Adoption of Water and Soil Conservation Technologies: Determinant Factors In the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, agricultural production lags behind the population growth rate because of unfavourable climatic conditions coupled with continuous soil degradation. To improve populations’ livelihoods in the rural areas, a range of water and soil conservation techniques (WSCT) has been proposed. But the implementation of these techniques is not widespread as it should in view of their capital importance. This study tried to identify the reasons behind the poor adoption of WSCT. To that end, a survey was carried out in five villages of the central plateau region of Burkina Faso; and the data were used to determine a logit multinomial model that was used to assess the probability of adopting one or different combinations of WSCT. Results show that the cost of the WSCT is the main factor that prevents their adoption. However, populations are well aware of the importance of these techniques in slowing down the pace of land degradation since they are willing to adopt a combination of several WSCT when there is a possibility of assistance to reduce the implementation cost and also when the efficiency of the combination is proven. Therefore, for the purposes of food security, it is imperative to identify the most efficient and cheapest combination of WSCT and then assist smallholder farmers in their implementation in each agro-ecological zone of the Sahel. In other words, government of the Sahel region must include assistance in adopting WSCT in their short and long term political agenda to improve life standards in rural areas.