Climate change and its corollary of low agricultural production have a direct impact on the experiences of people in Nigerien villages. There are many young men and women who leave their regions for big cities including Niamey in search of a better life, according to a study by the World Organization for Migration (IOM) published in 2020.

Faced with the extent of the desertion of villages by young people who consider it as a strategy for adaptation to climate change, young volunteers have committed themselves to reverse the trend by investing in agricultural entrepreneurship and agro-ecology.

”Dialogue Migration” offers an immersion, through this article, in the heart of climate change, low agricultural production and migration.

Internal and external displacement in Niger

The Nigerien population is estimated at about 24 million with an agricultural population of 16,460,994 people, the majority of whom live in the southern strip of the country. It is this area that is conducive to agriculture (the main activity of Nigeriens).

According to a study by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) conducted in 2020 as part of the project to better take into account the link between migration, environment and climate change in public policies in Niger, seven out of ten internal migrants attribute the cause of their migration to food insecurity.

Low agricultural production: a factor favouring internal and international migration

As a Sahel-Saharan country, Niger has been facing the effects of climate change for some time now.  A phenomenon that has a direct impact on agricultural production in certain areas of the country known to be  major cereal production places. In 2022, the balance between the available dry cereal production (millet, sorghum, maize and fonio) established at 2,859,094 tonnes and the consumption needs for these 4 products estimated at 4,256,775 tonnes showed a gross deficit of 1,397,680 tonnes, according to the Annual evaluation report for the 2021-2022 winter season.

From 2008 to 2020, agricultural production fluctuated across the country. Between 2008 and 2020, agricultural production in regions such as Zinder, Maradi and Tahoua declined. The reason for this drop in production is the poor distribution of rainfall and soil degradation.

These declines in agricultural yields have had a direct impact on human life in these localities. The main perceptible consequence of this is the desertion of villages by youngmen and women alike.

To limit the rural exodus, volunteers are committed to fixing the population, especially the youth, through land recovery activities. 

Commitment of volunteer organisations to improve people’s resilience to climate change-related shocks

At the forefront of these initiatives is a non-governmental organisation called “Young Volunteers for the Environment (JVE)”. Since 2012, this organisation, led by young people, has been raising awareness on agribusiness with the concept of agro-ecology. Through these initiatives, JVE aims to keep young people in their villages by making them entrepreneurs for local development. According to Ayouba Sani, co-coordinator of the NGO JVE, this approach is justified by the fact that “people have adopted migration as a coping strategy and when you have a rainy season that is supposed to last three months but at the end of the year, you only have four weeks, that cannot be enough to grow enough crops and allow families to hold on for the next nine (09) months.  “In Niger, we are facing a humanitarian, climate and security crisis. The solution to all this is to act,” concludes Ayouba Sani, co-coordinator of the NGO JVE.