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 IFDC is one of the partners in the DMP
consortium, an initiative to arrest land degradation in Africa’s desert
margins, led by the International Crops Research Institute for the
Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), with funding from the Global Environment
Facility (GEF). During the first 2 years of this project, which started
in 2003, IFDC’s contribution is focusing on formal and informal training
of DMP research and development staff in systems approaches and decision
support tools. During Phase I of the project, previously led by Wopereis,
IFDC has parameterized the Simulating Mixed Farming Systems in the Sahel
(SIMFIS) model for farming conditions in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The model was expanded to include small
ruminants and applied to farming conditions in the province of Soum in
northern Burkina Faso, a direct link with the work that IFDC is doing in
the PDES Livestock Development project (discussed previously). IFDC also
organized a training course on decision support tools for Sahelian
agriculture in June 2004, attended by partners from DMP and the
Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).
A follow-up workshop is planned for June
2005. IFDC is giving technical support to DMP partners through
backstopping missions. The project has been extended for 2 years
(2005-2006) in which IFDC’s role will gradually move to one of providing
backstopping to DMP partners on best-bet approaches to up- and
out-scaling of agricultural technologies in mixed farming systems.
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