Chronic and acute food insecurity and malnutrition impacts the livelihoods of the

most vulnerable Nigeriens. The Human Development Report ranks Niger in 186 out

of 187 developing nations. Agriculture constitutes 40% of GDP and engages 85% of

the population, and the majority of the most vulnerable people depend on subsis-

tence farming for their livelihoods Human Development Index. Productive liveli-

hoods are hindered by poor health, as well as poor agricultural productivity and

weak market systems leading to malnutrition. Addressing this storm of challenges

requires a holistic approach that would target reducing malnutrition among women

and children, increasing production and consumption of nutritious food and income,

and improved environment management.

• baCkground

Reduce food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable rural populations in

Maradi and Zinder (Niger) through among others increased production and

consumption of food for nutrition and income.

• objeCtives

Program implementation approach fosters integration and coordination through

engaging communities. Communities self-assess assets, systems and structures, such

as organizations, value systems, power structures and belief systems that regulate

people’s access to and use of assets. The process engages community, government,

religious leaders, and other stakeholders, and builds capacity of communities to

facilitate the process. Results are used to develop annual program plans, define com-

munity level indicators, and monitor and evaluate progress using giant scoreboards.

Final goal is to foster program ownership, encourage community-led management

of activities, and plan for the project exit strategy from start-up.

• methodology

With focus on ICRISAT interventions, following are the activities:

Activity 1: Increased household horticulture production for consumption and

income

Activity 2: Increased household knowledge of staple crops

Activity 3: Improved seed management and supply chain established

Activity 4: Improved household mastery of soil fertility management techniques

Activity 5: Improved household mastery of integrated pest management

techniques.

• aCtivities

Focusing on activities with ICRISAT involvement, the following can be considered:

1• After three years 99 units of Biological reclamation of degraded land (BDL)

covering 171.57 ha involving 4,081 women were implemented

2• Women of one of the sites (Zakarawa) increased their annual income by

80,000 FCFA per participant through the sale of annuals such as okra, sorrel,

and Sena Obstufolia

3• A total of 80 vegetable garden sites were developed covering 89.5 ha with

the involvement of 4,433 producers

4• A total of 163 local experts were trained to conduct demonstrations in parti-

cipatory variety selection, Integrated Soil Fertility and Pest Management, as

well farmer field schools in addition to which 24,806 (67.1% women) program

participants received short-term agricultural sector productivity or food se-

curity training

5• Following the demonstration activities in participatory variety selection and

integrated soil fertility management, 26.8 % of farmers used at least one im-

proved variety of macro-nutrient dense foods at the end of year 3 of the pro-

gram compared to 8.7% at baseline.

• results and main aChievements

• Current partnerships and future

engagements for out sCaling

The activities contribute strongly to improve food quality and quantity at household

level

The level of activities achievement indicates the engagement of the communities

for program ownership.

Successes in term of knowledge acquirement and technology pickup constitute

strong asset at community level for action perpetuation.

Partners:

The Catholic Relief Service (CRS), ICRISAT, GRET and the Ministry of Agriculture

• ConClusions

It is a development program which involves:

1• The ministry of Agriculture

2• The ministry of health

3• The ministry of environment

4• GRET

5• ICRISAT

6• INRAN

7• The University Abdou Moumouni of Niamey

8• The University of Maradi

DFAP - Reducing Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Among Vulnerable

Rural Population in Niger Dougbedji Fatondji1, James Quarshie2

1ICRISAT Sahelian Center2Catholic Relief Service, Niger

Corresponding author email: d.Fatondji@cgiar.org

Legume harvested in BDL plots

Discussion during Agro-ecolocal analysis session in a Farmer Field School