Agroforestery systems assessment and adoption at farm level in Southern Benin
- Publikations-Art
- Kongressbeitrag
- Autoren
- Floquet, A.; Bothe, M. and W. Doppler
- Erscheinungsjahr
- 2000
- Veröffentlicht in
- Farmers and Scientists in a Changing Environment: Assessing Research in West Africa.
- Herausgeber
- Renard, G., Krieg, S., Lawrence, P. and von Oppen, M.
- Verlag
- Margraf Verlag , Weikersheim
- ISBN / ISSN / eISSN
- 3-8236-1318-9
- Seite (von - bis)
- 445-456
- Tagungsname
- Regional Workshop
- Tagungsort
- Cotonou, Benin
- Tagungsdatum
- 22.-26.2.1999
To combat soil degradation and resulting unsustainable socio-economic development in Southern Benin, agronomic innovations have been developed and tested over several years by farmers facing land scarcity and decreasing soil productivity. This paper deals with the technical and socio-economic assessment of selected innovations in agroforestry, especially the introduction of Acacia auriculiformis instead of natural fallow in a rotation and Senna siamea hedges at the border of farm plots as a source of mulch. A partial analysis shows that both innovations are technically feasible and provide additional gross margins per hectare of land as compared to the traditional alternative of maize/cassava. It indicates already that other resources than land (e.g. labour) may have different economic results. Whole farm and family modelling using gender models and taking into account sub-units of decision interacting within a family consequently shows differences between the adoption of the options according to the size of cultivated land, age of the family head and labour economy. In general, under most conditions, the innovation with Acacia auriculiformis is prefered by contributing the most to family income, but with decreasing prices for firewood and farm size, Senna hedges gain increasing momentum.