• Severe water insecurity: highly variable rainfall, non-functional boreholes, drying wells, and limited dry‑season irrigation restrict agricultural productivity and household resilience.
• Energy poverty: no access to national electricity, strong dependence on firewood and charcoal, leading to deforestation and reduced productivity in agro‑processing and storage.
• Soil degradation: rocky, lateritic soils with low fertility, shortened fallows, and high erosion reduce yields and limit adoption of improved practices.
• Climate vulnerability: rainfed agriculture and poor storage systems make households highly exposed to droughts and seasonal food shortages.
• Unequal access to land & resources: women and youth perform much of the labour but have limited land rights, restricted decision-making power, and poor access to credit and technologies.
• Limited capacity & infrastructure: irrigation, technical equipment, and institutional support remain insufficient, slowing innovation adoption and scaling.

• Co-design with community stakeholders: multi-stakeholder workshops, local platform meetings, and field visits jointly identify priorities and build shared ownership of solutions.
• Agroforestry-centered interventions: promotion of parkland systems using species like Faidherbia albida, Senna, baobab, mango, and neem to enhance soil fertility, provide fodder, improve moisture retention, and diversify production.
• Landscape-level resource management: use of mulching, living fences, and tree–crop integration to reduce erosion, conserve water, and increase soil organic matter.
• Focus on women and youth inclusion: engagement of women’s groups and youth associations in seed selection, gardening, organic inputs, and collective learning spaces through cooperatives.
• Partnership-driven experimentation: collaboration with government institutions, traditional authorities, researchers, input suppliers, and farmers to test locally adapted technologies and management techniques.
• Testing clean energy solutions: exploring solar-powered boreholes, solar mini-grids, cookstoves, and battery-powered tools to reduce reliance on biomass and enable productive uses of energy.

Enhanced ecological resilience:
• Improved soil fertility through nitrogen-fixing trees and organic matter buildup.
• Better water retention in sandy soils thanks to mulching and tree-based moisture conservation.
• More diversified production systems that reduce vulnerability to drought and crop failure.

Strengthened local knowledge & cooperation:
• Community consultations and platform meetings increased awareness of agroforestry benefits and built shared learning spaces.
• Functional cooperatives provided women with opportunities for collective savings, input access, and market engagement.

Early livelihood benefits with remaining barriers:
• Households gained from diversified crops, fodder, fruits, and tree products.
• However, water scarcity, labour constraints, and limited irrigation continue to restrict scaling and year-round production.

Gender & youth dynamics more visible:
• Women and youth play central roles in labour-intensive agroforestry practices.
• Persistent inequalities in land access, decision-making, credit, and leadership still limit their ability to benefit fully from innovations.