Located in the heart of Sahel, Niger is characterized by multi-decadal droughts reoccurrences and high intra-annual rainfall variation. Agriculture in Niger is strongly vulnerable to variable temperature and erratic rainfall due to heavy reliance on rain-fed crops and livestock production and limited irrigation coverage.
As water reservoirs deplete and pasture availability for livestock becomes limited, livestock keepers, pastoralists increasingly feel the adverse effects.
Besides the crops, livestock production provides a livelihood to millions of people, especially the pastoralists who migrate each year in the search of water and pastures for their herds. Like crop production, the livestock sector plays a significant role in Niger, contributing to an estimated 10 to 15% of GDP. Livestock forms a key part of food security and livelihood strategies, providing meat, milk, draught power, and manure for crops. They also fulfil various socio-cultural functions. Livestock are important assets for vulnerable communities. Most livestock are kept under extensive production systems. But more intensive systems are increasing in both the urban and peri-urban areas. Agro-pastoralists and pastoralists are dominant in the semi-arid and arid areas, whereas smallholders dominate the subsistence-oriented mixed crop-livestock systems. The livestock systems offer about 13 pathways for influencing human food and nutrition security. As a result, these are widely recognized as major pathways to improve livelihoods . They hold the potential to deliver both the agriculture-led growth and the socio-economic transformation envisioned by the Government of Niger.
This project will contribute to achieving resilience and food security, through the following outcome, outputs, and activities:
Outcome: 1 800 vulnerable households ‘livelihoods are more resilient to drought thanks to anticipatory action
Output 1: The farm productive assets of vulnerable agro-pastoralist and pastoralist households strengthened
• Activity 1.1. Operational preparation and observation of sentinel sites
• Activity 1.2. Awareness-raising on strategic destocking: Animal’s destocking allows livestock farmers to sell their animals at the right time at a remunerative price. FAO aims to implement an awareness-raising activity for agro-pastoralists on strategic destocking between the months of October and December, before overweight conditions start to deteriorate but also before livestock prices fall on the markets.
• Activity 1.3 Establishment of 400 km of firebreaks to protect natural pastures through cash for work: Bush fires are a permanent risk for the pasture used for livestock feed. Creating firebreak strips to secure gazing areas, animals had forage and people had cash to replenish their food stocks locally, further supporting the local economy. This activity will target 400 vulnerable households.
• Activity 1.4. The construction of 10 feed/fodder warehouses (Boutiques d’Aliment Bétail BAB) and establishment of contingency stock of 180 tons of feed: to ensure optimal stocking conditions, BABs will be built in pastoral zones with a history of forage deficit in the Tahoua and Diffa regions and equipped with a contingency stock of cattle feed to be rapidly ready in the event of potential depletion of forage resources. The BABs will be managed by Management Committees of youth groups in each village, who will be strengthened in their planning and management capacity and will sell at moderate prices set by the Government each year. A stock of 180 tons could help cover the needs of around 1000-1250 small-scale livestock farmers in the event of a grazing shortage. According to Post Distribution Monitoring rainfed season 2023, on average, a household buys 122kg of wheat bran via low-cost sales, enabling it to cover the needs of its livestock for an average of 27 days.
• Activity 1.5. Distribution of unconditional cash to 1000 vulnerable agro-pastoralists and pastoralists: Although the sale of livestock feed is moderately priced, for the most vulnerable households, and particularly for female-headed households, this price is still not affordable, even though keeping their animals plump is essential to the family economy. For this reason, an unconditional cash transfer will be given at the time of the pastoral lean season, to contribute to the family economy and avoid harmful coping strategies.
• Activity 1.6 Establish complaints and feedback mechanism: To enable each beneficiary and communities to share their complaints, questions or comments, two types of complaint mechanisms are set up:
1. Individual mechanisms, to ensure a private channel of communication of suggestions, comments nd feedback. This channel is essential especially since some people in society do not speak in public due to cultural practices or power relations.
2. Community mechanisms, to allow communities to exchange and share their comments. The accountability mechanism involves:
– The establishment of complaints committees respecting the rules of parity and inclusion in each village. The committees must be trained on their roles and responsibilities;
– The presentation of FAO role and activities;
– Awareness-raising among communities on the different channels for reporting complaints.
– The immediate reporting of any complaint of the type of harassment and sexual abuse, gender-based violence or protection to FAO
– The popularization of the FAO toll-free number (2919) among communities, in particular by directing people to the toll-free line poster posted in the villages and by relying on the awareness-raising speech.
• Activity 1.7 Post Distribution Monitoring: Following the implementation and delivery of assistance (in kind and in cash), and before the end of the project, Post Distribution Monitorings will be conducted to gather feedback from beneficiaries on the process and the impact of the actions. The sample to be surveyed will be drawn from the project’s beneficiary registration lists. PDM surveys will be carried out by a specialized service provider under the supervision of the SERA team. The PDM will also be used to establish the FCS and rCSI in the intervention zones.