Effects of Agro-ecological Practices on the Bio-functioning of Soil and Water Resources in the Rural Commune of Falwel (Dosso-Niger)

8 www.wjrr.org  Abstract— The decline in soil fertility, one of the main constraints of the agricultural sector in Niger, is still prevalent in several production areas where land is exploited every year without fallowing. Faced with this situation, various solutions such as the adoption of agroecological practices have been considered. In order to evaluate the level and constraints of adoption of these practices as well as their effects on the bio-functioning of soils and water resources, a study was conducted among 100 producers in the rural commune of Falwel. Soil samples were collected from the community sites and analyzed at the INRAN soil laboratory to assess the effect of reclaiming degraded land on soil fertility and vegetation cover improvement. The collected data were analyzed with Xlstat 2014 version 5.3 software. The results of the study showed that the practices of land restoration and promotion of ecological market gardening were adopted respectively by 35 and 64% of the producers surveyed because of their contribution to the improvement of soil fertility and their low-cost practice. On the other hand, the practice of over-digging surface water points was less adopted with an adoption rate of less than 20%. The reasons cited include the difficulty of implementing it on an individual scale, the lack of equipment and the arduousness of the activities. Moreover, physicochemical analyses have shown that the practices have had various effects on the physicochemical characteristics of these soils and the expected effects are sometimes not immediately observable.