CONSTRAINTS AND ADAPTATION STRATEGIES REGARDING SOIL AND CLIMATIC CONSTRAINTS IN THE PLATEAU DEPARTMENT, BENIN

Tomato production has increased steadily over the last decades in the Plateau department. However, it remains highly exposed to soil and climatic hazards that threaten its sustainability. This research aims to analyze the pedoclimatic constraints and the adaptation strategies developed by producers to cope with these constraints in the Plateau department of Benin.
The methodological approach used for this research focuses on the data used, data collection, data processing and results analysis. A total of 379 tomato producers were surveyed using the KoboCollect application for this research.
The results show that soil constraints (erosion, soil degradation, overuse of chemical products and soil infertility) and climatic constraints (changes in the rainfall regime, drought and yellowing of tomato leaves) threaten tomato production in the Plateau department. Thus, 22% of producers mention changes in rainy days, 18% prolonged drought, 14% erosion, 18% degradation and 17% soil infertility as the main pedoclimatic constraints. Faced with these constraints, producers develop endogenous adaptation strategies: the use of organic manure (57%), fallowing (95%), crop rotation (65%), mulching, crop association (78%), rescheduling of the agricultural calendar and irrigation (75%).