Knowledge Management Portal

Knowledge Management Workshop manuscripts package from Sudanese national partners.

Nomad, semi-nomad and transhumant used to be the most frequent mobility types of pastoral society. Nowadays, these categories become questionable in regard to the evolution of the pattern life of families in southern Morocco. How do we link past and present mobility? What have been the changes? In this article, we question the relevance of the aforementioned categories of mobility, as defined by the actors of scientific research and development, to analyze and classify pastoral mobility management that condition the way of life and the adaptive capacities of Saharan societies, by mobilizing different corpus such as ‘récit de vie’ and typology. This study was conducted downstream in the Drâa Valley (Morocco). If the majority of breeders claim to be nomads as soon as they practice a pattern of living in a tent over the course of a year, the typology of mobility pattern reveals intra- and inter-annual fluctuations of its management embedded in their adaptive strategies to climate variability or economic constraints which makes difficult to classify breeders according to the mobility only. In this context, developing climate change mitigation interventions for pastoral societies need to understand and integrate the permanent changing pattern of mobility management in these pastoral societies.

Agroforestry systems can be an effective means of stabilizing or even enhancing crop yields under climate change. Although trees compete with crops for soil resources in agroforestry, they can also improve crops’ growing conditions, especially, by providing shade under drought. They can promote higher crop yields and higher harvest quality in the drylands. However, the beneficial effect of tree shade may depend on the seasonal pattern of rainfall, which determines the compensation between yield components. In this study, we evaluated two annual crops (durum wheat and faba bean) in olive agroforestry in northern Morocco. We manipulated water supply in a field experiment to span the high inter-annual rainfall variability at the site and tested whether olive trees reduce or improve crop yields. We assessed the effect of water addition on crop growth, yield components, and final yields and estimated the land equivalent ratio of olive agroforestry. Agroforestry limited crop growth and yield whatever the water regime. The magnitude of grain yield reduction was around 50 % for both crops in 2018, probably due to shade. The number of grains per unit area was the most impacted yield component in both 2018 and 2019. In contrast, water addition only had limited effects on faba bean yield, although it enhanced wheat grain yield by 11 % and the number of wheat spikes by 13 %. Agroforestry improved individual grain weight by 39 % for wheat and 17 % for faba bean, and enhanced the protein content of wheat grains and straw by 4 % and 9 %. However, improvements in grain weight and in protein content were not sufficient to compensate for yield loss due to shade. Despite lower crop yields, we show that agroforestry systems are still more land productive than sole crops and trees, even under arid conditions. We show how changing water supply may impact the performance of olive agroforestry in a drier future.

Abiotic stress, especially drought and heat, affects cereal yields and wheat production worldwide, more particularly in West and South Asia, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The present study was carried out on 229 spring bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes from the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) to identify the genomic region and marker-trait associations (MTA) responsible for drought and heat tolerance. The study was carried out in three different locations, Merchouch station (Morocco), Sids station (Egypt), and Wadmadani station (Sudan) over a period of 2 years (2018 and 2019). A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using the mixed linear model (MLM) and 13,698 DArTseq markers were used for genotyping. Linkage disequilibrium revealed that 1914 pairs of markers mapped on the B sub- genome, followed by D and A sub-genomes with 1745 and 1726 paired markers, respectively. A total of 342 MTAs (P < 0.05) and 78 genes were identified in the three environments, of which 134 MTAs were recorded at Sids station and 128 and 80 MTAs at Wadmadani station and Merchouch station. The markers 822,842, 196,565 and 753,901 were significantly correlated with grain yield under drought, heat and yield potential stations Morocco, Sudan, and Egypt, respectively. The markers and candidate genes identified in this study have potentials for marker-assisted selection to develop high yielding wheat genotypes with resistance to heat and drought stresses.

A rural solution solves specific challenges in the rural environment. It's a tool that can be used and re-used to address common issues like resource management, marginalization of rural communities, financing concerns, erosion, pollution, financial stress and the effects of climate change. A rural solution can be a technology, such as a sustainable energy source, a financial scheme that gives rural people access to credit or savings, or a process that supports rural businesses, like enterprise support centers or training programmes.

The systems of the Maghreb hinterlands are based on the complementarity and integration of agriculture and livestock, especially through the mobility of herds. Therefore, this study aims to understand the links between livelihoods and agricultural practices (herd mobility in our case), as well as the organization of work in rural households with a focus on the place of women. This is in order to characterize the vulnerability of rural households. This will be addressed by using a set of data collected by the use of the Rural Household Multi-Indicators Survey toolkit (RHoMIS) from the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas of Tinghir, more precisely in 7 municipalities from downstream to upstream of the Dades valley, which are: Ikniouen, Boumalne, Ait Youl, Ait Sedrat Jbel Soufla, Ait Sedrat Jbel El Oulia, M'semrir and Tilmi. Based on the typology that results from a multivariate analysis followed by a hierarchical ascending classification, we were able to identify 4 categories of breeders or household profiles. Two are most represented in the study sample. Those are, the category E1 representing the agro-pastoral system combining agriculture and small ruminant breeding, and the category E2 representing farms specialized in pastoralism with small ruminant breeding. Intermediate systems are also distinguished, namely small family farms (category E3) and mixed farming systems that integrate agriculture and livestock (E4). In terms of economic analysis of the livestock system for each category, we found that the breeding, in general, and pastoral of small ruminants, in particular, is not sufficient to meet the needs of the rural population living in the most landlocked areas of Morocco. As a result, in order to become more resilient, the rural households’ members adopted means, other than livestock to manage their resources and to fight against poverty. Regarding the organization of work within the household, the members of the rural households themselves design their own activities to achieve their goals and properly manage the resources to which they have access (grazing, work, water, capital, etc.). Regarding the place of women in these production systems, they are ubiquitous in all activities, whether agricultural or livestock, as well as in domestic tasks.

Le présent travail porte sur les problématiques de l’estimation du rendement et la gestion de la fertilisation azotée en utilisant l’indice de végétation NDVI. L’objectif de cette étude est d’un côté, identifier les meilleurs stades de croissance pour faire une prévision fiable du rendement et une gestion de la fertilisation azotée de la culture de blé dur, et d’autre côté, étudier l’effet de la date de semis et des différentes modalités d’apport de l’azote sur le rendement et la qualité des grains. Pour ce fait, un essai expérimental a été installé à la station expérimentale de Marchouch de l’ICARDA. Il s’agit d’un dispositif en blocs aléatoires complets avec trois répétitions de 12 traitements : 2 dates de semis (19 novembre et 24 décembre) x 6 modalités d’apport de l’’azote (N0 :Témoin, N1 : 60 kg N/ha ( au semis), N2 : 60 kg N/ha (30 kg au semis et 30 kg au tallage), N3 : 60 kg N/ha (30 kg au tallage et 30 kg au début montaison), N4 : 120 kg N/ha ( 60 kg au semis et 60 kg au tallage), N5 : 120 kg N/ha (60 kg au tallage et 60 kg au début montaison)). Pour obtenir les valeurs de NDVI, le capteur GreenSeeker (Handheld-505) a été utilisé. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que la fertilisation azotée favorise l’ensemble des paramètres étudiés, mais son efficacité varie selon la modalité d’apport appliquée. Les parcelles semées en novembre et ayant la modalité d’apport N4 ont eu un rendement en grains moyen de 59,5 qx/ha avec un taux d’augmentation de 34% par rapport au témoin. Même pour la matière sèche, la culture subissant la modalité N4 a du bien profiter des apports azotés au moment du semis et du tallage et a donné des valeurs significativement élevées (6972 kg/ha). Les différentes modalités d’apport d’azote et la date de semis ont montré un effet significatif sur les teneurs en azote des grains, ainsi les modalités N4 et N5 ont enregistré la teneur la plus élevée (2.65%), aussi les parcelles semées tardivement ont présenté une teneur moyenne élevée (2,7 %). Le potentiel du NDVI à différencier les parcelles de blé dur sous différents modes d’apport d'azote et dates de semis pour le rendement en grain a été démontré. Le NDVI a pu différencier les cultivars à différents stades de croissance. Des valeurs maximales de NDVI ont été observées dans les parcelles conduites en mode d’apport N4. Les valeurs NDVI à la phase Fin montaison-Gonflement peuvent être utilisées pour l’estimation du rendement de blé dur (r=0,832). La relation entre les valeurs NDVI du stade fin-montaison et les teneurs en azote des grains s’est avérée positive et fortement corrélée (r=0,91). Alors ces résultats suggèrent que le NDVI de ce stade est représentatif de la qualité du grain.

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