Niger

General Information

· Main climates: Tropical Desert and Arid, Subtropical Desert and Arid, Tropical Steppe and Semiarid

· Total land area: 126 670 000 ha

· Internal renewable water resources: 3.5 km³

· Incoming water flow: 29 km³

· GNP per capita, 1998: PPP$ 729

· Main food consumed: Millet & sorghum, Pulses, Rice, Root & tubers, Oil & fat

· Rice supply, 1999: 8.7 kg paddy/capita/year

Basic Statistics

Producing Zones and Cropping Seasons

Rice is planted mainly in Dosso and Tillaberi. The following table shows the harvested irrigated areas from different producing zones.

The following table shows the periods of rice cropping seasons.

Production Practices

The following figure shows the harvested areas from different ecologies during the last five years.

Deepwater rice is dominant under the category of other ecologies. Upland rice is grown as a mono-crop or as in a mixture with other food crops following the slash-and-burn shifting cultivation almost without any application of chemical fertilizer and other ago-chemical. Similarly the rainfed lowland and deepwater rice are cultivated following traditional systems with limited or no external input. Direct seeding is popular in deepwater, while transplanting is generally practised in rainfed lowland and irrigated rice. In irrigated rice production, land preparation is generally done mechanically and moderate to high rate of fertilizer is generally applied. Information on rice response to fertilizer application, however, is limited. Weeding is generally done manually, although the use of herbicides is increasing in irrigated rice. Farmers do not have adequate appropriate tools and equipment for harvesting and threshing of rice. A number of improved varieties have been released for irrigated rice cultivation

Constraints and Issues of Sustainable Production

There are several constraints to sustainable rice production in Niger. Following are the majors:

• Low temperature during off-season in irrigated areas

• Shortage of water in the dry season

• Poor maintenance of irrigation facilities

• High production costs

• Inadequate and Irregular input supplies: seeds, fertilizer and credit

• Lack of small farm equipment, especially for post harvest operations

• Lack of effective farmer organization and co-operative

• Competition of labour by other production activities

• Lack of a well-defined rice policy

• Poor road networks and marketing systems

• Weak research and extension support

The following table shows the rice production costs.

Sustainable rice production would greatly depend on the establishment of appropriate policy to provide support to farmers especially in-terms of input supply and output marketing. The development of lowland rice production with improved water supply and control would be essential.

Research and Development Institutes

· Direction de la Mise en Valeur à l’Office National des Aménagements Hydro-agricoles (ONAHA), Ministère du développement Agricole, BP. 10697, Niamey, Tel.: (227) 732058

· Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), BP 429-Niamey, Niger, Tel:(227) 73 30 71, Fax:(227) 73 21 44, E-mail: [email protected]

· Institut national de la recherche agronomique du Niger, Lossa

· Service Programmation, Ministère du Développement Agricole, BP. 12091, Niamey, Tel.: (227) 733674