Chapter 3: Agro-morphological variability of rice species collected from Niger
3.4 Results
3.4.1 Collection
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floating and irrigated rice accessions represented 58.5%, 21.1% and 20.4%, respectively (Table 3.1). Overall, the same agrosystems were repeated in all the main eco-geographical zones, but not in all the regions. Zinder and Maradi did not have floating rice accessions, while there was no irrigated rice in the village visited in the region of Zinder. The most important genetic erosion, defined as the disappearance of named varieties in regions or agrosystems where they have been reported before, was in Tillabéry (Table 3.1), mainly in the Canton of Sinder (homeland of Wogo people), and in the Koutougou, (homeland of the Songhai people). Both communities are traditional rice growers. In many villages of Tillabéry, the collection team was clearly told that any named accessions that could not be found in Sinder or Koutougou must be considered as definitely lost. Moreover, only 20% of the accessions found (all were O. glaberrima species) and listed in Sinder by Bonkoula and Miezan (1984) were still cultivated at the time of this collection.
Drought or flood were cited as reasons for their disappearance in Sinder, while the people in Koutougou claimed that the floating variety D5237 introduced during the fifties by the colonial administration, was the main cause of the disappearance of the landraces. The variety D5237 was later named Degaulle, but displaced the real Degaulle, because of its white grains (the original Degaulle has red grains), the ease of husking and a much higher market-value. Disease was not cited as a reason for abandoning landraces in any village during the collection.
According to farmers, the cropping cycle of the varieties ranged from three to five months around the areas of Lake Chad and the central south zone, ranged from three to six months in the Dallol Maouri zone and up to seven months the Niger River zones. Additionally, they classified 60.6%% of the accessions as tall varieties with plant height over 1 m. 26.7% were classified as medium-height varieties, with heights ranging between 0.5-1 m, and finally 12.8% were classified as short varieties with plant heights less than 0.5 m.
New varieties originated mainly from neighbouring villages, farmers and the local farmers' union, when available. The farmers' union also works with the national seed dissemination institutions, started by the national agricultural research institute (INRAN), and the national irrigated areas office (ONAHA). However, some new accessions were introduced from neighbouring countries.
For example, in the region of Dosso, some new varieties have come from Benin and Nigeria, while some accessions of Tillabéry originated from Mali and rarely from Burkina Faso. In the villages visited in the central south area, Nigeria constituted the most frequent source of new
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varieties, while in the region of Diffa, Niger come first, followed by Nigeria and occasionally Chad.
Table 3.1: Distribution of the accessions from the different regions and eco-geographical zones of Niger
Eco-geographical
zones Regions Villages
Number Accessions per
agrosystem Abandoned
accessions Lowland Irrigated Floating Total
collected
INRAN* - 0 10 2 12 -
Niger River Tillabéry 18 30 15 28 73 21
Dosso 18 68 20 9 98 10
Dallol Maouri Dosso 4 29 1 5 35 2
Lake Chad Diffa 5 13 5 8 26 3
Maradi 3 4 3 0 7 1
Central- South Tahoua 1 10 1 5 16 1
Zinder 1 4 0 0 4 3
Total
collected 50 158 55 57 270 41
* Accessions collected at INRAN were counted among those of the Niger River zone, because more than half of the irrigated areas lie along the river and use INRAN varieties.
During the community meeting, farmers were also asked to rank the most important constraints on rice production in their areas (Table 3.2). In all the regions in rainfed lowland and floating deep-water agrosystems, drought at the seedling stage before the setting of the full season, and the filling up of valleys, was cited as the most important constraint in 23.8% of the villages. The main cause for this was the irregularities in the rainfall patterns before the season would fully settle, and the necessity for the plant to reach a certain stage before the flood. In lowland and irrigated agrosystems, insects and telluric worms were cited as the most damaging constraints in 27.9% of the villages at seedling and reproductive stages. Disease described as RYMV and Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB) were reported in lowland and irrigated rice, in 16.4% of the villages of all the areas, except the central south zone. Finally, birds, hippopotamuses, fishes and flood were reported as major constraints by 13.4%, 4.2% and 4.2%, respectively (Table 3.2).
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Table 3.2: Main constraints on rice production, as described by farmers during the germplasm collection in 2008 in Niger
Constraints Prevalence (%) Stage Agrosystem Region
Drought 23.8 seedling L and F all
Insects and worms 27.9 seedling and reproductive L and I all
Weeds (Striga) 6.2 vegetative L all
Birds 13.4 milky stage and maturity all all
Hippopotamus 4.2 all stages L and I Tillabéry
Herbivorous fishes 3.8 seedling L
Diseases (RYMV,
BLB) 16.4 vegetative L and I Tillabéry, Dosso,
Diffa
Flood 4.2 seedling + vegetative L Tillabéry, Dosso
L: lowland, I: irrigated, F: floating, RYMV: Rice yellow mottle virus, BLB: bacterial leaf blight
The local naming of rice accessions in most of the cases referred to morphological characteristics of plants or seeds. For example "Maï Adda" in Hausa language means "the one with a machete", referring to the shape of the extremity of the grain, recalling the extremity of a machete. Another example is "Waïhidjo", meaning "the bride" in Zarma language because of the highly droopy panicles and the upright status of the flag leaf, which recalled to farmers "a veiled decent bride".
However, the meaning can also be related to agronomic traits. For example, the accession "Aysi a filla", means in Zarma-Songhai, "I will never do it again", referring to the long cycle of the variety, so long that the farmer will promise himself not to replant it again. Another example is the accession "Hawrou ga koungou", meaning in Zarma "eat to satiate" because if not, the cooked rice will melt during the night due to its high starch content. Sometimes, accessions were simply named after the person who brought them into the village, or the farmer who was supposed to have developed them. For example, the most popular lowland variety was named "Degaulle"
because of its tall height comparable for farmers to the former French president General Charles Degaulle. The most popular irrigated rice variety, IR1529-680-3, is also called "Saga", because it was released in the irrigated area of Saga first, before spreading in the country. With few exceptions the farmers' naming was consistent in each region, but not across regions.
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