AGRICULTURAL-DEVELOPMENT IN THE WEST AFRICAN SAHELIAN REGION - A CURE AGAINST LAND HUNGER

Animal husbandry and arable farming in some West African countries are analysed with respect to the potential of the natural resources. It is demonstrated that low soil fertility is often the major constraint for production, both for food grains and for natural vegetation. The result is that the quality of the organic material used as forage is also low, which constrains animal production. Animal husbandry shows a trend of moving southwards and becoming more sedentary, which decreases production potential and leads to changing production targets. Arable farming without the use of external inputs increasingly exhausts the soil, with the risk of degradation. The integration of arable farming and animal husbandry often strengthens the former, but hardly improves animal production. It is argued that the only remedy for agriculture in the region is increased production per unit area by the application of external inputs. This will require a changing price policy to make it economically viable, and can only be achieved through solidarity of the international community in the area of agricultural trade policies. © 1990.