Impact of small-holder irrigation on the agricultural production, food supply and economic prosperity of a representative village beside the Senegal River, Mauritania

Abstract

A considerable effort to rehabilitate and extend degraded irrigation schemes is taking place along the Mauritanian side in the Senegal River Valley. To increase understanding of the effects of these activities on the population, a model was used to analyse how the irrigated agriculture production interacts with other production systems, human food supply, and economic prosperity in a representative village in the Middle Valley. The activities in the village comprise grazing of mostly goats and sheep on shrubland, rain fed cropping, partly on saturated soil as river or plain floods recede, and an irrigation area of 32 ha soon to be enlarged to 90 ha. The production environment is characterize..