Analysis of the means of combating birds that destroy cereal crops in the fields of the inner Niger Delta

Abstract

Cereal crops such as rice, millet and sorghum in the Inner Niger Delta are the main sources of food for the people who live there. However, there is a real competition between the high concentrations of grain-eating birds in search of food and the peasants who develop means to preserve their food against these crop destroyers. Rural communities have fought against grain-eating birds and have striven to hunt birds by cutting down trees, destroying nests which only drive them away from neighbors who in turn resume the fight [1]. Various lethal techniques were applied in dozens of countries on all continents during the 1950s [2]. The objective of this study is to know the means of preserving cereal crops by farmers in order to be able to improve agricultural production. For this, several methods are used by the peasants and also by the state. The article discusses the analysis of the different means of control used by farmers and the State against birds destroying cereal crops in the Inner Niger Delta area in Mali, such as traditional methods and chemical methods.