IntroductionBlack soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are increasingly promoted as cost-effective, and environmentally friendly source of protein in animal nutrition. However, there is limited information about farmers' adoption rates and the factors influencing their adoption decisions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This article assesses livestock farmers' actual and potential adoption rates of BSFL and determinants of their adoption decisions.MethodsIn this paper, we used the treatment effect framework approach on data collected from 1,885 fish, poultry, and pig smallholder farmers in five cities of four West and Central African countries, including Kinshasa and Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Accra in Ghana, Bamako in Mali, and Niamey in Niger.Results and discussionThe results show that about 20 percent of surveyed farmers are aware of BSFL as a protein source in animal feed, and the actual adoption rate of BSFL is four percent. However, the treatment effect analysis showed that the adoption rate could quadruple if all farmers were aware. This result suggests that successful awareness creation can boost the actual adoption of BSFL, which currently stands at four percent. The awareness creation should target educated livestock farmers with access to group membership, credit, extension services, and diversified income sources to influence their decisions to adopt BSFL as a source of protein in animal feed.

This study estimates the extent to which rural consumers in sub-Saharan Africa value quality signals about their food. We tested this by implementing an incentive-compatible Becker-Degroot Marschak auction among consumers in Niger and Northern Nigeria to estimate their willingness to pay (WTP) for cowpea (blackeyed pea) that was stored and sold in an improved grain storage bag that signaled unobservable quality in the form of insecticide-free grain. The improved bag had two inner layers of high-density plastic that created an airtight seal around the grain stored in it. The seal killed insects through suffocation rather than insecticide. The bag also had a branded label from its manufacturer on its outer layer to help distinguish it from a generic single-layer, woven storage bag. We estimated the size of the price differential (premium) that the average consumer placed on unobservable grain quality, as measured through the WTP premium for grain sold in the improved bag with a label. We also estimated the effect that consumers’ previous awareness of the improved bag had on their valuation of observable and unobservable quality. Our results indicated that on average consumers in Niger were willing to pay a 10% premium for cowpea stored and sold in the improved storage bag compared to cowpea of the same observable quality that was sold in a generic woven bag. The same unobservable quality premium was 17% in Nigeria. The results from this study provide evidence that there may be a latent demand for quality proxied by food safety among limited resource people in sub-Saharan Africa and that improved products with branded labels can potentially provide a quality signal to the market.

Insects can represent a valuable and cost effective source of animal feed in Africa. Recently, the interest in incorporating black -soldier fly larvae (BSFL) in animal feed has increased tremendously. However, many factors, including food neophobia and social and cultural context may affect consumers' perception of insecttechnologies -derived food products. This study shed light on consumers' perception of the usage of BSFL as animal feed and consumption, buying, and commercialization of food from animals fed on BSFL in DR Congo, Mali, and Niger. We used data from 1560 consumers that were analyzed applying parametric and non -parametric tests and the generalized ordered logit model. Our findings show that about 87 % of respondents consider that consuming food from animals fed on BSFL is acceptable and 34 % accept buying eggs, fish, and meat from animals fed on BSFL. However, about 40 % of consumers recommend the label differentiation of BSFtechnologies-derived food products and they also expect a lower price than conventional animal feed products. The analysis of factors driving consumers' readiness to buy BSF-derived food products have revealed that effective market penetration of BSF-technologies-derived food products could be achieved with great awareness creation, targeting farming households, married and literate heads. Furthermore, strategic communication and intensive sensitization through farmers' associations will be crucial. Finally, credit access and income diversification are also necessary to support consumers' choices toward sustainable food habits built on bio-circular economy.

Most people in Niger still rely heavily on agriculture as a source of income. However, low productivity, climate change, soil infertility, pests, and diseases are challenges faced by this sector. As a result, the nation suffers from a severe problem of food insecurity. Many investigations indicate that adopting improved crop varieties(ICVs) increases agricultural productivity. Using information gathered from 1784 farmers, this study assesses the effects of adopting improved crop varieties (ICVs) on household welfare. To analyze the data, we employ endogenous switching regression (ESR) and inverse probability-weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) techniques. The analysis shows that the ICVs adoption significantly improves household income and food access in Niger's Sahelian region. The ESR model's average treatment effects estimate shows that the ICVs adoption raised per capita income, food expenditure, and household dietary diversity score (HDDS) by 75 %, 1.81 %, and 36.49 %, respectively. The IPWRA model yields similar results.Therefore we conclude that adopting ICVs has substantial dynamic benefits that improve household welfare in Sahel Niger by increasing their probability of escaping poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. The farmer's knowledge of improved crop varieties significantly influenced favorably the decision to adopt, suggesting that intensifying dissemination and encouraging the promotion of drought-tolerant crop varieties among farmers, development agencies, researchers, and policymakers could be a crucial plan of action to combat poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition in the Sahelian region.

Many sub-Saharan farmers rely on agricultural production for home consumption and sell crops to meet their other needs. Farmers' market intervention enhances economic expansion and helps to improve household food security. In our current study, we strive to explore the determinants of farmers' decisions and the intensity of market participation in the Sahelian region of Niger, where little has been published, thereby filling the gap in the literature. A double hurdle approach was employed to achieve this objective using a sample collected from 1784 farm households in Niger. Our findings reveal that the total quantity of crops produced, gender, credit access, farming experience, training, drought, and assets positively impact household market participation significantly. Based on these results, as the quantity of crop sales is driven positively and significantly by the amount of crop produced, finding ways to increase crop production will increase household market participation. This can only be achieved by encouraging farmers to adopt high-yield crop varieties, such as climate-resilient ones, to boost productivity. Furthermore, considering the positive association between credit availability and smallholder market participation, any initiative in the agricultural sector that will bring efforts to supply credit and farm inputs to farmers will surely help to improve agricultural production and household market participation.

Sahelian countries, particularly Niger, are more vulnerable to climate change due to the high dependence of most of their populations on rain-fed agriculture and limited capacities to respond to climate variability and change. This paper examines the factors influencing climate change adaptation strategies and the impacts on household income and food security in rural Niger. For this purpose, we collected data from 1783 valid rural households in four main agricultural regions of Niger. The results showed that crop diversification (72.74%), income diversification (67.97%) and changing planting times (55%) are the main adaptation strategies adopted by households. The majority of respondents had noticed changes in rain patterns (93.21%), in the amount of rain (91.25%) and in the intensity of rain (81.82%) during the last five years. We categorized these adaptation strategies into six major groups namely climate-resilient crop varieties, improved agronomic practices, irrigation and water conservation practices, crop diversification, income diversification, and agroforestry. We ran logit regression to identify the determinants of each individual group. The results show mixed effects of independent variables on these categories of adaptation strategies. Using matching techniques, we found adaptation strategies have positive and significant impact on both household income and food security. The farmers who adopt climate change adaptation strategies are more likely to increase household income by 7721.526 FCFA compared to those households with zero adaptation strategies. Similarly, the adapters have 7% to 9% more chance to be food secure compared to those who did not adopt strategies. These results suggest that strengthening the awareness of the effects of climate change on farmers and the choice of appropriate adaptation strategies are necessary to enhance household resilience. Strengthening institutional factors such as access to credit and market, extension services, and using drought-resilient crop varieties would surely improve agricultural production.

Cowpea is the most economically and nutritionally important indigenous African grain legume, grown by millions of resource-poor farmers. It is a key cash crop in areas too dry to grow cotton or other export crops. Most of the over 3 million t of cowpea grain produced annually in West and Central Africa is grown on small farms. Storage is often identified as the key challenge for small scale cowpea growers. Many farmers sell cowpea grain at low harvest time prices rather than risk losses by bruchids during storage. Some traditional methods are effective for small quantities (e.g., 10 kg), but are difficult to scale up. Some effective storage chemicals are available, but they are regularly misused by farmers and merchants. The Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) Project is addressing these problems through promotion of hermetic storage in triple layer sacks which have an outer layer of woven polypropylene and two liners of 80 μ high-density polyethylene. Village demonstrations with more than 45, 000 PICS sacks have shown the technology to be effective. Good quality affordable sacks have been produced by manufacturers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali. Over the past three years more than one million sacks have been produced and sold. Despite the success with the outreach activities and the farmer adoption, the challenge remains to develop sustainable sack distribution networks. Issues identified include reluctance of wholesalers to order sacks due to risk associated with a new product, inability of wholesalers to develop effective distribution networks due to difficulties with enforcing contracts, and limited access to capital. The PICS project is exploring new ways to address some of these issues, including using non-traditional distribution systems for PICS sacks such as agro-dealers networks, and adapting distribution systems that have worked for cell phones and other products. Keywords : Cowpea, Bruchids, Hermetic storage, Supply chain, West and Central Africa

The objective of this study was an assessment of on-farm storage practices for Bambara groundnut and roselle grains in Niger. It is based on a random sample of 164 farmers producing both crops in the Dosso and Maradi regions using a semi-structured questionnaire. Analysis of the data used Probit regression and budgeting. Fifty four percent of respondents use some type of potentially hermetic container for storage of Bambara groundnut and 46% use that type of container for roselle. Potentially, hermetic containers include metal drums, plastic jugs, and single, double and triple layer plastic bags. About 67% of the quantity of Bambara groundnut stored was in potentially hermetic containers and 58% of roselle. Triple layer Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags were used mainly by Bambara groundnut farmers storing larger quantities. While only about 10% of the respondents reported storing Bambara groundnuts in PICS bags. The quantity stored by those respondents is quite large, so about 39% of the total quantity of Bambara groundnut stored by the respondents was stored in PICS bags. For roselle, PICS bags were used by 4% of respondents for only 3% of quantity stored. Profitability of using PICS bags for one or two years is comparable to that achieved with the common practice of storing in woven bags with insecticide. While PICS bags use does not increase profitability substantially compared to insecticide use, it does allow the producer to reduce pesticide exposure and the associated health risks. Key words: Adoption, Bambara groundnut, hermetic storage, profitability, roselle.

Niger’s colonial and post-independence natural resource management policies contributed to land degradation. The country also experienced a prolonged drought that amplified the suffering of the people who are heavily dependent on natural resources. The country learnt hard lessons from its past mistakes and changed its policies and strategies. This study shows a strong association of the policy changes and improved human welfare demonstrating that even poor countries could achieve sustainable development. Enhancing government effectiveness by giving communities mandate to manage natural resources and by giving incentives to land users to benefit from their investment played a key role in realizing simultaneous improvement in land management and human welfare in Niger. Given these achievements, Niger was picked as a case study to showcase its achievement and what other countries could learn from the country’s mistakes and achievements. The analytical approach used focuses on estimation of cost of land degradation, ground-truthing of satellite data and drivers of adoption of sustainable land management practices. Land use/cover change (LUCC) analysis shows that a total of 6.12 million ha experienced LUCC and shrublands and grassland accounted for the largest change. Excluding the desert, 19 % of the land area experienced LUCC. Cropland expansion accounted for about 57 % of deforestation followed by grassland expansion. The cost of land degradation due to LUCC is about 2007 US$0.75 billion, which is 11 % of the 2007 GDP of US$6.773 billion and 1 % of the 2001 value of ecosystem services (ES) in Niger. Every US dollar invested in taking action returns about $6—a level that is quite attractive. Ground-truthing showed high level of agreement between satellite data and communities perception on degraded lands but poor agreement in areas for which satellite data showed land improvement. Communities also reported that tree planting and protection were the most common actions against land degradation. Tree planting was done mainly on bare lands to fix sand dunes. In summary, this study shows that severe land degradation and the consequent negative impacts on human welfare is a low-hanging fruit that needs to be utilized by countries as they address land degradation. This implies that instead of abandoning severely degraded lands, strategies should be used to rehabilitate such lands using low-cost organic soil fertility management practices and progressively followed by using high cost inputs as soil fertility improves. Improvement of access to rural services and facilitation of non-farm activities will also lead to faster and greater impacts on adoption of SLM practices and increasing resilience to agricultural production shocks in Niger. As Niger continues to improve sustainable land management, it faces daunting challenges to alleviate the high cost of land degradation. Niger serves as a success story to the world in addressing land degradation. Both the national and international communities need to learn from the achievement of Niger and help land users to sustainably manage their natural resources.

This study is based on interviews with 3456 randomly selected cowpea farmers in 322 villages in ten countries in West and Central Africa in 2010 and 2012. It uses descriptive statistics to track the trends in adoption of cowpea storage technology compared to previous studies and Firth logistic regression to identify important factors in adoption. The interviews indicate that regionally about 46% of respondents use some type of hermetic storage for their cowpeas and about 44% of the quantity of cowpea stored on farms is in hermetic containers. Both the percentage of respondents and the percentage of stored quantity fall slightly short of the 50% benchmark hypothesized. The 2010-2012 estimates compare to about 30% of cowpea quantity stored in hermetic containers in 2003-2004. Regionally, the most commonly used hermetic storage container is the triple layer Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) bag. In PICS villages, local unavailability is the most common reason for not using the bags. The logit analysis shows that living in a village with PICS activities is the single most important factor explaining adoption of the technology. In six of the nine regressions participation in the demonstrations was also positive and a statistically significant determinant of adoption. For someone living in a PICS village and participating in the activities the combined effect is highly influential. In Niger such an individual would be 27% more likely than a non-participant from a non-PICS village to use PICS bags. In Senegal he or she would be 55% more likely. Some form of exposure to PICS activities or village technicians is key in adoption of the PICS technologies, though it may not be direct contact with a PICS technician. On average additional cash flow due to storage of cowpea in PICS bags is estimated at $26.58/100 kg bag more than sale at harvest. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The dissemination of triple-layer plastic PICS bags for cowpea storage in thousands of villages across West and Central Africa has raised concerns in governmental and development agencies that farmers would simply discard the bags into the environment when they become no longer fit to store cowpea grain. We conducted a survey in November and December 2011 in the Maradi and Zinder regions in Niger to assess the reuse and recycling of PICS bags. Among the respondents, 48% were farmers who had volunteered to test PICS bags during village activities. Some 91% of respondents reused their bags at least once. More than 76% of farmers and 70% of cowpea merchants reused their bags at least twice. Slightly damaged PICS bags with only a few holes were typically repaired with tape and continued to be used to store cowpea grain. When PICS bags could no longer be used to store cowpea, they were recycled to store other crops or used for roofing, tarps, and diaper covers. Respondents reported that PICS bags performed well in storing cowpea grain during consecutive years of use: 100% (year one), 97.3% (year two), 79.0% (year three), and 15.4% (year four). For grain storage purposes, PICS bags may have to be replaced after three or four years of use. There was no evidence that PICS bags are discarded into the environment; rather, they are used for other purposes when they are no longer fit to hermetically store cowpea grain.

The Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) technology has been disseminated in 30,896 villages in 10 different countries in West and Central Africa from 2007 to 2012. Extension and supply chain development efforts were required to make the PICS technology available to millions of farmers and other users. Several research and development organizations assisted in awareness building activities to develop the market and increase access. Thousands of village and market demonstrations were implemented by field technicians and supported by media activities. Supply chain development activities were led by the private sector with some support from the project. Overall, 40–70 adults attended demonstrations in each village, among which 38% were women. Large-scale extension activities substantially increased the demand for the technology and helped establish the supply chain. More than 2.4 million triple bags were sold in the first 5 years of the project. In some countries, up to 50% of bags ordered during the first year were bought by farmers; even though village demonstrations had not yet been completed. Market building activities helped convince the private sector that there were business opportunities in buying and selling PICS bags. Bags ordered by the private sector went from 0% in 2007 to 200% in 2010, proving that it is possible to commercialize a new agricultural technology in developing countries in a relatively short time.

In this study, 2741 randomly selected rural women were interviewed about their cowpea storage practices in 101 villages in Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria in late 2010 and early 2011. The overall objective was to determine their cowpea storage practices and identify the most important factors in choosing Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) triple bag storage. About two thirds of women said they used some type of hermetic storage. The hermetic containers included metal drums, plastic jugs, double bags and triple bags. The weighted percentage of women using PICS triple layer bags is 46%. Quantity of cowpea stored by technology showed similar patterns. Overall the percentage of cowpea in hermetic storage was 64%. The study estimated that women stored 50% of their cowpea in PICS bags. The percentage of cowpea in hermetic storage overall and in PICS bags specifically is higher for women than for men in a parallel 2012 ten-country study of mostly male household heads. In PICS villages, the women cite PICS technicians as the most important source of information. In Non-PICS villages, radio was the most important. Most women say that higher income is the major benefit of PICS. The 2009-2010 three country weighted average of the net cash flow from cowpea storage in PICS bags is $10.81/100 kg bag and $39.27 per respondent. Overall, the women indicated that local unavailability was the primary constraint to use of PICS bags. The LOGIT regression analysis shows that the most important factor influencing use of PICS technology is living in a village where PICS demonstrations occurred. The regression shows that radio and the PICS technicians have key roles as information sources. Being able to attend mixed gender meetings was statistically significant only in Burkina Faso where PICS did not organize many women-only PICS activities. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

There is an urgent need to quantify which extension methods are most effective in Africa. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of alternative extension methods on adoption of the triple bagging cowpea storage technology in Niger and Burkina Faso. This study was designed as a quasi-experiment with two alternative extension methods studied: village demonstrations and demonstrations reinforced by radio broadcasts. Interview data was collected on triple-bag adoption in villages with the two types of extension programmes and control villages with no storage extension. Binary logit regression analysis was used to identify factors which influenced triple-bag adoption. Storage demonstrations boosted adoption of triple-bag storage by statistically significant marginal probabilities of 34% in Niger and 13% in Burkina Faso, compared to villages with no demonstrations or radio messages. Reinforcement of the demonstration experience with radio broadcasts increased adoption by statistically significant estimates of 23% in Niger and 20% in Burkina Faso. Reinforcement of extension programmes with radio messages is strongly supported by this research. In this case, an already effective demonstration programme was made more effective by associated radio messages. This is an example of evidence based extension that supports decisions on extension programming with quantitative data on the impact of alternatives on behaviour change.

Researchers from the Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP), a program supported by the USAID, developed several non-chemical cowpea grain storage technologies in the 1980s. These included hermetic storage in airtight containers, improved ash storage, and the solar heater. Impact studies conducted at the country level showed that the research program was economically a good investment. As the CRSP new storage technologies spread throughout West and Central Africa, a regional assessment including spillover effects became necessary to fully comprehend the impact and guide future research investments. Therefore, this study sought to measure the economic impact of the new CRSP cowpea storage technologies at a regional level. Surveys in seven countries were used to estimate storage technology adoption. Economic surplus was used to estimate annual benefits and internal rate of return (IRR), and net present value (NPV) were calculated to summarize the net benefits. From the perspective of recipients' countries the project was a good investment. The IRR, is found to be much greater than the cost of capital. The regional IRR was found to be about 29%, much higher than the real interest rate on government bonds in West Africa at the time. For example the real interest rate on bonds issued by the government of Ghana in 2004 and 2005 was 8.9% and 5.4% respectively. The IRR is also higher than the private bank real lending rates in West Africa. From the perspective of the principal donor, the US government, the project was a good investment given that the average real interest rate on US government's bonds was 4.8% during the period. The net present value of the investment amounts to more than 295 million US dollars which yields an annualized value of about 17 million.

This study examined two questions related to the adoption of triple-bag storage technology for farmers storing cowpeas in West Africa. First the effect of an extension program, focused on village demonstrations, on adoption was considered. Second, the effect of radio messages to augment this extension program was analyzed. The results indicate that adoption was positively affected by the extension program and radio messages do augment the effectiveness.

4. Structures utilized for managed drainage control tile flow by: q a. Plugging tile stream outlets at certain times of the year. q b. Regulating the level of the water table. q c. Creating a vacuum that pulls water through the tile. q d. Measuring and regulating water flow. 5. A higher water table can decrease the nitrogen coming from field tiles by: q a. Eliminating denitrification. q b. Increasing soil leaching. q c. Decreasing the amount of soil water leaving the system. q d. Increasing crop rooting depth.