variety will be good for all these uses.

These strategies are all more important in marginal areas, where limiting factors are more critical and more diverse, and transaction costs are high.

Grant purpose

• The overall objective was to develop project instruments for IFAD interventions designed to address genetic erosion caused by drought and desertification in the dryland ecology of Africa.
• The aim was to mitigate the impact of temporary drought–induced stress, through strategies for monitoring, analysing, assessing and addressing the desertification phenomenon.

Components

• Site identification and selection, with survey, mapping and genetic inventory and analysis of these areas at different levels of risk of desertification. Agro-ecological and eco-geographic distribution of three selected field crop species (sorghum, millet and cowpea) were to be mapped. Methodology to assess indicators of genetic erosion were to be tested and developed, with documentation of indigenous knowledge concerning genetic variation and genetic erosion of the target species and traditional coping strategies to prevent and reduce genetic erosion.
• Development of community participatory methodologies for monitoring and maintenance of genetic resources vulnerable to desertification, with socio-economic studies carried out in selected areas to document factors related to the inter-generational maintenance of genetic diversity by farmers, pastoral communities and indigenous groups.
• Action research at selected project sites for testing models of community-based in situ gene banks and on-farm seed production systems. IFAD, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) and FAO, assisted by the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) would coordinate relevant NGOs in the development of community-based inventory and survey methods, and support their application as a primary source of information for the documentation of indigenous knowledge on genetic preference, performance and erosion in the target species in the study area. Community-run gene banks, seed-storage and exchange systems would be tested as viable instruments of conserving and utilizing genetic material.
• Development of tools for cost-benefit analysis for use in IFAD project design for capturing costs due to desertification and benefits from intervention to conserve and utilize endangered traditional crop genetic resources.

Impact

The programme was successful in recognizing and integrating farmers’ skills and resourcefulness into the research process, particularly through the tight interactions between research stakeholders at the centre of this endeavour.

• The project made important advances in understanding the complex role that genetic diversity plays in the coping strategies of farmers. This is based on a description of the crop genetic diversity, its extent and distribution, the socio-economic situation, environmental factors and on participatory diagnosis.
• Preliminary achievements in Mali and Zimbabwe included the identification of some of the key elements for devising potential strategies to help farming communities living in these vulnerable areas to gain sustainable access to traditional varieties of their preferred crops. These elements comprise socio-economic and ethnic aspects, traditional storage techniques, local knowledge generation and dissemination mechanisms, as well as traditional experimentation patterns.
• The programme tested several methodologies, including:

  (i) seed diversity fairs that facilitate information flow and seed exchange among farmers (increasing the effectiveness of farmer deployment of diversity);
  (ii) farmer field schools and farmer schools on biodiversity, which are on-farm participatory diagnosis and experimentation processes jointly carried out by farmers and researchers and extension agents (this approach is currently under assessment for identifying its scaling-up potential); and
  (iii) approaches to improved seed storage, such as community gene banks and experimentation with traditional storage techniques.
  

• The programme, involving a number of farming communities in the semi-arid areas of Mali and Zimbabwe, where IFAD-financed projects were located, mobilized a coalition of actors ranging from national agricultural research systems (NARS) (particularly national plant resources programmes), international organizations (IPGRI and FAO), and several local and international NGOs.

Links to related research results

International

International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)

Mali

Community-Based Natural Resources Management and Biodiversity Conservation in the Interior Delta of Niger, Mopti Region

Technical Advisory Notes (TANs)

Not applicable.

Contact

Dr Mikkel Grum
IPGRI Scientist, Genetic Diversity – Sub-Saharan Africa
c/o ICRAF,
PO Box 30677,
Nairobi, Kenya
Telephone (direct): INT+254+ 2 524 505
Telephone (office): INT+254+ 2 524 509 (IPGRI) or INT+254+ 2 524 000 (ICRAF)
E-mail: m.grum@cgiar.org; ipgri-kenya@cgiar.org

Contact in IFAD

Dr Shantanu Mathur
Technical Adviser, Economic and Financial Analysis
Technical Advisory Division, IFAD, Rome
Telephone: INT+39+ 06 5459 2515
Fax: INT+39+ 06 5459 2018
E-mail: s.mathur@ifad.org