Abstract
The continuous degradation of agroecosystems is a major concern for Sub-Saharan African countries, particularly Burkina Faso. To fight against this problem, various research projects and programs have implemented Soil and Water Conservation practices (SWC) in Northern Burkina Faso. The objective of this study was to assess the economic performance of stone rows, grass strips, zaï, filtering dikes, half-moons and agroforestry on agricultural production in this part of Burkina Faso. Stochastic Frontier Analysis was used to estimate SWC’s technical efficiency. Results indicated that the cost for SWC construction did not influence white sorghum and pearl millet yield. However, an increase of 1% in the investment for SWC implementation results in a 0.42% increase in groundnut yield and 0.19% in cowpea yield. Although, the half-moon technique had a positive effect on the farmer’s technical efficiency, the effects of stone rows, filtering dikes, zaï and grass strips were not significant. Given the tremendous efforts that farmers develop to implement these anti-erosion practices, one recommendation is that policy makers strengthen the technical, financial and equipment supports to farmers for efficient implementation of SWC techniques to ensure sustainability of agricultural production systems in Northern Burkina Faso.
Highlights
Burkina Faso, like most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, is facing a continuous degradation of its ecosystem
3.1 Estimation of Production Frontiers for White Sorghum and Pearl Millet 3.1.1 White Sorghum For the white sorghum production, the value of γ estimated by the Cobb Douglas type function was 0.69 (Table 3) indicating a technical inefficiency for white sorghum farmer
It is important to indicate that all the estimated coefficients of the production function are significant at the critical p-value of less of equal to 5%, except for the β3 coefficient associated with the total cost of Soil and Water Conservation practices (SWC) construction
Summary
Burkina Faso, like most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, is facing a continuous degradation of its ecosystem. Factors affecting the land degradation are mainly the very strong human population grow and economic pressure, the use of unsustainable production practices such as no application of organic as well as mineral fertilizers, overexploitation of natural resources around cities and villages and low use of SWC practices. This leads to a shortening of fallow duration, a decrease in crop yields and a degradation of soil properties (Roose et al, 2017). To fight against this degraded situation, SWC such as stone rows, grass strips, zaï, filtering dikes, half-moons and agroforestry (Figure 1) had been introduced in the Yatenga Province several decades ago in Northern Burkina Faso
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