Using farmers' criteria to assess profitability of fodder shrubs in the desert margins of West Africa

Abstract This paper presents the results of a study carried out in the Ségou region of Northern Mali to analyse the use of fodder shrubs. The farmer‐level fodder banks consisted of three perennial legumes ( Gliricidia sepium, Pterocarpus erinaceus and Pterocarpus lucens ). The main question addressed is whether this new type of fodder was more profitable for smallholder farmers compared to alternative fodder options. To test hypotheses for profitability, farmers were grouped in two different ways. The first grouping was based on the different village communities the farmers belonged to. The second grouping consisted of three user groups based on individual (non‐) use patterns of the fodder banks. ‘Passives’ were non‐users because of apparent disinterest. ‘Actives’ were the group of users whose fodder banks performed well and who harvested in time while ‘Unfortunates’ were non‐users unable to harvest fodder mostly through high mortality rates of the shrubs. Profitability was measured by increases in income or increases in the productivity of labour spent on feeding livestock. Profitability was shown to be dependent on the use pattern of the fodder shrubs. In the actual situation no user group had gained any concrete financial benefits. The several scenarios in which other use modalities were modelled, did show gains of using fodder shrubs, but only under conditions where alternative options were expensive. The perceived value of this technology was high. The use patterns indicated that this did not necessarily reflect farmers' long term interest in the technology itself. Rather, farmers were motivated by perceived opportunities to gain short term material and social benefits from the project promoting the shrubs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.