Tougiani Abasse is Niger’s FMNR Ambassador

March 12, 2014

Tougiani Abasse

Tougiani Abasse

Niger was the birth place of the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration and is still at the forefront in promoting FMNR initiatives. Recently, a group of NGOs attending a meeting in Niger called by Chris Reij, nominated Tougiani Abasse to be FMNR Ambassador of Niger. Dr. Abasse is researcher at Niger National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRAN), the country’s main agricultural research and development (R&D) agency, and author of relevant papers about FMNR in the Sahel region. He has worked in the Maradi region (Niger) since 1993 as a forest geneticist with INRAN and was responsible for participatory domestication of Sahelian agroforestry species. He collaborated with the Maradi Integrated Development Project and was involved in the establishment of the Aguie Desert Community Initiative (DCI).

In his new FMNR Ambassador role, he will call a meeting to include all NGOs, Environment and agricultural services to set up a consortium and suggest a program of work. Tougiani’s vision is to create a national FMNR day in Niger (along the lines of 3rd August Arbour day) and to create a competition to draw attention to FMNR from the president of Niger to integrate FMNR into normal government programming. Hopefully this initiative might encourage other countries to adopt similar measures.

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