Evolution des relations entre l’agriculture et l’élevage dans les savanes d’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre

Abstract

Evolution of relations between agriculture and breeding was studied in peanut basin in Senegal and cotton area in northern Cameroon. Joint development of animal traction, peanut and cotton furthered the emergence of mixed systems (agriculture and breeding). The producer’s strategy of capitalization in cattle is still existing but conflicts in access to natural resources and evolution of urban markets let them to intensify breeding systems, especially in high populated areas located near cities. To make these evolutions sustainable, it’s necessary to enhance vegetal biomass production and to reduce losses of water and soil nutrients. Weaknesses of approaches based only on technology transfer have been shown. Research must get involved more actively in developing different options with farmers to manage production areas (from farm to region). At the end, a renewed framework for analysis and intervention is proposed. It combines 3 complementary approaches related to (i) technical farming systems, (ii) management of production units and organization of commodity chains, and (iii) collective resource management.

Keywords

• agriculture
• breeding
• farming system
• management
• Senegal
• Cameroon