It took scientists more than three decades to transform a perceived desertification crisis in the Sahel into a non-event. Looking beyond the Sahel, the chapters in this book provide case studies from around the world that examine the use and relevance of the desertification concept.
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Showing items 1 through 9 of 50.-
Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2016Argentina, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, China, Cameroon, Algeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal, South Sudan, Chad, Central Asia
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Library Resource
Land Use Policy Volume 59
Peer-reviewed publicationDecember, 2016Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Algeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal, South Sudan, ChadAfter the severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, and subsequent debates about desertification, analyses of satellite images reveal that the West African Sahel has become greener again. In this paper we report a study on changes in tree cover and tree species composition in three village landscapes in northern Burkina Faso, based on a combination of methods: tree density change detection using aerial photos and satellite images, a tree species inventory including size class distribution analysis, and interviews with local farmers about woody vegetation changes.
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Library ResourceManuals & GuidelinesFebruary, 2016Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Africa, Western Africa
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksMarch, 2016Central African Republic, Nigeria, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Uganda, Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
We developed an interactive electronic weed identification tool, AFROweeds, and an online network, Weedsbook, for agricultural change agents to aid communication and offer assistance to rice farmers with specific weed problems. We collected quantitative and qualitative data to assess effectiveness and usefulness of these products with potential users. With the online version of AFROweeds, used on an electronic tablet, average weed identification time in the field was 7 min 6 s with 44% successful identifications.
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Library ResourceJournal Articles & BooksDecember, 2016Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Western Africa
Les études sur la transhumance ont souvent ciblé les pasteurs – notamment peuls – des zones sahéliennes. Pour en donner une autre perspective, la présente étude a été centrée sur les pratiques de la transhumance dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali en intégrant la perception des agriculteurs et des pasteurs sédentaires concernés par la transhumance dans les zones d’accueil. Les scénarios envisageables pour le futur des systèmes pastoraux ont aussi été analysés. Les données ont été collectées à travers des groupes de discussion et des enquêtes individuelles.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchPolicy Papers & BriefsDecember, 2016Nigeria, Kenya, Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa
The aim of this report is to provide guidance to governments, institutions, and development partners on how to approach the provision of advanced information and communication technology (ICT) services to the higher education and research community in Africa. The timing is appropriate as it coincides with a transformation in the telecom infrastructure and services on the continent as fiber optic connectivity, both undersea and on land, is expanding at a rapid pace.
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Library Resource
Is GPS the New Gold Standard in Land Area Measurement?
Reports & ResearchPolicy Papers & BriefsJuly, 2016Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, AfricaIn rural societies of low- and middle-income countries, land is a major measure of wealth, a critical input in agricultural production, and a key variable for assessing agricultural performance and productivity. In the absence of cadastral information to refer to, measures of land plots have historically been taken with one of two approaches: traversing (accurate, but cumbersome), and farmers' self-report (cheap, but marred by measurement error). Recently, the advent of cheap handheld GPS devices has held promise for balancing cost and precision.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchPolicy Papers & BriefsAugust, 2016Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa
Trees on farms are often overlooked in agricultural and natural resource research and policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper addresses this gap using data from the Living Standards Measurement Study–Integrated Surveys on Agriculture in five countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Trees on farms are widespread. On average, one third of rural smallholders grow trees. They account for an average of 17 percent of total annual gross income for tree-growing households and 6 percent for all rural households.
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Library Resource
A New Landscape?
Reports & ResearchJournal Articles & BooksOctober, 2016Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Niger, Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa, AfricaWhile scholars long recognized the importance of land markets as a key driver of rural non-farm development and transformation in rural areas, evidence on the extent of their operation and the nature of participants remains limited. We use household data from 6 countries to show that there is great potential for such markets to increase productivity and equalize factor ratios. While rental markets transfer land to land-poor and labor-rich producers, their operation and thus impact may be constrained by policy restrictions.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJournal Articles & BooksOctober, 2016Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Niger, Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa
The contribution of women to labor in African agriculture is regularly quoted in the range of 60–80%. Using individual, plot-level labor input data from nationally representative household surveys across six Sub-Saharan African countries, this study estimates the average female labor share in crop production at 40%. It is slightly above 50% in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, and substantially lower in Nigeria (37%), Ethiopia (29%), and Niger (24%).
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