ICRISAT Archival Report 2006 - The seedlings of success in the ...

Project 7
Reducing Rural Poverty through Agricultural Diversification and Emerging Opportunities
for High-Value Commodities and Products
System Priority3: Reducing Rural Poverty through Agricultural Diversification and Emerging Opportunities
for High-Value Commodities and Products
Specific goal 1a: Identify key species for research and assess their factor and product markets in WCA
Specific goal 2a: Enhance production of selected fruit and vegetables through improvement of farming systems in
WCA
Output 7A African Market Garden technology strategy and knowledge database, developed, tested and
promulgated regionally in the SAT of the Sahel (in collaboration with AVRDC and ICRAF) by 2009 and
assessed in comparison with existing and new potential dryland alternatives
Output target 2007 Sahelian Eco-farm: 1 st proof of concept tested and validated in Sahelian countries and report
published
Intensification and Improvement of Market Gardening in the Sudano-Sahel Region of Africa
The African Market Garden
Current production systems (hand irrigation and to a lesser extent basin irrigation) are labor-intensive, imprecise and
wasteful of water and energy. Productivity is very low. ICRISAT-Niamey and IPALAC developed an improved
system of cultivating market gardens, called the African Market Garden (AMG) to reduce these constraints. The
principles of the AMG derive from research carried out at the Ben Gurion University in Israel (Pasternak and
Bustan, 2003). (Fig.1).
Fig. 1. AMG scheme. Daily water supply is
stored in a reservoir elevated one meter above
the field. Water flows through a valve, a filter,
a main line and distribution lines to the field (or
a greenhouse) and reaches the plants through
drip laterals
The African Market Garden delivers drip irrigation, in a form that is affordable and manageable by smallholders in
the Sudano-Sahelian region. Its advantages are:
• Large reduction in labor for hand-carrying water in buckets
• Less water used - water application adjusted to match crop water consumption
• Less fuel cost for pumping less water
• Even distribution of water across the plot
• Fertigation (fertilizer application with irrigation water) – more efficient
• Slow water discharge making the system suitable for both sandy and heavy soils.
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