Clustering smallholders' farmers to highlight and address their agroecological transition potential in Benin and Burkina Faso

Despite the increasing number of stakeholders engaged in promoting agroecological transition initiative in West Africa, these initiatives are still struggling to scale it up. This study analyzes the potential for agroecological transition on farms in the Atacora and Houet regions of Benin and Burkina Faso respectively. To this end, a stepwise sampling method including 400 farm households has been carried out throughout the two regions. The FAO-designed TAPE tool was initially used to analyze the agroecological performance of farms. The theoretical framework of Therond et al. (2017) was then used as the analytical framework for farm diversity. Results showed that overall farms had low agroecological performance. Out of the ten dimensions of the agroecological transition that were used to perform the analysis, only three have scores above or equal to the threshold of 50%. Furthermore, the agroecological performance of farms did not significantly vary from one region to another. Regarding the farm diversity, three main classes have been identified. The first two clusters (C.1 and C.2) correspond to farms that are primarily cereal-based in Atacora and Houet. The last class (C.3) is a more complex one, corresponding to a class where cereal, cotton and fruit production were combined in various proportions. The outcomes provide opportunities for agroecological transition for each of the identified clusters.

Automated summary

Despite the increasing number of stakeholders, agroecological transition initiatives in West Africa are struggling to scale up. This study examines the potential for agroecological transition on farms in Benin and Burkina Faso. The results show that overall farms have low agroecological performance and farm diversity did not significantly vary between regions. Three main farm clusters were identified, providing opportunities for agroecological transition.