Case study Identity Card

Long title:  Low cost and Smart innovations in Manure management in Agro-pastoral systems of Western Burkina Faso
Geographical coverage of the case: Tuy region, Burkina Faso (West)
Case study team: Eric Vall (CIRAD, Selmet), Mahamoudou Koutou (Cirdes), Syndhia Mathé (CIRAD, Innovation)
Years covered: 2005-2015

Case study description

The innovation under study: the management of organic manure at farm level in the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of western Burkina Faso, a group of actors for innovation.

How can soil fertility be maintained in the mixed crop-livestock farming systems of western Burkina Faso, when traditional practices are no longer sufficient? By rethinking the management of organic fertiliser produced on farms. This was the idea behind a research programme that took place from 2005 to 2012 in Tuy province. A programme associating researchers, producers and stakeholders in the design of new practices, which is still being reproduced three years after it ended.

In western Burkina Faso, for a long time, fallows were the main farming practice to ensure the maintenance of soil fertility. In the early 2000s, due to huge human pressure on land, fallows became shorter and shorter, and were no longer enough for soil regeneration. Given that almost all family farms combine cattle rearing with cotton and maize growing as part of their farming systems, producing organic fertiliser on farms appeared as an appropriate option.

However, organic fertiliser production on farms was stagnating. Only 9% of farm demand was covered, with poor quality organic fertiliser, and barely 12% of agricultural residues and faeces were recycled. Moreover, the percentage of farms equipped to produce this fertiliser was low: 7% had field pits and 33% had house pits close to where animals slept. The latter system has a major drawback, in that crop residues have to be carried from the field to the pit, and the fertiliser has to be carried in turn from the pit to the fields, with substantial losses of residues that are not recycled.

Designing the innovation with producers

The idea was therefore to move part of organic fertiliser production to the fields, while optimising its management and use. Research began in 2005 in seven villages in Tuy province, and involved researchers from a number of regional organisations – CIRDES, INERA, IER, UPB/IDR – and from CIRAD. The process was based in particular on close collaboration with the producers themselves.

Indeed, research conducted previously on organic fertiliser management had met with little success among farmers, who had not adopted the suggested improvements since they had not participated in their design.

This time, the researchers therefore opted for an action-research in partnership approach associating farmers and rural stakeholders (such as extension services, etc.) with the development of the innovation.

In 2008, this research produced an organic fertiliser management model inspired by the one implemented by Malian farmers themselves several years earlier. The first co-design schemes began to operate, with the installation of around 15 experimental organic fertiliser pits.

An expanding process

Based on these initial results, the research gained momentum. In 2008, it received far more substantial resources and moved up to the next level: the Fertipartenaires project. CIRDES and CIRAD provided methodological and logistical support, INADES provided training and capacity building for actors, and UPPCT and the other producers’ organisations led village consultative committees, which were themselves responsible for organising and monitoring activities at the local level.

Several of these committees were subsequently set up. As a place for exchanges, discussions and also action, they enabled the development of an original organic fertiliser production model. This involved the installation of field pits and the systematic use of cotton stalks and livestock faeces, without increasing labour or inputs.

More than 1 600 pits installed

Numerous producers joined the programme and more than 1 600 pits were installed, almost half of which were in fields. This immediate circle was extended to include “neighbours” – producers who followed the activities of the committees without joining the programme, but tested fertiliser pits at home –, as well as producers’ organisations and elected officials in some local authorities, who reviewed their strategies in the light of the programme’s results.

In 2012, at the end of the programme, two thirds of the farmers who had participated in its design had mastered the organic fertiliser management techniques, compared to only one third for the population as a whole. Better still, more than 20% of farmers who had not taken part in the experiments had begun to install field pits.

Rapidly evolving practices

On farms, changes in practices are already having an impact. Between 2008 and 2012, organic fertiliser production in pits thus tripled among members of the programme, working time fell from 12 to 9 hours per day and per tonne of organic fertiliser, and production was made more efficient by lightening the workload and adjusting the production cycle to the seasons. New organic fertiliser application standards were also implemented, taking account of fertiliser quality and soil type.

After the research intervention

At the end of the project, the goals had been achieved and the scientists turned to new issues. What has now become of the innovations implemented for organic fertiliser production? Is the experiment still underway? Are the farmers continuing to install pits or are they choosing other fertiliser management models? What impact has the action-research in partnership had and how can it be assessed? In other words, how can this research be “traced” in current practices?

In 2015, three years after the project ended, the researchers addressed these questions by organising workshops enabling all actors involved to express themselves, then by convening working groups to identify and quantify the impacts of this research. They thus surveyed 48 farms – 24 experimenter farmers and 24 producer neighbours – chosen among the 350 farms studied at the beginning and end of the project, in 2008 and 2012. In total, almost 250 farms served as a basis for their analysis.

A project that is being reproduced

Capacity building is one of the primary benefits the participants derived from this project. Training courses, study visits, demonstrations and experiments have all enabled the producers to acquire new skills, whether they participated directly in the innovation as experimenters or adopted it by observing those experimenters. Moreover, we note that this learning process is still underway three years after the project ended: the innovation is still being gradually disseminated.

Changing practices with full background knowledge

Thanks to their newly acquired skills, the producers have changed the way in which they manage organic fertiliser. These changes have resulted in a series of impacts to which the actors are particularly sensitive, including an increase in farm income, soil fertility improvements and a higher level of food security.

The impacts of research are still being felt

Three years after the intervention, the impact of this research is expanding. It is not only being maintained among experimenters, but is progressing among their neighbours, who are gradually adopting the fertiliser management techniques developed by the project.

The innovation driven by research continues to develop, with support from networks of experimenters and the village consultative committees set up during the active phase of research. An initial partnership with rural actors that is producing lasting, fruitful results.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders involved in the innovation process

Value chain stakeholders : Farmers and locals farmers organizations, extension agent of agriculture services, researchers
Research stakeholders : CIRDES, INERA, BoboDioulasso University, Cirad
Civil society stakeholders : local cotton producers organization (UPPCT), cattle breeders organization (UDEK)
Institutional stakeholders : Agricultural and Livestock extension services.
Others : Inades (NGO specialized on learning)

Stakeholders impacted by the innovation process

Value chain stakeholders : Farmers and locals farmers organizations, extension agent of agriculture services, researchers
Research stakeholders : CIRDES, INERA, BoboDioulasso University, Cirad Increasing capacities in Designing innovating agricultural systems in partnership with farmers, and extension agents
Civil society stakeholders : Farmers and local cotton producers organization (UPPCT), cattle breeders organization (UDEK). Increasing capacities in Management of manures on the farm (for production an for field application)
Institutional stakeholders : gricultural and Livestock extension services Enlargement of their technical references concerning manure management in farm
Others : Renew references concerning manure management in their learning cursus.