Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation
Abstract Water scarcity is a major challenge in the Sahel region of West Africa. Water scarcity in combination with prevalent soil degradation has severely reduced the land productivity in the region. The decrease in resiliency of food security systems of marginalized population has huge societal im...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27242-3 |
| _version_ | 1797958732828639232 |
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| author | Vikalp Mishra Ashutosh S. Limaye Federico Doehnert Raffaella Policastro Djibril Hassan Marie Therese Yaba Ndiaye Nicole Van Abel Kiersten Johnson Joseph Grange Kevin Coffey Arif Rashid |
| author_facet | Vikalp Mishra Ashutosh S. Limaye Federico Doehnert Raffaella Policastro Djibril Hassan Marie Therese Yaba Ndiaye Nicole Van Abel Kiersten Johnson Joseph Grange Kevin Coffey Arif Rashid |
| author_sort | Vikalp Mishra |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Water scarcity is a major challenge in the Sahel region of West Africa. Water scarcity in combination with prevalent soil degradation has severely reduced the land productivity in the region. The decrease in resiliency of food security systems of marginalized population has huge societal implications which often leads to mass migrations and conflicts. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and development organizations have made major investments in the Sahel to improve resilience through land rehabilitation activities in recent years. To help restore degraded lands at the farm level, the World Food Programme (WFP) with assistance from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance supported the construction of water and soil retention structures called half-moons. The vegetation growing in the half-moons is vitally important to increase agricultural productivity and feed animals, a critical element of sustainable food security in the region. This paper investigates the effectiveness of interventions at 18 WFP sites in southern Niger using vegetative greenness observations from the Landsat 7 satellite. The pre - and post-intervention analysis shows that vegetation greenness after the half-moon intervention was nearly 50% higher than in the pre-intervention years. The vegetation in the intervened area was more than 25% greener than the nearby control area. Together, the results indicate that the half-moons are effective adaptations to the traditional land management systems to increase agricultural production in arid ecosystems, which is evident through improved vegetation conditions in southern Niger. The analysis shows that the improvement brought by the interventions continue to provide the benefits. Continued application of these adaptation techniques on a larger scale will increase agricultural production and build resilience to drought for subsistence farmers in West Africa. Quantifiable increase in efficacy of local-scale land and water management techniques, and the resulting jump in large-scale investments to scale similar efforts will help farmers enhance their resiliency in a sustainable manner will lead to a reduction in food security shortages. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T00:23:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8ab1769c065f4f44b5e1a4bed1578b70 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T00:23:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-8ab1769c065f4f44b5e1a4bed1578b702023-01-08T12:10:09ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-01-0113111210.1038/s41598-022-27242-3Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetationVikalp Mishra0Ashutosh S. Limaye1Federico Doehnert2Raffaella Policastro3Djibril Hassan4Marie Therese Yaba Ndiaye5Nicole Van Abel6Kiersten Johnson7Joseph Grange8Kevin Coffey9Arif Rashid10Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in HuntsvilleNASA-SERVIR Science Coordination Office, Marshall Space Flight CenterWorld Food Programme Regional Bureau for Western AfricaWorld Food Programme Niger Country OfficeWorld Food Programme Niger Country OfficeBureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Abstract Water scarcity is a major challenge in the Sahel region of West Africa. Water scarcity in combination with prevalent soil degradation has severely reduced the land productivity in the region. The decrease in resiliency of food security systems of marginalized population has huge societal implications which often leads to mass migrations and conflicts. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and development organizations have made major investments in the Sahel to improve resilience through land rehabilitation activities in recent years. To help restore degraded lands at the farm level, the World Food Programme (WFP) with assistance from USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance supported the construction of water and soil retention structures called half-moons. The vegetation growing in the half-moons is vitally important to increase agricultural productivity and feed animals, a critical element of sustainable food security in the region. This paper investigates the effectiveness of interventions at 18 WFP sites in southern Niger using vegetative greenness observations from the Landsat 7 satellite. The pre - and post-intervention analysis shows that vegetation greenness after the half-moon intervention was nearly 50% higher than in the pre-intervention years. The vegetation in the intervened area was more than 25% greener than the nearby control area. Together, the results indicate that the half-moons are effective adaptations to the traditional land management systems to increase agricultural production in arid ecosystems, which is evident through improved vegetation conditions in southern Niger. The analysis shows that the improvement brought by the interventions continue to provide the benefits. Continued application of these adaptation techniques on a larger scale will increase agricultural production and build resilience to drought for subsistence farmers in West Africa. Quantifiable increase in efficacy of local-scale land and water management techniques, and the resulting jump in large-scale investments to scale similar efforts will help farmers enhance their resiliency in a sustainable manner will lead to a reduction in food security shortages.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27242-3 |
| spellingShingle | Vikalp Mishra Ashutosh S. Limaye Federico Doehnert Raffaella Policastro Djibril Hassan Marie Therese Yaba Ndiaye Nicole Van Abel Kiersten Johnson Joseph Grange Kevin Coffey Arif Rashid Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation Scientific Reports |
| title | Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| title_full | Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| title_fullStr | Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| title_short | Assessing impact of agroecological interventions in Niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| title_sort | assessing impact of agroecological interventions in niger through remotely sensed changes in vegetation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27242-3 |
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