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Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification

Adoption of sustainable intensification in dual-purpose millet – leguminous crops – livestock systems to improve food and nutritional security and natural resources management for rural smallholder farmers in Senegal

Lead Institution: Kansas State University 
Award Amount: $999,360 
Focus Country: Senegal 
senegal people working
Principal Investigator: Doohong Min - dmin@ksu.edu
International Collaborating Institution(s): Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) – Centre National de Recherches Agronomiques de Bambey (CNRA/Bambey), University of Thies, Institut de Technologie Alimentaire (ITA), Agence Nationale de Conseil Agricole et Rural (ANCAR), Le Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et Pastorales du Sénégal (RESOPP)

 

Summary: Senegal is facing a difficult food situation, and the gap between national production and the needs of an increasing population has continued to widen in recent years. Millet is one of the most important cereal crops in Senegal due to good adaptation to high temperatures, severe drought conditions and soil types in most regions of Senegal. Many varieties of millet have been used as grains and/or raw materials for fences or roofs of homes in rural areas in Senegal. The main objectives of this project are:
  1. To ensure food and nutritional security
  2. To establish resilient farming systems via a holistic approach for rural smallholder farmers, particularly women
  3. To improve nutritional and socioeconomic status in particular for women and children in six regions of Senegal: Louga, Diourbel, Kaffrine, Kedougou, Kolda and Sedhiou.

These objectives will be achieved by using sustainably intensified production and management practices of dual-purpose millet and leguminous crops (cowpea and groundnut) with small ruminant livestock (goats and sheep) integration. In Senegal, millet is primarily produced at the subsistence level and hand-processed by women and girls. Cowpea and groundnuts are very important nitrogen-fixing leguminous crops that can provide nitrogen to millet. These leguminous crops can also be used as fodder for livestock in Senegal. Thus, intercropping dual-purpose millet as grain and fodder into dual-purpose cowpea or groundnuts, as well as integrating these dual-purpose crops with livestock, will help improve food security, human nutrition, crop diversity, livestock performance, soil quality (carbon sequestration) via nutrient recycling from animal manure/crop residue, biodiversity, smallholder farmers' income (especially women), and further women's engagement in farming. Additionally, this type of system will impact resilient natural resource management of water, soil, nutrients and greenhouse gas mitigation in Senegal.   

 

2019 Progress Updates

  • Different test and trials conducted at multiple local levels showed that pearl millet varieties tested are high-yielding for both grain and fodder accept Souna3, with the most suitable sites for dual-purpose millet being in Sinthou Malem.

  • The adoption of SI technologies should be accompanied by an availability of inputs, including biomass production, and in all areas. In these cases, they are able to produce a better quality of feed, more edible and more resistant.
  • The study of infant flours prepared from the target varieties shows that the variety SL169 followed by the variety SL243 would be more recommended for local cereal processors to produce flours in order to fight against protein-energy malnutrition in children, particularly. The basis of this recommendation could be reinforced by the results of organoleptic tests conducted with an internal ITA panel. 
  • New study components assessing the five accessions for root physiology and livestock feeding suitability were initiated.