Chad, one of the world’s poorest countries and highly vulnerable to climate change, faces critical issues such as water scarcity, increasing temperatures, and soil erosion. Chad heavily relies on agriculture as its primary economic sector but grapples with low crop yields that fail to meet the demands of its rapidly expanding population. Cotton plays a crucial role in Chad’s economy, serving as an important cash crop and a major contributor to agricultural exports. Smallholder farmers, primarily located in the southern regions, depend heavily on cotton farming for their livelihoods.
The cotton sector in Chad faces sustainability challenges that demand urgent attention. These challenges encompass poor technical knowledge of soil and water management, low productivity, limited access to good quality inputs and services, and poorly organized farmer groups. This results in low incomes and yields for farmers.
Cotton Landscape Program – Chad
Given Chad’s high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, the primary goal of the program is to create climate-resilient farming systems that generate better incomes for farmers and protect and regenerate the natural resource base.
To address some of these pressing issues, IDH, together with Cotontchad Société Nouvelle (Cotontchad) and other local and international partners, is working towards building a climate-resilient landscape in Chad’s cotton growing zone. The aim is to create a strong link between the regeneration and protection of natural resources and economic prosperity by strengthening the climate resilience of the farming-based systems in seven provinces.
In October 2022, IDH and Cotontchad kick-started the formation of the Landscape through the signing of a Letter of Intent by interested stakeholders to formalize the process of developing a regional development plan (‘Platform’), which will enable the delivery of the common vision. The signatories included the government (Ministry of Agricultural Production and Processing, Ministry of Environment, Fisheries and Sustainable Development), a research institution (L’Institut Tchadien de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), agricultural extension services (l’Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement Rural), private sector companies (Job Booster Chad Entreprise, Centre de Recherche d’Innovation et Production Technologique), and civil society organizations (World Vision Tchad, Better Cotton Initiative, Cellule de Liaison et d’Information des Associations Féminines). Farmers are represented through UNPCT, the Union Nationale des Producteurs Cotonnières du Tchad. Read more about the partnership here.
We are still building the Platform and continue to invite any interested partners from the government, private sectors, CSOs, farmer organizations, communities, and other enablers to join the Landscape.
Implementation Model
The Chad landscape applies IDH’s Production, Protection, Inclusion (PPI) approach to achieve an inclusive goal and inspire sustainable landscape management.
Production: Increasing the productivity of farmers in a sustainable way, so they gain more from the same land. In combination with the diversification of farmers’ sources of income, this improves their livelihoods
Protection: Putting in place measures to conserve and restore natural resources (including soils, water, forests, etc.)
Inclusion: Improving livelihoods of farmers. This is done, among other things, by diversifying income sources and creating local ownership through participatory land use planning
Read about other Landscape programs here.
