Designing a Process of Co-Management of Crop Residues for Forage and Soil Conservation in Sudano-Sahel

Over the past 30 years, a large number of farmers and herders have moved into the southern part of the Sudano-Sahelian region in search of arable land and pastures. Today, human population pressure is restricting the amount and quality of pastures available to herds and is forcing farmers to continually cultivate their fields without setting aside fallow areas, leading to decreased soil fertility. The traditional use of crop residues by herders (free grazing) and farmers (organic manure) as well as crop-livestock integration models promoted to date have proved ineffective in halting the degradation of resources and in increasing production. This situation is particularly critical in north Cameroon where various socioeconomic, technical, and organizational factors strongly constrain innovation in comparison with western Burkina Faso and southern Mali. This article proposes novel models (technical and organizational) of producing and managing crop residues (processing/recycling, sharing between groups of actors) that are adapted to the specific features of different types of farms in the region.