Phase 2Indigenous crop development in sahelian area of Burkina FasoAn alternative for on-farm agrobiodiversity management for local seed security (BURKINA FASO) PHASE II, 2000-2003 ON-FARM TRIALS The following results were obtained during the On-farm experimentation of the Participatory Seed Production (PSP): Seed plotMillet seed production at Pobé-Mengao and Tougouri:Following the training on seed production at the FNGN (Ouahigouya), Pobé-Mengao and Tougouri, farmers were requested to reconsider their methods of seed supply or production. Since they are now convinced that it is difficult to get pure seed from ears selection in the field, farmers decided to have separated seed plots. They decided to have seed plots according to their environmental and selection criteria specifics:
Anyway, farmers adopted the principle of isolation and it has been strengthen by different planting dates. The farmers had no assistance to set their design. Therefore it could be conclude that the training was fruitful. They were advised to harvest ears in northern and southern parts of their seed plot. Farmers of Tougouri preferred time isolation: they use the differences between variety cycles. They also preferred millet to sorghum. Since there were 30 days difference between V1 and V2 cycles, these varieties were planted the same day; whereas, considering the 10 days between V3 and V4; 10 days were used between their two planting dates, V4 being planted first. V1 and V2 flowering dates will have a gap of 25 = 30 days reducing the pollen flux between two varieties which were far away from each other by 625 m. V4 having 110 days and planted 20 days before V3 (90 days) could flower at the same time as V3. This could favour cross pollination leading to a poor seed purity and quality. Purity screening on-farmRemoving off-types in the seed plot to guaranty seed purity was a vary important step in seed production. Seed plot purification should be conducted during the plants life cycle. Boardering areas should also be monitored in order to destroy all possible source of plant contamination.Purification should be done before flowering to avoid pollen contamination. Only those plants meeting the variety characteristics should be left to grow. Following the training session on reproduction, isolation and purity screening, farmers of Tougouri also recognised that their traditional way of seed renewal was not efficient enough to get pure seeds. They think that the lack of purity screening leads to non-healthy seeds. They realised that they use to select based on size and they were not paying enough attention to uniformity of individuals selected for seeds. Purity screening in field schools and community plotsThe numbers of purity screening and farmers trained (0-6) were very low. Emphasis should therefore be but in training activities to increase the number of farmers to be trained (6-15) and the number of screening (3-5).During the year 2002, training session will be held in the village of Toeyogdin, Namassa and Titao focusing local varieties seed production. Moreover, training modules will be translated into local languages so that they could be used by the local language speaking schools called "Bantaré. Participatory Varietal Selection plotsAlso called School Plot, the PVS plots were created in order to practice the training programs content. They are the place where seed production techniques are applied. Cultural practices soil and water management, mineral and organic matter, thinning, crop protection, fields isolation and variety purity conservation.Those school plots are also placed where knowledge exchange is realised between researchers/technicians and farmers focusing seed production. They can also be used to promote research findings and new technologies. Finally they are training and persuasion tools. Community plots or fieldsA community plots is a plot where farmers of a village or from several villages meet to practice and conduct seed production techniques. It is different from the PVS plot because farmer conducted all activities and decides which variety to plant. All jobs were accomplished by farmers in accordance to what has been learnt during the training session or applied in the PVS plots.Quantities of seeds available To farmers, seeds are the best part of the stock. Good quality seeds are selected from the field or after harvesting. The best panicle/ears/pods are selected and carefully conserved as seed for next season. There is not a specific or separate seed plot. Therefore, the 2000-2001 seed production initiative has put emphasis on our individual and community seed plots. Farmers were provide with fertilisers (NPK, 1 bag = 50 kg):
Also, a cart and a plough will be sent to each of the 9 villages. Conservation bags will also be sent soon to farmers. They have to keep their seeds in safe condition until the prices become favourable before selling them. ResultsEach of three farmers planted sorghum in a plot of 3.3 ha in each village. The mean yield was 632.24 kg/ha. This yield can be considered good compared to on-station trials with high inputs. Farmers' fields had poor soils also. For these reasons, the sorghum variety was considered to have expressed a good level of its potential in those poor conditions. It is thought that if grown in favourable soils, it could yield better than or get the same yield as the improved varieties bred in optimal conditions.On average of 76.81 kg of seeds were selected per village by the 3 farmers. This amount represents 3.86 % of the total production and will be kept for next season. The main problem was planting. If for any reason the farmer has to plant a second time them he is out of seeds and has to get it from his neighbours or from the market. So, farmers have to produce more seeds to guaranty their next plantings. Seed security stocks vary from 0.00 kg (Medega, Thiougou) to 486.00 (at Noufoundou). These results show the lack of a seed management policy for most of the farmers. Long term conservation of sorghum is not a common practice. Seeds are simply selected from the field conserved for the following rainy season only. Conservation conditions are not good and could justify the fact. Working in accordance with the expressed interest of farmers in having long term conservation facilities, the CBDC project is putting emphasis on training. From the individual millet fields, the quantity of seeds was 42.44 kg/village i-e. 14,15 kg/family. This represents 3.58% of the farmer total production similar to the ratio observed with sorghum. Seed security column once more shows the lack of seed management policy. Only 3 villages (Noufoundou, Pobé and Thiougou) have a seed security stock. Villages from Tougouri site showed the lowest yields, probably due to low soil fertility, low fertiliser use, low rainfall. Seed production from Community fields.Groundnut and okra are appreciated crops and daily consumed throughout the country. Groundnut oil is of high economic value and its subproducts are consumed. Children particularly love the locally produced "coura-coura" from groundnuts.Together with the kante butter and tobacco, women sell groundnut and okra in the local market. A total of 25.48 kg of okra seeds were conserved by the women of Medega. Tougouri and Pobé-Mengao, that is respectively 2.35 kg, 3.13 kg and 20 kg. As okra seeds can be conserved for long time under farmer conditions (2-4 years), it is clear that the women will have enough to plant the following year. Okra harvested as fresh yielded 262.8 kg for all 3 groups of women with Pobé out yielding the 2 other sites. The dry okra produced 37.07 kg for the 3 sites. Since okra’s price increases during the period from March to May, women should produce a lot and conserve until that time to make more profit. Another solution could be to plant during the off-season under irrigation to provide neighbouring towns with okra. Farmers realised high seed production of groundnut, millet, cowpea and sorghum in community fields this year. As shown in the table, the seed production were 980 kg for groundnut (1 variety), 537.4 kg for 2 cultivars of millet, 190.2 kg for 2 cultivars of cowpea and 37.62 kg for 4 sorghum cultivars. An accurate estimation of the total seeds produced and available on-farm should consider amounts produced on individual plots. Taking into consideration seeds produced in individual and community fields, the CBDC farmers seeds were estimated as:
Sed Supply Systems On-farmThe Norwegian Development Fund supported this activity whose objective was to understand farmers seed supply system. A socio-economic investigation on-farm was applied to the families involved in the CBDC project by the FNGN; information was collected in Bougouré, Gassan, Kaïn and Kougny villages on millet, sorghum, cowpea and groundnut the results helped to complete basic information on households.They also allowed a better understanding of the utilization of each crop. Final productions vary between crops with yields per ha of 400-1200 kg for millet, 600-2100 kg for groundnut, 200-800 kg for cowpea and 200-800 kg for okra. Production cost also varies, 9.000 to 100.000 CFA francs. Seeds are collected from the field and could be used in part for sale or exchange to meet families needs. The following species were studded using 79 farmers (49 men and 30 women) at Gassan, Kougny, Kaïn and Pobé-Mengao. They were Pennisetum glaucum (millet), Sorghum bicolor (sorghum), Vigna unguiculata (cowpea), Zea mays (maize), Hibiscus esculentus (okra) and Arachis hypogea (groundnut). Production distribution in natural settings:
We have to state that the peasant normally doesn’t want to buy seeds from the market; he prefers part of his own production. But in case of severe seed loss, he is obliged to buy grain from the market to be used as seed in the circumstances. The family in-law constitutes the 3rd source of seeds for the farmer of at the very least the family that knows best seeds management system. Indeed, there is a conscious (needed) exchange or unconscious (spontaneous without reason) exchange of seeds between the farmers and his family in-law and vice-versa. There’s conscious exchange when one uses the seeds of the other when needs be. However, it can happen that the woman when leaving her family brings one or two varieties of okra, groundnuts or other plants to her husband’s family. This constitutes an "unconscious" introduction that happens with the frequency of:
Governmental organs and seeds services:This source concerns crops such as beans (Pobé-mengao) potatoes, onions and family plants. Seeds obtained are often in only one way: from NGO/GSS to farmer and rarely the reverse; with a frequency of one variety every 12 years during the last 30 years.It is worth mentioning that onion and potato seeds are renewed almost every two years by the NGO/GSS. Research through the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research of the Ministry of Agriculture (M.A.) constitutes also a source of seeds supply. This domain is however confronted with multiple difficulties due to the complexity of the farmer setting concerning the introduction of new varieties. Such varieties may be productive but they usually don’t correspond to the farmer's other criteria such as taste, or on another front require a lot of agricultural inputs. Gender Role in the Selection and the Systems of Conservation of SeedsSeed SelectionSeeds are selected at the complete maturity stage, just before harvesting on the farm and takes into account the sowing dates, the good maturity of ears, panicles, the satisfactory aspect and the beauty of the grain as far as cereals are concerned. As for the leguminous crops, it is the good and well filled husks which are kept and after husking the best grains are conserved. There are sometimes socio-cultural and religious rituals just before proceeding to seeds harvesting. Seed conservation
Peasants use different materials to store crops and conserve seeds. The age vary from 2 to 190 years. These are:
The ears and panicles are woven and then suspended to trees, in a corner of the granary or the silo. No conservation product is used. The ears or panicles are gathered in "diguiri" small heaps for millet or in "kaloré" small clusters for sorghum and conserved on trees, near houses or on hut roofs or sometimes in the same granary with the crops. Cereal ears and panicles are tied in bundles and conserved in granaries or silos in straw. Leguminous grains are conserved in earth silos, in jars and pots. The different species and the products used to conserve seeds Most often cereal ears or panicles don’t require conservation products. However the other seeds require conservation products. Leguminous seeds are mixed with heated ash and conserved in jars, canaries or bags. "Youmbyouga" leaves (hyptis spicigera) serve also as conservation plants. The conservation of groundnut husks is not done without conservation products. Bean grains are mixed either with tree leaves powder or with ash. Okra is either tied to hut beam or is conserved in form of fruit hanged by the peduncles to trees, or in grains put in pots or gourds. The interest of hanging seeds is to reduce the humidity rate to a degree appropriate to ensure the grains viability. To fight against termites, peasants very often use wastes of karite butter, charcoals from old batteries, animal excrements and karite ashes and combretum fragrans (Koimiga in Mooré) ashes to splash the granaries. The following plants are also used to conserve the leguminous; these are : Cissus quarangularis, Hyptis spicigera, hyptis suaveolens, sanve vieria, liberica, Boscia senegalensis, Crotalaria pallida and Hibiscus asper. The gender issue: women participate actively in all the agricultural domains. They are exclusively in charge of crops like pepper, okra, doa, gara, boutou farming. The main bottle-necks in varieties selections An unfavourable pseudoclimatic environment. This concerns essentially the capricious and aggressive behaviour of the climate, the natural poverty of the soils and the little use of inputs. Biotic constraints These are mainly the harmful actions of predators like insects, and diseases that attack the stems, the leaves and the grains of the crops. It also includes the harmful effects of weeds like Striga. Storage technical constraints The causes of seed deterioration known by the peasants are humidity, temperature, insects and man’s action. The water tenor is the quantity of water contained in the grains. A little variation of water tenor has a great effect on the conservation duration. The tenor that increases seeds viability during the storage is about 7 percent (IPGRI – 1995). However, the peasants have their traditional methods of drying which does not determine this tenor. In some cases seeds are conserved with water tenor a bit higher, which most often provoke mushrooms on the seed stocks. Social constraints The peasant is often confronted with famine which makes it difficult for him to conserve seeds alone in one place; and most often the grains intended for consumption and seeds are conserved in the same granary. Support to farmers' organisation In its objectives, the CBDC project wants to provide all feasible support to peasants in order to permit them self-management at the completion of the CBDC program. During this semester, training sessions and debate-meeting have permitted researchers and peasants to exchange knowledge and to apply on the field the integrated strategies and methods of seeds production and participatory varietal selection. Support in the form of chemical fertilizers, farming tools, collection material and agricultural products transportation, is also provided to the peasants (this concerns test peasants per site). |