Agro-silvo-pastoral research technologies: as alternatives to the disappearance of fallow land in West Africa

The crop-fallow cycle is currently being disrupted by increasing population pressure and demand for land. Fallow periods have become shorter, raising the prospect that this practice may eventually disappear. Alternative methods to fallow land have been proposed. The objective of the "Fallow Land" project (1994-2003) was to carry out a program to study, improve, and manage fallow land at the village level in tropical African countries. The aim was to integrate the crop-fallow cycle-or alternative practices to fallow where it has disappeared-into a sustainable development strategy. The results of the Fallow Project have been the subject of numerous scientific and technical publications. A "peer review" was conducted to identify findings that could be transferred to rural settings and to examine the conditions for such transfer. This document summarizes these agro-sylvo-pastoral research findings obtained in five West African countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Thus, the conditions and processes of innovation in sub-Saharan agriculture were identified.