Spodoptera frugiperda has caused significant losses of farmer income in sub-Saharan countries since 2016. This study assessed farmers’ knowledge of S. frugiperda, their perceptions and management practices in Benin. Data were collected through a national survey of 1237 maize farmers. Ninety-one point eight percent of farmers recognized S. frugiperda damage, 78.9% of them were able to identify its larvae, and 93.9% of the maize fields were infested. According to farmers, the perceived yield losses amounted to 797.2 kg/ha of maize, representing 49% of the average maize yield commonly obtained by farmers. Chi-square tests revealed that the severity of the pest attacks was significantly associated with cropping practices and types of grown maize varieties. About 16% of farmers identified francolin (Francolinus bicalcaratus), village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus), and common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) as natural enemies and 5% of them identified yellow nutsedge, chan, shea tree, neem, tamarind, and soybean as repellent plants of S. frugiperda. Most farmers (91.4%) used synthetic pesticides and 1.9% of them used botanical pesticides, which they found more effective than synthetic pesticides. Significant relationships exist between farmers’ management practices, their knowledge, organization membership, and contact with research and extension services. More research is required to further understand the effectiveness of botanical pesticides made by farmers against S. frugiperda and to refine them for scaling-up.

Benin's rice sector meets less than half of national demand despite a threefold increase in production over the past decade, yet the commercialization constraints facing smallholders remain poorly understood. This study estimates, using two independent cross-sectional regression models applied to 120 smallholder rice farmers sampled in the Glazoué municipality (Benin), the determinants of the marketed surplus rate and the marketed quantity of rice. A mixed-methods design combines structured surveys with six focus group discussions. Adaptive price expectations are proxied by a three-year, CPI-deflated moving average of local prices within a static, cross-sectional adaptation of the Nerlove framework; heteroskedasticity-robust (HC3) standard errors are used for inference, and an instrumental-variable approach addresses the endogeneity of credit access. Rice selling price is positively and significantly associated with the commercialization rate. Access to credit, farm size, market distance, farming experience, and road accessibility are positively associated with marketed quantity, while self-consumption objectives and formal sales contracts are negatively associated with it. Fertilizer price shows a strong negative association with marketed quantity, indicating acute sensitivity to input costs. A significant gender income gap is also observed (women: USD 85.86 vs. men: USD 143.26/month). The results point to fertilizer voucher schemes, targeted rural road investment, and gender-responsive credit as candidate policy levers for expanding marketed rice supply and strengthening food security in deficit-prone areas, pending further validation.

Pluralistic delivery systems, in which private providers operate alongside public structures, are reshaping agricultural advisory services across sub-Saharan Africa, yet little is known about what makes farmers satisfied with the services they receive. Using a nationally representative panel of 2,300 Beninese farm households surveyed over three campaigns (2019-2020, 2022-2023, 2024-2025), this study analyzes the determinants of farmers’ satisfaction with Farm Management, Specialized Technical, and Market Access Advisory Services. A Generalized Structural Equation Model estimated by Full Information Maximum Likelihood jointly addresses selection into advisory services and the conditional formation of satisfaction. Access to advisory services is found to be unevenly distributed. Male farmers, members of producer organizations, and households located in cash-crop zones are disproportionately reached by existing delivery structures. Among beneficiaries, participation alone is not associated with satisfaction. Satisfaction is instead shaped by perceived advisor quality, understood through competence, punctuality, kindness, and visit frequency, and, for technically demanding services, by access to the inputs and credit needed to act on advice received. The findings expose a dual challenge that policymakers cannot resolve separately. Expanding coverage to under-served groups is necessary but insufficient if the relational and technical quality of delivery erodes in the process. By combining longitudinal data, selection correction, and a disaggregated treatment of service types, the study offers a replicable framework for monitoring farmer satisfaction in the pluralistic extension systems now consolidating across sub-Saharan Africa.

Les paysages agricoles du Nord et Centre Bénin connaissent une forte mutation. L’essor du coton, du soja et de l’anacarde, associé à la croissance démographique et à la mécanisation, provoquent l’abandon des jachères, la dégradation des sols, la réduction du couvert arboré et la fragmentation des espaces pastoraux, générant des conflits fonciers et des tensions entre agriculteurs et éleveurs. Face à ces enjeux, les nouvelles données satellitaires offrent des perspectives prometteuses pour le suivi des dynamiques territoriales, mais cet usage reste limité en Afrique de l’Ouest. Dans ce contexte, le projet OBSYDYA vise à mettre en place un observatoire pilote produisant un service informationnel géospatial basé sur des indicateurs spatialisés issus de cartes d’occupation des sols produites annuellement à partir d’imagerie satellitaire et de données de terrain. Cet article présente et illustre l’étape de co-construction des indicateurs réalisée à travers des ateliers participatifs avec des acteurs locaux et l’analyse de la littérature scientifique. Au total, 21 indicateurs ont été identifiés dans deux domaines : 8 concernent l’agriculture (productions agricoles et intensification) et 13 concernent le pastoralisme (superficie et fragmentation des aires de parcours, accessibilité des couloirs de passage, distance aux points d’eau, sécurité des éleveurs). Pour illustrer la pertinence de ces indicateurs, un exemple est présenté pour chaque domaine sur six sites d’étude. Les résultats mettent en évidence une typologie marquée des villages en termes de productions et de pratiques d’intensification agricole, et la forte variation des conditions pastorales locales et saisonnières de ces mêmes territoires sous divers degrés d’intensification agricole. Ce travail démontre qu’en s’appuyant sur des cartes d’occupation des sols adaptées (nomenclature, précision, actualisation annuelle), les indicateurs agricoles et pastoraux constituent un outil robuste pour analyser les structures et dynamiques paysagères et ainsi appuyer les politiques agricoles et territoriales en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Accurate delineation of village boundaries is essential for analysing agricultural and socio-economic dynamics, yet such spatial data are often unavailable in many African countries. While ground surveys can provide this information, they are time-consuming and costly. To address this challenge, we present a novel methodological framework for the automatic delineation of village territories using widely available data: village coordinates, population census data, and agroecological zones. We applied four fixed-size models (10 km square; 2.5 km, 5 km, 10 km radial buffers) and three variable-size models (population-weighted buffers, Voronoi, Weighted Nearest Neighbour WNN) to a dataset of 1059 villages in North and Centre Benin. This geospatial database was constructed by integrating non-georeferenced census data with settlement locations, population statistics, and agroecological context. Model outputs were assessed using participatory mapping data from 62 villages across four agroecological zones. Evaluation relied on four geometric indicators (territory area, user and producer accuracies, F1-score) and two remote sensing-based landscape indicators (cropland fraction and NDVI). Voronoi-based models outperformed fixed-size models on geometric criteria, with the WNN model achieving the highest F1-score (54.1% for WNN vs. 46.1% for the 5 km buffer). Landscape indicators revealed substantial regional variation from north to south, but limited inter-model differences, suggesting high local landscape homogeneity. In conclusion, Voronoi-based models demonstrated adequate precision for applications such as linking household surveys with satellite data, however, their performance declined near national borders or large natural features. The proposed methodology is reproducible over all Benin districts and across African regions where detailed administrative boundaries are lacking.