Resumen de Farmers’ preferences for conservation and breeding programs of agroforestry food resources in Niger
Food security and adequate nutrition allow populations to take advantage of both their own potential and development opportunities. In a less-favored area such as the Sahel, specifically Niger, promoting the sustainable management, breeding, and conservation of the agroforestry resources would result in increased production from the system and the recovery of food resources. We have conducted an analysis of participation by local communities in conservationand breeding programs for their agroforestry systems, more specifically regarding the trees that are present in those systems. The assessment, through a contingent ranking, has allowed us to estimate the preferences and the values given by the rural population to the attributes that would be comprised in a program designed to increase the food security of the rural population. The resulting preferred scenario or program is Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) based on the species Adansonia digitata (Baobab), with plantation, stone bunds or tassa, and selected or bred seeds. The main effects of the program, according to the surveyed population, include an increase in crop production and soil conservation and increased income from tree products. This study has allowed us to identify the program that would provide the greatest well-being forfarmers, since it would allow them to simultaneously increase both the production of their crops and the production of a woody food species such as the Baobab, and it would allow an increasein income from derived products. Farmers want to improve their production system and are willing to invest sustainable effort for a minimum of 5 years, or even indefinitely.
