A Ten-Year Retrospective On the Integrated Agroecology Management Project in Niger: A Path to the Future.

There is a gradual drift from long-term agricultural development projects to short-term impact funding. This transition does not permit a critical and comprehensive appreciation of the long-term impact asd well as the evolution of interventions. A community driven project that used the watershed as the unit of management was carried out in Niger in the 1990s. It involved the use of appropriate scientific tools to identify the factors and their combinations that led to the degradation of the sahelian agroecosystem. Holistic science-based innovations were tested with the collaboration of watershed dwellers to rejuvenate the degraded natural resource base, sustain the existing soil and vegetation resources and improve crop yields. The project also involved the establishment of appropriate infrastructure to support research activities and human resource development. This paper takes a retrospective approach to assess the long-term impact of the project on the agroecological system within the watershed and discusses some of the intangible but critical products that are often overlooked in the traditional project assessment. It further provides an insight into future time frame and duration of such landscape restoration projects.