Forests constitute a key component of the Earth system but the sustainability of the forest reserves in the semi-arid zone is a real concern since its vegetation is very sensitive to the climate fluctuation. The understanding of the mechanisms for the vegetation–climate interaction is poorly studied in the context of African Sahel. In this study, the characteristics of the vegetation response to the fluctuations of precipitation and temperature is determined for the forest reserve of Fina. Rainfall estimates, air temperature and NDVI were re-gridded to a same spatial resolution and standardized with respect to their respective long-term mean. Lag-correlations analysis was used to estimate lag times between changes of climate variables and vegetation response at both seasonal and interannual bases. Results show increasing tendency of NDVI started from the 1990s coinciding the recovery of the rainfall from the 1980s drought, and the obtained correlation (r = 0.66) is statistically significant (p value < 0.01). The strongest responses of vegetation to rainfall and temperature fluctuations were found after 30 and 15 days, respectively. Moreover, at a shorter time lag (e.g., 15 days), more pronounced vegetation responses to both rainfall and temperature were found in agriculturally dominated land while at a longer time lag (e.g., 30 days), a stronger response was observed in Bare-dominated land. The vegetation response to the climate fluctuation is modulated by the land-use/cover dynamics.

Forests constitute a key component of the Earth system but the sustainability of the forest reserves in the semi-arid zone is a real concern since its vegetation is very sensitive to the climate fluctuation. The understanding of the mechanisms for the interaction vegetation-climate is poorly studied in the context of African Sahel. In this study, the characteristics of the vegetation response to the fluctuations of precipitation and temperature is determined for the forest reserve of Fina. Rainfall estimates, air temperature and NDVI are used to establish the lag correlations between fluctuations of vegetation and climate variables at both seasonal and interannual bases. Results shows increasing tendency of NDVI started from the 1990s coinciding the recovery of the rainfall from the 1980s drought and the obtained correlation(r=0.66) is statistically significant (pvalue<0.01). The strongest responses of vegetation to rainfall and temperature fluctuations were found after 30 and 15 days, respectively. Moreover, at shorter time lag (e.g. 15 days) more pronounced vegetation responses to both rainfall and temperature were found in agricultural dominated land while at longer time lag (e.g. 30 days) stronger response was observed in Bare dominated land. The vegetation response to the climate fluctuation is modulated by the land use/cover dynamics. Keywords: NDVI, Rainfall, Air temperature, vegetation response, Fina Forest Reserve, Mali.

Understanding the perception of sack gardening technology is important in order to better support the adoption of sack gardening in households, given the nutritional role vegetables play. This notwithstanding, research has not yet been carried out to understand the stakeholders’ perception of sack gardening technology in the zones of Bougouni and Koutiala, where sack gardening technology was introduced under the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa-RISING) project. This study assessed the perception of farm households on sack gardening technology and specifically to understand to what extent this innovation responds to household needs. Q-methodology was used to identify rural household’s viewpoints and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to compare stakeholders’ opinion typologies to discourses retained by Q-method results. Focus group discussions were used to identify the statements used for the q-set in the individual surveys. Our findings showed three factors or discourses which reflected the stakeholders’ viewpoints. A nutritional role, the role of making vegetables available for household consumption and the role of environment protection, specifically soil protection, were indicated in the stakeholders’ opinions. The understanding of the different discourses retained provides insights that can be used to design public and private interventions to support the usage of the technology in households or the adoption of this technology.