Benin

Research information from infosysplus.org: Organisations and projects in Benin

Projects with partners - Benin (14)

• Conservation of Biodiversity in Traditional West African Vegetable Species

  Purpose Improved conservation & sustainable use of biodiversity in Mali & Benin by cataloguing indigenous vegetable (IV) species, domesticating selected species & promoting their value to producers & consumers.

• Development and implementation of a sustainable IPM program for major mango pests and opportunity for improving market information and processing in sub-Saharan Africa

  To enhance food security and income generation capacity in the targeted countries in East and West Africa To develop and implement in collaboration with international and national partners effective approaches to reduction of mango loses due to insect infestation leading to quality

• Facilitating the uptake of pheromone traps for Maruca vitrata in West Africa

  Objectives: Environmentally safe methods of cowpea pest control developed and promoted. Background: On-station trials of the trap-threshold concept have provided evidence of its effectiveness, compared to spraying based on crop stage. On-farm trials during 2002 and 2003 sought to develop an integrated approach in which traps were combined with botanical pesticides for the control of M. vitrata as well as other pests; this was compared against treatments using recommended synthetic pesticides (in combination with traps or not) and locally varying farmer practice. Traps were found generally to improve control by optimising the timing of application. Although botanical-based treatments often do not perform as well as conventional pesticides, in terms of yield or infestations, their lower input costs can be sufficient to produce similar economic returns.

• Farmers participatory improvement of production technologies for rainfed rice-based systems in West Africa with emphasis on Nigeria and Benin (NEW CONTRACT-NO: 81051376)

  Major Research Domain: Rice-based farming systems, technology generation, dissemination approaches Goal: Development of approaches that ensure generation and dissemination of demand driven technologies in rainfed rice-based cropping systems in West Africa Outputs: - To extrapolate available approaches to other sites and crops - To measure the impact of adapted technologies - To generate more complex technologies that effect farm household and village - To make available a system of demand driven technology generation and dissemination

• Implementing pheromone traps and other new technologies for control of cowpea insect pests in West Africa through farmer field schools

  Objectives: Promotion of strategies to reduce the impact of pests and stabilise yields in semi-arid cotton-based cropping systems, for the benefit of poor people. Background: Great progress was made in a previous project, R7441, in developing pheromone traps to assist in the control of Maruca vitrata by acting as predictors of infestations, enabling the timing of control measures to be optimised. The proposed project would continue work to combine the use of pheromone traps with botanical insecticides to control this important pest of cowpea in West Africa. Evidence for continuing constraints to the adoption of these technologies (and demands for their resolution) comes principally from two surveys of farmers' views conducted under project R7441. A project survey conducted in early 2002 found that 92% of farmers in Benin who had experienced pheromone traps during the project believe that they can signal the arrival of M. vitrata in cowpea fields and that this information should allow them to target their spraying activities better.

• Improving the livelihoods of poor live-stock keepers in Africa through community based management of indigenous farm animal genetic resources

  Major Research Domain: livestock, animal genetic resources, community based management Goal: To improve the livelihoods of poor livestock-keepers in Africa through community-based management of indigenous farm animal genetic resources

• INCO - Claim: Changes in Land Access, Institutions and Market S in West Africa

  The general objective of the research program is to make a significant contribution to more equitable and appropriate policies and institutions for managing and providing more secure access to land and other natural resources in four countries of West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, Côte-d'Ivoire). Such policies lie at the heart of strategies to promote more sustainable development and tackle poverty in Africa. The research programme also seeks to strengthen research capacity and methods for engagement in policy debate in West Africa, while improving understanding of the issues internationally.

• Market information System for West Africa

  Appleid research for the development of a decentralised and GIS based information system for monitoring agricultural markets in West Africa.

• Restoration of the soil fertility in the South and Centre of Benin

  The project aims at building up a laboratory and training of students with regard to soil fertility. More specifically it deals with the increase in soil fertility via cultivation of trees and herbaceous legumes with the capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The ultimate aim is the improvement of the revenues of the local farming community.

• RIVERTWIN - A regional model for integrated water management in twinned river basins

  The 'RIVERTWIN' project aims to support the goals of the Global Water Initiative by adjusting, testing and implementing an integrated regional model for the strategic planning of water resources management in twinned river basins. The regional model will assist planning authorities and decision makers to assess the impacts of economic and technological development, and the effects of global climate and land use changes on the long-term availability and quality of water bodies. The model is based on a Geographic Information System, which integrates ecological (water availability and quality) and economic aspects (water demand and water use) of water management in user-friendly software.

• Rural Universe Network

  ICT for rural development

• SFB 308 Standortgerechte Landwirtschaft in West Afrika

  With the completion of the Special Research Program 308 on Adapted Farming in West Africa the time has come to sum up the experiences of 15 years of agricultural research. This research program, carried out by scientists from the University of Hohenheim, played a particular role in the context of agricultural research systems in West Africa. With a funding provided upon review of results and application over five phases of three years each, short-term research plans had to be drawn up with a long term perspective. Inter-institutional collaboration with international as well as national partners required fine tuning and an accommodation of plans to fit and complement existing efforts and priorities of the existing research institutions. Interdisciplinary approaches generated synergy effects.

• The influence of land use on the dynamics of native soil nitrogen at watershed scale in West Africa

  Quantify seasonal dynamics of N along transects in an model inland valley and nitrate dynamics during the dry-to-wet transition season in 27 valleys of major categories of West Africa. Establish interactions between slope characteristics and N dynamics at different scales. Determine the effect of agricultural land use on the N balance of valley segments and the whole watershed Develop a simple tool, predicting N fluxes and crop N use in a watershed as a function of land use. Extrapolate at sub-regional scale the extent of N dynamics and the potential impact of available land use management strategies .

• Towards the development of sustainable control options for the African root and tuber scale on cassava in Central Africa – understanding the ecology of the associated ant Anoplolepis tenella

  Anoplolepis tenella is a ground-dwelling ant species with widespread distribution in Central Africa. It is associated to the African root and tuber scale (ARTS) Stictococcus vayssierei Richard. A major effort is presently underway to identify and characterize biotic, agronomic, and environmental factors that affect ARTS abundance, and to develop sustainable practices for its management on cassava and other affected food crops. One of the key questions that must be addressed is the nature of the interactions between the ant A. tenella and ARTS, and the conditions that promote the abundance of A. tenella, which is the key factor contributing to the proliferation of ARTS in Central Africa.