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Objectives
The objective of the programme was to reduce the vulnerability
of Niger’s agriculture to drought, to jump-start the rural economy
and to increase the productivity of the agricultural and pastoral production
systems.
Activities
 Project
activities would include:
- rehabilitation and development of small-scale irrigation schemes,
and rehabilitation and strengthening of support services;
- introduction, on a pilot basis, of improved local techniques for soil
and water conservation designed to be manageable and replicable by farmers,
and assistance to the Government of Niger in planning a consistent conservation
policy and an appropriate institutional support system;
- creation and strengthening of local-level herders' associations to
improve the herders' ability to manage businesses and natural resources;
providing the groups with veterinary supplies, credit and training to
improve productivity and environmental sustainability; and
- developing, in coordination with an intervention financed by the United
States Agency for International Development, a programme for applied
small-scale irrigation and agronomic research;
Outcome
Implementation of the pastoral development component was
hampered owing to insufficient financing. However, 43 herder groups (composed
of 9 000 families) were formed and 6 350 sheep and goats were
distributed on credit to the beneficiaries.
Access
to inputs and infrastructure
| Planned |
|
Achieved
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| Make herd reconstruction
credit available for households to bring their herds up to the
minimum level required for subsistence (three tropical livestock
units/person) through the purchase of small ruminants. Eligible
herders included those surviving on food aid from WFP, remittances
from relatives, or minor agricultural and dry season activities.
Set up a cereal bank with WFP support. Stocks were
to be sold to members in the dry season and replenished directly
after the harvest.
Improve animal health in cooperation with the herders'
groups. Activities were to include support for the current cattle
vaccination campaign and extension to goats and sheep. Support
included provision of vaccines; construction of corrals; and training
of herder group members or auxiliaries to undertake systematic
veterinary treatments against Vitamin A deficiency and internal
parasites and occasional treatments against diarrhoeas and pulmonary
infection. Herders' groups were also to receive training in supplementary
feeding of selected animals with decorticated cottonseed. |
Seventeen herders'
groups (out of 43) received credit for the purchase of 6 350
sheep and goats. The number of individuals benefiting from this
credit was not reported in the MTE report.
Forty-three functioning cereal banks were installed
(one for each herders' group formed), financed by revolving funds.
The programme channelled veterinary inputs through
the herders’ groups. The nature and quantity of these inputs
were not stated in the MTE report. |
Organizations
and people
| Planned
|
|
Achieved |
| Create 70 herders' groups
of approximately 30 households each over a period of three years.
These groups were to be organized around six pastoral centres
built, equipped and staffed by the programme. Each centre was
to provide veterinary, community and cooperative support services
such as group management training and literacy.
Train 24 livestock cooperative agents in the six
pastoral centres, and train a total of 385 herders in management
techniques, especially functional literacy and accounting, and
in human health. The herders to be trained were to be nominated
by the herders' groups. |
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Forty-three herders'
groups were created, for a total of 9 000 families.
The pastoral agents were not trained owing to budget
constraints.
|
Risk
management
| Planned |
|
Achieved |
| Production and marketing credit was to
be made available to members of herders' groups where members had
large herds for production, and to herders' groups receiving herd
reconstruction credit. |
|
Progress in the disbursement of production
and marketing credit is not reported in the MTE. |
Range
management
| The programme
aimed to introduce soil and water conservation measures as tools
for rehabilitating degraded agricultural land. |
| Planned
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Achieved
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| Rehabilitate 500 ha
of degraded land and bring it back into production.
Introduce conservation land-use on marginal lands
such as woodlots, fodder reserves and pasture, by applying techniques
such as 'half moons', V-shaped micro-catchments, stonewalls and
sub-soiling.
Decrease the run-off of non-productive soil by stonewalls
and contour ridging; implement dune fixation; treat gullies by
planting on the banks; and build loose rock water-spreading weirs
and windbreaks on the plateaux.
Establish a nursery of 25 000 plants in order
to provide seedlings for plantation activities. |
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Progress in these activities
was not reported in the MTE. |
Lessons learned
- Adequate financing should be assured for any proposed activities before
implementation. If funding fails, activities should be scaled down in
a controlled manner.
- Community-level cereal banks financed by revolving funds may help
to guarantee food security.
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| Project information |
Total programme cost: USD 20.9 million, Livestock cost (as percentage of total): 20%
Beneficiaries: the intended beneficiaries amounted to approximately 3 100
families. |
| References |
IFAD Reports
Report and Recommendation of the President to the Executive
Board.
Mid-Term Evaluation Report.
Evaluation of the IFAD's Special Programme for sub-Saharan
African Countries Affected by Drought and Desertification (1998). |
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