What agroecology for the Sahel? Meeting with the agro-pastoralists of Northern Senegal

From February 7 to March 12, 2022, the Dynamics for an Agroecological Transition in Senegal (DyTAES) – a network that brings together all the players in agroecology in this West African country – undertook to go to the meeting farmers in different areas.

Today, the DyTAES caravan explores northern Senegal, an arid zone where agriculture and pastoral farming coexist with increasing difficulty.

Could agroecology open up new perspectives for actors in the area?

Heading for the pastoral area of ​​Ferlo

After a stop in the market gardening area of ​​Niayes, head north-east. As the convoy progresses, the millet fields give way to dry savannahs dotted with stunted trees.

For the fourth stage of its journey, the DyTAES stops at Linguère, in the heart of Ferlo, a Sahelian region where rains are rare and uncertain. The Ferlo is the territory of the Fulani, a people of semi-nomadic herders who have managed to survive until today thanks to pastoralism. In the dry season, the Fulani transhumance with their herds over long distances – sometimes as far as Mali and Guinea – in search of water and pasture.

Formerly in tune with its environment, this pastoral way of life is now in crisis in a context of population growth and land pressure: overgrazing, deforestation, burning and land fragmentation are all factors that destabilize the Ferlo ecosystem and make farmers increasingly vulnerable.

Ardo Sow, agent of the NGO Enda Pronat from Ferlo, points to a landscape of open savannah that stretches in the distance:

“When I was a child, this area was a forest. I am sad to see what our lands have become. »

The difficulties of transhumant herders are exacerbated by climate change. The decrease and the irregularity of the rains lead to a reduction of fodder resources and an early drying up of the water points. Herders are thus forced to change their strategy, starting transhumance earlier and earlier and going further and further.

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The impossible sedentarization of Fulani herders

Beyond Linguère, the bitumen disappears, giving way to a reticular network of all similar sand tracks.

The local team from the NGO AVSF guiding the convoy seems to know every corner of this vast territory. The caravanners plunge into the savannah towards the village of Widou, to meet a community of herders who are experimenting with a sedentary way of life.

Over there, for decades, many projects have sought in vain to settle and intensify livestock systems: penning, fodder crops, genetic improvement of livestock… attempts follow one another and failures accumulate. And for good reason, pastoralism did not settle here by chance.

It is the movement of cattle with the rains that allows herds to be maintained in changing climatic conditions. Samba Mamadou Ba, president of the Adid herders’ organization, guides us to a fenced plot, where tall yellow grass contrasts with the trampled bare earth around:

“We have protected this area in order to constitute a reserve of fodder so that the cattle can get through the dry season. »

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A fertile valley that irrigates the Sahel

After 160 km of tracks, the DyTAES caravan reaches the city of Podor on the banks of the Senegal River, the location of its fifth stage.

Wedged between two arms of the river, Podor is the former capital of the kingdom of Tekrour, established in the XI^e century, in the heart of the historic region of Fouta-Toro. During the colonial period, the city became an important trading post through which gum arabic and gold for export transited.

The Senegal River Valley consists of an intensely cultivated band that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean inland for 800 km, along the Mauritanian and Malian borders.

At the end of the rainy season, the river gradually withdraws, leaving behind banks of fertile soil soaked in water. The silty-clay soils of the Walo retain enough water to feed crops such as sorghum, millet or maize, often grown in association with cowpea (a legume that enriches the soil with nitrogen). The plots are naturally fertilized by animals left in vain grazing in the fallow land.

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This traditional so-called “recession” cropping system is now in decline. Since the 1930s, it has been gradually replaced by a new form of agriculture, both irrigated and intensive, which is deployed in large landscaped areas also called “cabins”.

Hydraulic infrastructures – dams, pumps, canal networks – are built and managed by a state company whose goal is the “development of the Senegal River valley”. It is in these compartments that agro-industrialists and farmers’ unions practice monoculture with a lot of fertilizers and chemical pesticides. They produce the bulk of Senegalese rice, onions, industrial tomatoes, sugar cane and market garden crops for export, such as cherry tomatoes or green beans.

The rise of this highly capitalized agriculture is accompanied by pollution problems, a decrease in soil fertility (caused by phenomena of salinity, erosion and acidification) and tensions with other resource users. natural. In particular, herders from the Ferlo pastoral zone are affected by the reduction in routes and transhumance corridors.

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The women of the river are paving the way for agroecology

On the fringes of monoculture areas, DyTAES caravanners met groups of women who practice agroecology in collective gardens. Almost everywhere around the villages, they have given rise to veritable oases of life and diversity which contrast with the parched lands of the Walo.

There is a great diversity of plants, often grown in association in order to disturb pests and optimize water use. Vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants mix together in each cultivation bed to form a carnival of colors and scents.

The plots are criss-crossed with fruit or fertilizer trees which form a protective and nourishing stratum above the ground. The plots are amended with manure or compost and phytosanitary treatments are limited to the use of herbal decoctions (eg neem, garlic, pepper). The women of the river have preferred agroecology to chemical agriculture, because they say they produce first to feed their families.

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The next stages of the caravan will take us to the central area of ​​Senegal, where millet and groundnut producers are working to protect their trees in order to rebuild traditional agroforestry parks.

Jean-Michel Sene (Enda Pronat), Laure Brun Diallo (Enda Pronat), Thierno Sall (Enda Pronat), Ardo Sow (Enda Pronat), Mamadou Sow (Enda Pronat), Alice Villemin (Avsf), Cheikh Djigo (Avsf) and Malick Djitté (Fongs) are co-authors and co-authors of this article.

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