Chronica - Acta Horticulturae

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 and watering cans,
❚ 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 (more efficient fertilizer application
with irrigation water),
❚ Slow water discharge making the system suitable
for both sandy and heavy soils.
Three systems were developed: (1) The “Thrifty
System” based on a 200-liter water-barrel
reservoir serving an irrigated area of 80 m 2 ; the
barrel can be hand-filled from a nearby water
source. This system is suited for the very smallscale
producer, mostly in communal village gardens.
(2) The “Commercial System” based on a
concrete ring reservoir serving an area of
500 m 2 (Fig. 2). (3) The “Cluster System” based
on the supply of water from a large reservoir,
preferably a dam, to a large number (clusters)
of AMGs concentrated in one area (Fig. 3). This
is the preferred system because of savings in
pumps, reservoirs and energy. Concentration of
many producers in one place has additional
advantages such as mutual learning, joint purchasing
of supplies, and joint marketing.
Figure 2. “Commercial system” in a Niger
village. Note water reservoir on left.
Woman holds bolting-tolerant ‘Noga’ lettuce
variety selected by ICRISAT-Niamey.
Profit (US $/m 2 )
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
Figure 4. Building earth beds for an
African Market Garden. Training incorporates
both the installation and operation
of the drip system as well as garden
management.
Figure 5. Annual profit per m 2 of a conventional
market garden, an African
Market Garden (AMG) and an AMG planted
with dates.
0.1
Conventional
In all models the irrigated area can be expanded
by adding water storage volume or by connecting
additional drip systems to existing reservoirs.
In the “commercial” model the volume of
the reservoir is calculated according to maximum
daily water demand by the crops. For
example in most of the Sahel peak plant water
0.7
AMG without
dates
Production systems
2.3
AMG with
dates
use is about 8 mm/day. Hence the volume of
the reservoir that serves a 500 m 2 unit is 4 m 3 .
Over the last three years ICRISAT-Niamey fostered
the installation of about 1,500 AMG units
of all three models in nine Sahelian countries.
The number of newly installed units is steadily
growing. Each recipient of the AMG undergoes
thorough training (Fig. 4).
The AMG is easy to operate and maintain, saves
energy, labor and other inputs. Significant yield
increases for some crops are recorded and product
quality is enhanced.
Incorporation of quality date palm varieties
(possible in the Sahel due to high ambient temperatures)
significantly increases the profitability
of the system.
Fig. 5 gives the annual profit per m 2 of a conventional
market garden, and an AMG, both
planted with vegetables and of an AMG with
date palms intercropped with vegetables. The
area of each of the three systems is 500 m 2 .
Nine date palms are planted, each giving an
annual fruit yield of 100 kg/palm. The higher
profits from the AMG resulted from both
savings in inputs (labor for irrigation, fuel for
water pumping, fertilizers) and from higher
yields combined with better product quality.
VEGETABLE CULTIVAR
ADAPTATION TO THE
SUDANO-SAHEL
High air temperatures are the main environmental
constraint for vegetable production in
the Sudano-Sahel (Fig. 6).
Most vegetable cultivars produced in the
Sudano-Sahel are purchased from seed companies
based in Europe and the USA. Many of
these cultivars are unadapted to the high temperatures
of the Sahel. However, areas with
warm climates such as Australia, Israel,
California, India, AVRDC in Taiwan and others
have bred heat-tolerant cultivars that are more
suitable for Sudano-Sahelian conditions. Over
Figure 3. The Cluster System is based on
water distribution from reservoirs and
dams to market gardens. Water flows
from a dam (or another large reservoir)
situated 3 m above the field (not seen)
through a central distribution line (center-right)
and is supplied to a cluster of
African Market Gardens (right and left).
The blue barrels serve as fertilizer tanks.
Figure 6. Annual variation in mean maximum and minimum temperatures in Niamey, Niger.
Note the cooler night temperatures from Mid October to March that is the main vegetable
production season.
50
40
30
°C
20
10
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 46 • NUMBER 4 • 2006 • 25