Promoting endogenous climate-smart breeding practices to boost household food security in West Africa

 

Economic and demographic growth and urbanization in West Africa, mainly in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo, are leading to a change in eating habits and a sharp increase in meat consumption, especially beef, thus intensifying semi-itinerant livestock farming and increasing pressure on the environment. Indeed, to meet growing demand in a context of increasing scarcity of agropastoral resources (pasture and water) due to climate change, breeders and farmers are adopting practices that do not respect the environment, exacerbating greenhouse gas emissions.

Faced with this problem, it is necessary to support the reappropriation and improvement of endogenous practices, including gender-sensitive practices, contributing to the improvement of livestock feed, sustainable land management and carbon sequestration by grass species, while preserving the livelihoods of livestock farmers and agropastoralists. Integrated crop-livestock-forest systems based on endogenous climate-smart practices guarantee the sustainability of livestock systems and carbon sequestration in the soil and plant biomass, but these practices are poorly developed and adopted by livestock farmers due to their inadequacy with socio-economic and cultural realities. This project aims to co-construct endogenous climate-smart practices with low greenhouse gas emissions that would contribute to the resilience of ruminant farming systems by guaranteeing food security for at least 20,000 agropastoral households, raising awareness and informing agropastoral stakeholders, institutions and political players, while targeting young people and women.

The project will be led by the Université de Parakou (Benin), in collaboration with the Université de Kara (Togo), the Université Peleforo Gon Coulibaly de Korhogo (Côte d'Ivoire), the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada) and the non-governmental organization Vie et Environnement.

This project is part of the Climate-Resilient Animal Fund (RECAF) initiative and is co-funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and IDRC. RECAF is a six-year initiative to develop new technologies and climate-smart business models to improve animal productivity and reduce emissions for small-scale livestock farmers in climate-sensitive areas of Africa.