Keita Integrated Development Project

The Ader Doutchi Maggia Rural Development Project (PDR-ADM), better known as Keita Project, is a development project in Keita Department in central Niger. The Project has taken place in four phases, the first starting in 1983 and the most recent beginning in 2003. It was run initially by the Italian government's Italian Development and Cooperation Bureau, as part of its 'Italian Initiative for the Sahel', with significant help from the United Nations. The fourth phase is being run by the UNDP. As of September 2009, the Project has cost approximately US$88 million, with the majority of funding (US$66 million) coming from the Italian government. The main objectives of the Keita Project are to increase food security and reverse desertification in the Ader, Doutchi and Maggia valleys of Keita Department, an area which faced environmental collapse from the 1970s; a secondary objective is to thereby to reduce the high rate of migration from this region to Italy. The methods used have included reforestation and land reclamation, building new infrastructure, setting up peasants' associations, and providing technical and financial assistance. The results have been to stop and reverse falls in crop yields and livestock numbers, to cover large areas of marginal land with forest and productive farmland, and to provide new sources of income from the land. However, desertification has continued to some degree and food security has not been fully achieved due to very high population growth. Because of the large area covered, its duration of three decades and the large amount of data collected, the Keita Project has been the subject of considerable study. By the early 1980s, Keita Department had suffered considerable loss of forest and agricultural land to the Sahara desert. 1983: A plan is written for the Project 1984: First phase of the Project begins 2007: A new initiative (Fond Local de Développement de l’Ader Doutchi Maggia, FLD-ADM) starts with the objective of completing existing interventions, funding local investments and transferring the management and property to local institutions and organizations.