Options d'intensification durable des cultures vivrieres au sud du Togo

In order to identify sustainable crop intensification options on ferralsols of Southern Togo, a series of alternative cropping technologies were evaluated together with farmers. In participatory group interviews, seven different groups of farmers prioritized options. Among five options associating maize with Mucuna cover crop, farmers had a 66% preference for a maize - mucuna - mineral fertilizers option because of its agronomic efficiency, followed by a maize - mucuna - no fertilizer option with 57% for those farmers lacking means of purchasing fertilizers, and a maize - short cycle mucuna - mineral fertilizer option with 54% preference because it enables a second cropping season. Non-mucuna options, which interested farmers were a maize - live hedge - animal manure option (86%) and a Cajanus cajan alley cropping option (79%). Low preferences were given to green biomass production with live hedges (36%) or mechanized ploughing (18%). Ecological sustainability, economic competitivity and social equity of the different options were compared using various appropriate tools. From this combined evaluation, it appears that the three options with the highest adoption potential are (1) the maize - mucuna - mineral fertilizer option, (2) the maize - short cycle mucuna - mineral fertilizer option, and (3) the maize - live hedge - animal manure option