Precision Agriculture and
climate risks management in
Niger: case of drought control
By
Aїssatou Sitta
BAE graduate student
Outline
•
•
•
•
General information on Niger
Brief overview on Agriculture in Niger
Main climate/weather related risks
Drought precision management
– Management at national level (technical part)
– Products to help in decision-making (seasonal climate
outlook, crop water satisfaction indexes, Soil Moisture
Map, potential yield map, weather forecast information)
– Information dissemination to help for decision-making
– Site-specific management of Drought
• Possible improvement of the management method
with new Precision Agriculture Technologies
• Conclusion
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General information
• Niger is a landlocked nation in
West Africa located along the
border between the Sahara
and Sub-Saharan regions and
surrounded by Algeria, Libya,
Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Burkina
Faso and Mali.
• Capital city: Niamey
• Area: 1,267,000 sq km
(489,191 sq mi), 2/3 is desert
• Population: 14,668,743 (2008)
• Hot and dry climate with short
rainy season (June to October)
and a long dry season
(November to May)
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Brief overview on Agriculture in Niger
• 85% of Population involved in Agriculture
and livestock sector accounting for 34.8% of
the country GDP (FAO)
• Food crops: millet, sorghum, cassava, rice,
sugar cane, and some vegetables
• Cash crops: onion, cowpea, groundnut,
cotton
• Livestock composition: camels, cattle, sheep,
goats, donkeys, horses, poultry
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Millet, the staple food in rural areas
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Some constraints to Agriculture
production in Niger
• Small size farms (5ha or less) cannot ensure the
return of big investments => very little
mechanization and mineral fertilizer use
• Farmers with low incomes cannot afford costly
fertilizers and other high-cost inputs
• High illiteracy rate of farmers that might made
difficult the use of high-tech precision agriculture
technologies even they could be available for them
• Environmental limiting factors: soils poverty,
climate risks…
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Main climate risks in Niger (1)
• Dust/Sand
storm
Photo courtesy of AGRHYMET Center
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Main climate risks in Niger (2)
Severe dust storm at the beginning of growing season can cause the loss of seedlings
Photos courtesy of ICRISAT
Photos courtesy of WMO
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Main climate risks in Niger (3)
• Floods
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Flooded Millet field (Photo courtesy of LTGA)
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Main climate risks in Niger (4)
• Drought
The most severe and most
frequent climate risk in
Niger.
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(Photos courtesy of WMO)
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What is drought?
• Many definitions according to the discipline
considered. However…
• …All types of drought originate from a deficiency of
precipitation (Wilhite and Glantz 1985).
• Meteorological drought occurs when this deficiency
spans an extended period of time
• Agricultural drought is the deficiency related to soil
water availability to support crop and forage growth
• Hydrological drought is defined in terms of the
departure of surface and subsurface water supplies
from some average condition at various points in time.
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Drought impacts
• High reduction
of Agriculture
production
• Loss of
livestock
• Recurrent
food crisis
• Ecosystems
destruction
(Photos courtesy of ILRI)
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Example of drought impacts on
ecosystems in Niger
Rapid decline
of what was
formerly the
world’s 6th
largest lake
Source: UNEP Atlas of Our Changing Environment
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How can Precision Agriculture
Technologies help to control Drought?
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Remote sensing/GIS/climatic
data/crop modeling in drought control
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Types of Satellite data used (1)
• NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data and Rainfall
estimation images provided by FEWS-NET
(Famine Early Warning System Network)
through African Data Dissemination Service
website
• Spot NDVI data and estimated rainfall data
from MSG satellite images provided by
AGRHYMET regional center
• MSG real-time imagery provided by
EUMETSAT for short-term weather forecast
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Types of Satellite data used (2)
MSG Real time imagery
Estimated rainfall image
of 2nd decadal of August
2009
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Spot NDVI of 1st decadal
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of August 2008
Others data types
• Soil, Crop, Weather and Climate data are used as
input data for soil-plant-atmosphere models to
make decision support products.
• Data sources:
– Climatic data (historical) from NMS archive
– Real time Weather data (T°, Wind speed and direction,
RH, precipitation, sunshine, evaporation) from the
NMS observation network and computed ET from FAO
Penman-Monteith method
– Crop data: Kc, variety cycle
– Soil physical properties related data: Soil AWC, soils
capability maps
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Processing tools
• Weather forecast models: MESSIR-VISION,
SYNERGY
• Seasonal climate forecast models: PRESAO
models, CPT models developed by IRI (in
experimentation)
• Crop models: DHC, ZAR
• GIS software: SURFER, IDRISI, ARCVIEW
• Rainfall monitoring software: SUIVI, SPM
• Vegetation monitoring software: SVN
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Examples of decision-support products
(1)
Seasonal Climate Outlook
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Optimum Sowing Periods by zone
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Examples of decision-support products
(2)
Potential Growing season length
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Soil moisture Map
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Examples of decision-support products
(3)
Estimated biomass production
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Potential Yield Map of millet by
water balance simulation
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Dissemination of decision support
information to farmers
• Daily Broadcast of
Weather information
on TV and radio
national channels
• Dissemination of
Decadal
agrometeorological
information bulletins
• Mobile phone
exchanges (very
recent)
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Photo courtesy of WMO
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Real-time Site-specific management
decisions to cope with drought
• Based on seasonal climate outlook results:
– Choice of drought resistant and short cycle varieties
in case of expected below normal rainy season
– Avoiding of high investment in fields located inside
flood-prone areas in case of expected above normal
year
• Based on weather daily forecast:
– Field activities scheduling (examples: pesticide or
fertilizer application should be postponed if heavy rain
is expected)
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Sustainable Site-specific management
for drought control: Zai, half-moon
Half-moons in Illela
Zai or Tassa in Illela
•Reduce run-off velocity and
land degradation
•Increase soil available water
content
for plants
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Photos courtesy of CRESA
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Sustainable Site-specific management
for drought control: windbreaks
Photos courtesy of CRESA - Niger
Reduce wind velocity, land degradation and high potential
evapotranspiration that can expose plant to water stress
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Sustainable Site-specific management
for drought control: drip irrigation (1)
Drip irrigation: Irrigation water, mixed with fertilizer in some cases, is
pumped through the black rubber pipes and comes out drop by drop,
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right4/26/2010
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Sustainable Site-specific management
for drought control: drip irrigation (2)
• Drip irrigation is a suitable VRT for dry season
irrigated vegetables crops in Niger.
• Introduced in the country by ICRISAT and
FAO.
• Drip irrigation is one of the low-cost, easy-touse, low-maintenance solutions
recommended by FAO to allow poor people
to lift themselves out of poverty by
improving water security and encouraging
sustainability (FAO, 2007).
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Low cost Drip Irrigation Technology
• Driptech, a Californiabased company is working
to make this technology
affordable to poor farmers
by using cheap row
materials.
• According to the San
Francisco Chronicle cited
by globalenvision.org, the
homemade drip irrigation
system made by Dripthech
is sold at $30 in places like
India, China and Ethiopia
instead of the traditional
drip irrigation system that
could cost thousands of
dollars.
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© care of creation/ globalenvision.org
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Problems in current drought
management method…
• Some information are too technical for
farmers
• Low resolution of satellite images used to
attempt to give site-specific management
support
• Information Dissemination problems: Long
distance separating the information providing
center (NMS) and some rural areas
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…Solution starts (1)
• Mass media sensitizing to integrate more climate
information and risk management in their programs,
specially rural radios
• Roving seminars: to reduce gaps between technical
services and farmers according to agrometerological
information, roving seminars are organized with
support from WMO (World Meteorological
Organization) and AEMET (Spanish National
Meteorological Agency)
• Farmers learn about useful climate information, where
they can access information and how they should use it
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…Solution starts (2)
• They learn how
to measure
rainfall by
themselves and
receive by the
end of the
training a very
simple type of
rain gauge easy
to be used
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How can new lessons learnt in
Precision Ag course help to improve
drought management in Niger?
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How can new lessons learnt in PA
course help to improve drought
management in Niger?
• Potential yield estimation currently based on soil
water balance only, can be improved by INSEY
methodology that uses NDVI data
• SBNRC algorithms to be built up for main crops in
Niger in order to complete existing crop models
and improve the Nitrogen Use Efficiency
• Pocket sensors can help to have more precise
NDVI data which can improve information
currently produced with low resolution satellite
images.
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Conclusion (1)
• Mitigation of production limiting factors
effects on Agriculture is the most sustainable
way to overcome hunger in developing world.
Attacking hunger problem at the source in this
way may be less costly than food aid supply
during food crisis.
• Risks management methods using adequate
Precision Agriculture technologies can help to
achieve that goal.
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Conclusion (2)
• In case of drought management in Niger:
– Adequate technologies include low price equipments
easy to handle and to maintain, drought tolerant and
short cycle varieties, low-tech precision planting tools,
affordable fertilizers …
– Relevant existing precision management practices
should be reinforced.
– Improvement of tools used to produce
weather/climate information in order to make them
more accurate
– Increase of farmers access to climate/weather
information
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References (1)
• Websites
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http://test1.icrisat.org/Happenings/happenings1398.htm
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/irdrip.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090119094856.htm
http://www.ciesin.org/decentralization/French/CaseStudies/niger.htm
l
http://www.new-ag.info/country/profile.php?a=857
http://www.research4development.info/caseStudies.asp?ArticleID=50
229
http://www.globalenvision.org/tags/drip-irrigation
http://www.driptech.com/
http://earlywarning.usgs.gov/adds/
http://www.iri.columbia.edu
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References (2)
• Books
– Sivakumar, M.V.K., Motha, R.P. & Das, H.P. (2005). Natural Disasters
and Extreme Events in Agriculture. Pp 23-24.
– Sivakumar, M.V.K., Motha, R.P. (2007). Managing Weather and Climate
risks in Agriculture
• National and international organizations that sources are used in
this presentation
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AGRHYMET Regional Center
DMN Niger
FAO
FEWS-NET
ICRISAT
ILRI
WMO
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THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?
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