Characterisation of the IV–TPE, establishment of drought evaluation sites and description of ideotypes fitting major sub-classes of TPE (Work package 1)

The TPEs in inland valley lowlands will be characterized for drought occurrence and frequency. The project will focus on the Sudanean and Guinean savannah agro-ecological zones of Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. Drought profiles in lowlands will differ as a function of the order of inland valley (which could be 3 to 5 orders) and of the agroecological zone.

Farmer interviews will be conducted in upstream and downstream valleys in each agroecological zone to get a first understanding of the timing, severity and frequency of drought in these inland valley systems. Results of these surveys will be extrapolated using existing data on the extent of inland valley lowlands from the Inland Valley Consortium (IVC) in Burkina Faso. It is anticipated that estimates made for Burkina Faso will be valid for Mali. For Nigeria, aerial photography will be used to identify the extent of rainfed lowlands in the Badeggi or Kano region. The results will allow the identification of at least two key sites for drought evaluation in each of the three countries. Soil–water–crop interactions will be monitored at these sites and used to drive simulation modeling tools to get a more quantitative understanding of drought incidence and rice responses at the site, and to better characterise the rainfed lowland TPE in the three countries.