Characterization of the Fodder Resources of the Upper Valley of the Senegal River (HVFS)

The present study is devoted to "the characterization of fodder resources in the transhumance terroirs of the Upper Senegal River Valley".It was conducted in the Pastoral Unit of Malandou which straddles the Valley and the Ferlo and in eleven (11) sites of the ISRA Program, all located in the regions of Matam and Tamba (North-East of Senegal).It focused on the characterization of the herbaceous stratum based on grasses of the genus Aristida spp., Chloris spp., Schoenefeldia... and that of woody whose most fodder species, are acacia albida and seyal, pterocarpus érinaceus ... Grassproduction has been linked to the rainfall recorded and it has been found that the most representative herbaceous species are annual grasses such as Aristida spp.; Chloris spp.; Schoenefeldia gracilis; Cenchrus spp, with a carpet that can be sparse or continuous, a height of 50 -60 cm and a covering that can vary, depending on the levelof rainfall, from 10 to 8 As for woody fodder, namely, trees, shrubs and bushes, the floristic composition is characterized by the relatively large presence of woody, some of which are, Acacia seyal, Ziziphus mauritiana, Balanites aegyptiaca, Adansonia digitata... , are fodder and has more than twenty (20) species of trees and more than twenty species of shrubs and bushes inventoried.The landscape has a lower and lower density of woody trees as we move north.The counts and calculations made show average densities over all sites, about 41 trees/ha and 209 shrubs/ha, with variations of 20 to 82 trees/ha and 22 to 334 bushes and shrubs per ha,