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This project is informing policy decisions and increasing understanding of Sahelian livelihood systems in dryland West Africa, in an area where seasonal outmigration is high and there is a perceived withdrawal from agriculture towards afro-pastoral livelihoods. It builds on an ESRC-GEC Starter Grant (1995-96). The project team includes Simon Batterbury, Prof. Andrew Warren, Dominic Waughray, Nick Taylor, Micha Weigl, and two Masters students. The work is backstopped by the International Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics in Niger. The team are using a wide range of field methods to build a comprehensive environmental history for a Zarma village in the hinterland of Niamey in Southwest Niger, and to understand adaptations to changing resource endowments. The local context is one of unstable politics, economic crisis and very constrained income opportunities. In order to assess how people adapt to changing social, economic, and environmental conditions since the mid 20th century the project involves 4 major components. Historical land use patterns and social change are being assessed by means of air photos, oral histories, vegetation surveys, participatory exercises and archival research. Driving forces of change include migration, income generation, and colonial policy. Seventeen field histories have been collected, nested with farmer interviews on labour, inputs and yields. Soil fertility, vegetation indicators of erosion, and soil erosion (using Cs 137 technique) are being studies for the same field locations. An economic valuation of land degradation and resource use using surveys will complete the study, building on these datasets. Understanding the historical unfolding of a livelihood system, changes and potentials in the resource base, adaptive responses to stress, and diversification possibilities will allow the team to test widely-held models of agrarian change and land degradation, and contribute to a growing research and policy interest in these themes in West Africa and elsewhere

Award/Grant Outputs and Documents
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