In the countries south of the Sahara (referred to as Sub-Sahara, hereafter), food production increase has not kept pace with the population increase, and coupled with natural disasters such as droughts and floods, the precarious balance of food supply and demand still continues.  Also, forests have been cleared to secure new farmland (for slash and burn), rapidly reducing areas of tropical forests.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) conducted "The survey on development plan for increased food production" for 12 African countries between 1988 and 1991 and "The study on global environment and agricultural resource management" for three areas in Asia, Africa and Central-South America between 1990 and 1993.  By the results of these studies, the following conclusions were reached:

-  Inland valley bottoms (called differently depending on the country, such as bas-fonds, fadama, mbuga, and dambo) have high agro-production potentials and efforts to efficiently utilize the lands for paddy fields could become a powerful means to solve food problems in Africa.

-  Small-scale irrigated paddy rice farming is important as a measure against slash and burn practice in Africa.

With the above as the background, the present study was carried out to formulate project plans under local people's participation, including the development and dissemination of small-scale agriculture (e.g., small-scale paddy rice farming) that will increase food production on the one hand, preventing the decrease of tropical forests and the progress of desertification in the Sub-Sahara African region on the other.  The study areas selected were inland valley bottoms including valley bottom paddy fields, where agricultural activities including paddy rice farming are practiced.

Moreover, in the present study, sustainable development is defined as development that will bring the local people (the beneficiaries) positive effects in terms of social and technical conditions but no deterioration of the environment and can be appropriately maintained by the local people.  Accordingly, the scale of development was decided to be small, which was not to exceed 100ha.

This report summarizes the results of the study conducted in four countries in Sub-Sahara African Region by the Association for International Cooperation of Agriculture and Forestry (AICAF) of Japan as requested by MAFF for the span of nine years starting in 1992.

In this report, the study method is presented in Chapter 1.  The characteristics of the natural environments of the study areas, followed by issues on agricultural development in relation to climate and soils are outlined in Chapter 2.  Then, the field survey results including the existing conditions of the study area in each country at the time of the study, the study results along with the identified problems and a development plan formulated taking those problems into consideration, field trials conducted in accordance with the plan, and the extent of local people's participation are summarized in Chapter 3.  Finally, suggestions regarding the future agricultural development in Africa are offered in Chapter 4.

The present report has been compiled also in hopes to guide those who are and will be involved in research, project planning and project implementation as regards agricultural development in African regions in the future.

Kenichi KAKUDOH

President of AICAF

March 2003