Tropicultura (Jan 2008)
Les enjeux socio-économiques autour de l'agroforesterie villageoise à Aguié (Niger)
Abstract
Issues around Village Agroforestry in Aguié (Niger). In the framework of a partnership between the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey (Niger), The Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), The Gembloux Agricultural University (Belgium), The University of Liege (Belgium), The asbl ENDA Intermondes and the PPILDA Project, former PDRAA of Aguié (Niger), studies were conducted in 2003 and 2004 in two villages (Dan Saga and Guidan Bakoye) in Aguié, located in the Region of Maradi (Middle South of Niger). These studies were requested by farmers, and aimed at precising the feasibility and conditions for creating a rural wood market. They consisted in the evaluation of the assisted natural regeneration obtained through the protection of tree shoots in the fields. Dan Saga and Guidan Bakoye villages are typical Combretum glutinosum and Piliostigma reticulatum areas where farmers from all social categories practised the assisted natural regeneration, leading to densities of more than 100 trees per hectare in the fields. These densities increase with the increasing distance from the villages. The weekly amount of offered firewood (about 10 to 50 bundles of 25 kg each) and timber in the local market could generate more than CFA 1 million income. However, the lack of local purchasers makes it difficult to sell more than the third of the wood production. This is what seems to be another reason for creating a wood market network. This network would be a grouping of villages not always belonging to the same administrative entity, but organized around common social and economical development concerns. The PPILDA Projet calls such a network a "Between-Villages Network". The management of the natural regeneration of tree species in the fields has favoured the emergence of various actors whose conflicting interests destabilized the pre-existing social structures. The only way to adapt to these social mutations is to establish an incentive agroforestry policy, to define the new actors' role and to make an important investment in the capacity building of these actors.
