This document produced by CERPA in 2011 is a report on the number of water reservoirs/dams per commune in the departments of Atacora / Donga and points of the fishing infrastructures. The objective of this project is to identify pastoral water points in order to allow a good supervision of the agricultural actors. The issue of water management for good agricultural policy remains an important issue for Benin.

During the 1970s, when severe droughts affected West African farmers, cereal banks became popular in the region. However, things quickly became very quiet again about this type of food security scheme, probably also because many of the cereal banks failed. Scientific surveys addressing the topic are scarce. A study in The Gambia in 2014 investigated how such cereal banks function and what the important variables for their success are.

Table with sorghum leaf area index (LAI) time series (primary/raw) from central field experiment plots in the Vea catchment (one of main research sites in the WASCAL Core Research Program), Ghana, 2013.

There have been recent incidences of weather extremes in the West African Sudan Savanna and farmers have responded through implementation of relevant adaptation strategies. For a deeper insight into farmers’ adaptation to climatic shocks, this study documents farmers’ perception of recent changes in the local climate, and identifies factors that influence the number and choice of strategies implemented. Interdependencies among strategies are explored and joint and marginal probabilities of adoption estimated. Upper East Ghana and Southwest Burkina Faso are used as the case study regions. These regions were selected due to extreme reliance of inhabitants on agriculture for sustenance, and their recent exposure to weather extremes. Through estimation of a Poisson regression and multivariate probit model to identify the major factors that influence the number and choice of strategies adopted, we discover that limited access to credit, markets, and extension services, smaller cropland area, and low level of mechanization could impede effective adaptation to weather extremes. To enhance farmers’ adaptive capacity, policy makers and various stakeholders need to contribute towards improving farmers’ access to credit, markets, and extension services, and implement measures to promote mechanization.

This document is a map of land and vegetation cover of the North Bank Region of the Gambia produced by the National Environment Agency of the Gambia (NEA). It is reproduced as a background map in 2015 by Constantine Kouevi, student WASCAL MRP-The Gambia, in her Master thesis. This study shows that there is a densification of human activities in this geographical space, which explains a high human concentration. Land management policies depend on the quality of natural resource management. This can lead to potential conflicts.

The development of this First National Communications has enabled my Department of State to develop an institutional framework that has brought together and consolidated the networking and dialogue between different economic sectors, CBOs and NGOs, and grassroots level communities. Technicians and scientists of different backgrounds and disciplines have pooled their expertise and worked together to develop this informative document. In this National Communication we have outlined the emissions of greenhouse gases from the major economic sectors and activities of the country, developed plausible climate change scenarios and based on these scenarios we have assessed the potential impacts of the projected climate change. The National Communication also contains measures and strategies to mitigate the concentration of greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere and adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. No detailed cost-benefit analysis was conducted on the mitigation and adaptation measures due to inadequate capacity to cost the effects of climate change. The potential impacts of climate change on crop production, biodiversity and wildlife, coastal resources, forestry, fisheries, rangelands and livestock, and water resources have been studied in great detail. Most of the impacts are negative and the populations are vulnerable. Although The Gambia is a small country, there are opportunities to invest on small-scale projects to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to adverse impacts of climate change. These projects would be in policy development, fuel switching including the efficient use of both renewable and non-renewable energy, use of efficient modes of transportation and conservation and sustainable use of forests. Cooperation between developed countries and The Gambia will enable all Parties to meet their commitments based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. The mitigation and adaptation measures presented in this first national communications will require funding to build national adaptive capacity and provide appropriate technologies to address climate change.

Cotton phenology time series (primary/raw) from central field experiment plots in the main research sites of the WASCAL Core Research Program, 2013. Function of crop rotation and residue mangement, tillage and N fertilization The data is captured at field plot level.

The main topic of the survey is the assessment of the impact of 2012 flood on income and expenditure and poverty status of farmers. Twelve farmers in 19 villages in two municipalities (Malanville and Karimama) have been interviewed.

These LULC maps were created through automatic digital classification of RapidEye imagery acquired in November 2012. Reference (or field) data on which the classification was based were acquired through a field campaign that lasted from June to November 2012. Standard image pre-processing techniques such as geometric and radiometric correction were conducted on the data prior to classification. The Random Forest classification algorithm was used for classification. A single level classification was conducted to reveal six LULC classes. Discrimination between different crop types was not possible due to the use of a mono-temporal image

Table with sorghum phenology observations (primary/raw) from central field experiment plots in the Vea catchment (one of main research sites in the WASCAL Core Research Program), Ghana, 2013.