Objective Deteriorating environment and food security are perennial problems for Sahelian populations. This project focuses on the existing agropastoral production system from production to consumption and trade, and the variety and efficacy of associated protection mechanisms operating in the event of food shortage at the individual, family and community levels in Burkina Faso and Benin. Using new and existing data on the three nested levels of household, local and regional factors the study will address the nature and direction of causal links between changing patterns of land use, household viability, terms of trade and migration decisions on the one hand, and the type and level of processes of land degradation on the other. Land, labour, income and storage resources will be quantified. Resource allocation in terms of decisions to invest in crops versus herds, storage versus consumption or sale will be measured, and related to the outcome of individual or household decisions to migrate. Dynamic modelling will be used to predict how household decisions on resource allocation affect long term viability. Such models can identify the variables explaining differences in strategy between individuals within households, between households within a particular system, and between groups in particular environments: The project will use a combination of anthropological, ecological, microdemographic, micro- and macro- economic methods together with optimality modelling to establish the main patterns of changing land use and their implications for agropastoral communities in Burkina Faso and Benin. The regional approach centring on terms of trade dovetails with the local case studies. The common sampling framework together with the modelling approach integrate data on production, economics, nutrition and demography within an environmental perspective.for study households and communities. Burkinabé and Béninois government policy needs information on socioeconomic and environmental impacts of land use,terms of trade, migration and its implications. Models can identify which environmental and economic variables affect household decisions and how they influence the outcome of those decisions, and will Provide a means of predicting the effects of interventions and of prioritising their different components. The project will train African personnel in interdisciplinary approaches to environment and development. Fields of science social sciencessociologydemographysocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencessoil sciencesland-based treatmentmedical and health scienceshealth sciencesnutritionagricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture Programme(s) FP3-STD 3 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of the life sciences and technologies for developing countries, 1990-1994 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON EU contribution No data Address Gower Street LONDON United Kingdom See on map Links Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Institut de Recherche en Biologie et Ecologie Tropicale Burkina Faso EU contribution No data Address Centre Nat de Rech Scient et Technol 01 Ouagadougou See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Netherlands EU contribution No data Address 130,Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130 1018 VZ AMSTERDAM See on map Total cost No data Université Nationale de Bénin Benin EU contribution No data Address Cotonou See on map Total cost No data Université de Ouagadougou Burkina Faso EU contribution No data Address 01 Ouagadougou See on map Total cost No data
