IITA-IFAD youth study on Anchor Borrowers

The West African Sahel and dry savannahs cover a large northern sector of the sub-region from Nigeria through Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, to Senegal where natural resource limitations, especially water scarcity and land degradation, are expected to be exacerbated by climate change. The main goal of the proposed project is to introduce climate smart agricultural technologies and innovations in the Sahel and dry savannah regions of Mali and Niger that will improve rural livelihoods and food security. In the first of the two components of the project, we will use innovation platforms (IPs) to scale out exisitng technologies along the value chain of key commodities. In Niger the delivery mechanisms that the current Norwegian project (RED/SAACC-Niger) is applying will also be adopted. In the second project component we will conduct research to develop and adapt additional technological options to expand the pool from which farmers and other value chain actors get to choose from.