The livestock sector in Senegal is of crucial importance to the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, especially women. It is an economic pillar that offers financial stability and the ability to adapt to climate hazards. 

Climate information services (CIS) can support the resilience of the sector and the communities it supports. With high-quality data tailored to their needs, farmers in Senegal will be able to, for example, optimise reproduction, grazing and forage harvesting periods. They can also plan vaccination and preventive treatment campaigns, thereby improving the health of their herds and the productivity of their activities. And the government can integrate evidence-based information on climate risks into economic planning and development.

When well implemented, the production, translation, transfer, and use of climate knowledge and information can enable farmers and pastoralists to better understand, anticipate and manage climate risks.

However, the promise of CIS technologies and innovations have largely been unrealised in Senegal. The dissemination of appropriate weather information remains sporadic and poorly integrated into livestock farming practices, limiting the ability of livestock farmers to anticipate and manage climate risks.

The need for a community solution

Between 2019 and 2023, following a series of national consultations on climate-smart practices and technologies, the Senegal Ministry of Livestock and Animal Production, in its sectoral policy letter, which defines the priorities of the government's involvement in the livestock sector for five years (2022-2026), expressed the need to identify potential solutions for setting up a coherent and formal system for farmers to access CIS.

The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project responded by initiating a community of practice for national public and private partners to develop agri-advisory models guided by climate information.

This ambition was forged in collaboration with public institutions including the Agence Nationale de l’Aviation Civile et de la Météorologie (ANACIM), the Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA), the Agence Nationale de Conseil Agricole et Rural (ANCAR) Direction de l’Elevage (DIREL), and Centre de Suivi Écologique (CSE); private institutions including Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontière (AVSF), Action Contre la Faim (ACF), and Kossam Société de Développement de l’Elevage (KSDE); and farmers' associations including Association des Professionnels et Acteurs de la Filière Lait Local (APAFIL) and Association pour le Développement Intégré et Durable (ADID). 

In 2023, at the consultative workshop of experts and stakeholders for the development of agro-climatic advice and information content for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, it was unanimously proposed and accepted to set up a community of practice (CoP) for CIS for agro-pastoral communities. This network brings together key actors in Senegal's livestock sector.

The community in action

This multi-stakeholder platform provides accurate and timely climate information and agro-climatic advice every 10 days, tailored to the specific needs of Senegalese livestock farmers.

These agro-climatic advisories consider the perceptions of pastoral communities, local knowledge, livelihoods, vulnerability, and gender. They are then disseminated to farmers through reliable communication channels such as Jokalante and the Union des Radios et Associations Communautaires du Senegal (URAC).

Digital start-up Jokalante, which is part of the CoP, is responsible for facilitating internal communication between experts and disseminating selected advice. Its mission is to disseminate agricultural and pastoral information and advice in local languages, with a particular focus on feedback. To achieve this, Jokalante has developed functions in its platform that enable the various CoP experts to exchange relevant information and advice intended for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. These functions take into account the livestock value chain, the subject area in which the expert is giving advice, the area covered by the advice and the period of validity.

Structuring the community

The Community of Practice aims to strengthen the network of livestock stakeholders and create a community for knowledge generation and the co-design of climate-sensitive services, through collaboration, dialogue, and the exchange of experience-based knowledge between institutions and farmers' organisations. 

Each of these institutions and organizations participate in the development of advice to agro pastoralists by contributing content based on the information and tools at their disposal. 

Here’s a look at the roles and structure:

An inclusive and stimulating space 

The innovative nature of the CoP lies in its commitment to fostering collaboration exchange and production based on users' needs. The monthly meetings provide a stimulating space where researchers, development experts and local stakeholders can come together to share their knowledge and experience to generate information and knowledge about the climate - learn from the past, monitor the present, forecast the future. 

This exercise will be followed by translate the climate knowledge into information that is relevant to livestock public and other target sectors.

The involvement of the community stakeholders in identifying information needs, the types of access channels to that information, the validation of messages formulated and translating them into the local language, has helped to enhance the experience of this category of stakeholder, and conversely.

Samba Mamadou Sow, President of the Association pour le Développement Intégré et Durable (ADID), speaking on the CoP's benefits, said:

“The CoP has strengthened our organization’s ability to adapt to climate change by enhancing our local knowledge.”

For other local leaders, the CoP offers the opportunity to access reliable information, monitor the progress of other partners, learn how to use the new tools developed to disseminate information and contribute to advocacy for the development of local livestock.

Reaching thousands of farmers through the CoP

The CoP has made significant progress since 2023. The initial results are encouraging, with 26 agro-climatic advisories (over 6 months) distributed to 1,708 pastoralists and agro-pastoralists (42 percent women), in Linguère (Louga).

In addition, more than 25,000 pastoralists and agropastoralists were reached through radio broadcasts. 

During the same period, beneficiaries provided feedback on the advice given through a perception survey. For the survey, specific questions were asked of the target population to determine whether they had been reached by the AICCRA project program. The variable chosen here was whether they had listened to a radio program about AICCRA in the last six months, or whether they had heard about new seeds adapted to climate change in the program.

The results show that the AICCRA project reached 25,905 people, including 19,114 men and 6,791 women, via community radio stations in 2023. 

During the broadcast of some programmes, listeners also asked questions to obtain clarification on the subjects discussed and expressed a keen interest in seeing the service continue.

Despite its proven usefulness, there are strong recommendations that the CoP should be expanded to include more researchers and volunteers. The aim of this expansion is to enrich exchanges and provide new perspectives to maintain the platform's relevance and meet emerging needs.

“A more diversified participation will also allow the needs and priorities of the different stakeholders to be better considered, thus reinforcing the relevance and impact of the tool,” said Abdrahmane Wane (AICCRA Senegal Lead), during a recent CoP evaluation meeting.

Integration of risk management tools as a way forward

Operational since February 2023, the members of the CIS community of practices have asked AICCRA to continue its activities in 2024. For these members, as livestock farming is a continuous activity, the co-production of agro-climatic advice must be dynamic and take place in both the rainy and dry seasons to guide and help breeders and agro-pastoralists in their decision-making to manage the climatic risks they face throughout the year.

“This extension will enable us to consolidate our achievements and broaden our impact, by reaching a greater number of stakeholders and agro-pastoral communities across the country,” Nadine Worou hopes.

As it expands, the CoP will incorporate risk management tools such as price forecasts. It will also serve as a core user group for the AgData Hub, which facilitates the collection, analysis, and real-time dissemination of climatic and agro-meteorological information via a multi-partner digital platform, thereby improving agricultural risk management. AgData Hub also enable better information exchange between stakeholders and integrates a variety of data from satellites, forecasting models and weather stations to provide accurate, automated advice to users.

To ensure ongoing effectiveness, regular performance evaluations will be carried out using qualitative and quantitative data. This evaluation will help to identify areas for improvement to maximise impact and sustainability. It will also help to document good practice and lessons learned, providing a solid basis for the future of the climate information services CoP and similar initiatives in agriculture and sustainable development in Senegal.

Authors 

Nadine Worou, Coordinator, AICCRA Senegal

Prosper Houessionon, Senior Scientific Officer, AICCRA

Adama Sarr, Researcher at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, CoP facilitator

Fafa Sow, Researcher at Institut Sénégalais de Recherche Agricole (ISRA), CoP member

Lamine Diedhiou, Communications Specialist, AICCRA Senegal