The Sustainable Opportunities for Increasing Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) intends to establish a technology park in Niger. The park will function as information and training service center and project agricultural information and innovations to accelerate dissemination and scaling efforts, provide training to farmers and other agricultural value chain actors. The SOILS Consortium in collaboration with the Feed the Future Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) project conducted this study to analyze the digital agricultural extension and advisory services in Niger to support creation of the technology park and to provide insights and recommendations on how the SOILS Consortium can better use digital extension platforms and services to increase the reach of their activities.
Cowpea is one of the most important grain legumes of Niger, which is the second largest producer of the crop in Africa. About 764,000 MT of cowpea are produced annually on about 4,132,000 ha (Figure 1). Local consumption has grown significantly in recent years. This is bound to have a positive impact on people’s nutrition and health. Cowpea haulms are used as animal feed, helping to increase livestock productivity. Farmers often grow long-duration spreading varieties for fodder (Singh et al., 2003).
Groundnut is a major source of income and protein for rural households in West and Central Africa (WCA). It is a women’s crop and as such, women farmers play a major role in groundnut value chains. They are the major producers, processors and marketers. However, they have been constrained by inadequate institutional, policy and market support to improve seed and groundnut oil and paste value chain efficiencies.