1. EVERGREEN AGRICULTURE:
Case Study for Niger
Abasse Tougiani

2. Agro-ecological zones in Niger : climatic zones

3. THE SITUATION IN THE EARLY 1980s

4. REACTIONS IN THE 1980s TO THE CRISIS:
Land rehabilitation using water harvesting techniques
Technical breakthrough in soil and water conservation enabling effective rehabilitation of
degraded land

5. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is the systematic regeneration of
living and sprouting tree stumps. From these living stumps of indigenous trees and
shrubs, numerous shoots sprout. FMNR involves selection and pruning of desired
stems, culling of rejected stems and regular pruning of undesired re-growth

6. Today the situation on many farms is very different.

7. Main species used in FMNR in Niger and considered for fertility ,windbreak and
Fodder function
species Fertility Wind break Fodder
Piliostigma
reticulatum
xx xx x
Guiera
senegalensis
xx xx xx
Faidherbia albida xxx xx xxx
Prosopis africana xx xx xx
Hyphaene
thebaica
xx x
Combretum
glutinosum
x xx x
Annona
senegalensis
xx
Cassia singueana xx
Dichrostachys
cinera
x xx

8. •Faidherbia
albida parkland
with tree density
ranged between
40 to 50 trees
restore per
hectare 100kg
of Nitrogen, 18
kg of calcium, 20
kg of manganese
and 2 kg of
potassium.
• Millet yield of
2910 kg/ha
under Faidherbia
albida parkland
versus opened
field with value
of 367kg/ha

10. Enhancing Tree diversity through Participatory
Domestication

11. Drivers that bring the re-greening process forward
Ideas and models:
Agroforestry practices emerged both from indigenous knowledge , but also from
research;
 New approaches to Research and Development ;
External catalysts:
The environmental crisis of the 1970s and 1980s created in the farmers the need
to find innovative ways
Social drivers:
Farmers took a central role;
Forming new organizational structures;
Capacity building of communities

12. Spaces for re-greening initiatives to grow:
Partnership space:
 Spreading technical innovation requires coordinated and flexible
configuration of actors;
Cultural space:
 The Sahelian countries have a great diversity of cultures and
livelihood systems, which requires a flexible menu of technical
options that farmers can adapt to their own socio-economic and
environmentalconditions;
Institutional/organisational capacity space:
 The technical aspects of agroforestry are fairly simple, but the
management of the new tree capital requires not only trainings
but also the creation of new local institutions

13. THANK YOU!
« A land without Trees is like a people without hope »