Natural resources and land-use management: Conditions for the adoption of mulch-based cropping system by migrant farmers in the Benoué river Basin (North Cameroon)

Economic growth in North Cameroon is based on agriculture relying mainly on the cotton crop. Confronted with the short-comings agricultural intensification model developed 30 years ago which rely on the use of mineral fertiliser and draught animals and the integration of animal and crop production; SODECOTON in collaboration with CIRAD and IRAD are working towards developing Direct seeding Mulch-based Cropping systems (DMC) for the cotton crop and related crops in rotation. Adoption of these systems by farmers is being met with certain difficulties, notably those related with work organisation within the farm holding, poor land tenure regime, rational use of plant biomass between animal feed and soil mulch. Some of these constraints cannot be analysed only at the level of the cropping system nor at that of the farm holdings, since the rules of decision-making do not depend entirely on the farm family head. This work describes the present state of natural resource and land use management at different levels, by grazers and farmers of two village communities and their environs. At the level of farm holdings a structural type-description was done in order to bring out the various strengths and weaknesses in the adoption of DMC from the standpoint of the different farmers. Visit of on-farm experimental fields and plots were organised for farmers and grazers. These visits provided a forum for debate in which the system's weaknesses were corrected so as to render the mulch-based cropping system compatible with grazer practices, fodder-biomass and landed-property management.