An approach for creation, training and extension of systems based on direct seeding on permanent soil cover in Madagascar

Experiments conducted in the 1990's in various ecological zones of Madagascar allowed to propose a large range of cropping systems based on direct seeding on permanent soil cover (DSPSC). To face the many constraints of Malagasy farmers, a unique set of references was developed, for various agro.ecological and socio-economic conditions, with different levels of intensification and risk (Séguy, 2005). However, although the proposed systems had demonstrated their high agronomic, environmental and economic performances, and proved to be sustainable, their extension remained limited. Main reasons identified to explain this situation, apart from the limited financial resources allocated to this task, were the very limited human resources and the lack of an approach for extension of knowledge intensive systems, in a difficult environment: subsistence agriculture, srnalihol ders with limited investment means, degraded soils, poor infrastructures, etc. (GSDM, 2004). (Résumé d'auteur