Chronic and acute food insecurity and malnutriton impacts the livelihoods of the most vulnerable Nigeriens. The Human Development Report ranks Niger in 186 out of 187 developing natons. Agriculture consttutes 40% of GDP and engages 85% of the populaton, and the majority of the most vulnerable people depend on subsis- tence farming for their livelihoods Human Development Index. Productve liveli- hoods are hindered by poor health, as well as poor agricultural productvity and weak market systems leading to malnutriton. Addressing this storm of challenges requires a holistc approach that would target reducing malnutriton among women and children, increasing producton and consumpton of nutritous food and income, and improved environment management. • baCkground Reduce food insecurity and malnutriton among vulnerable rural populatons in Maradi and Zinder (Niger) through among others increased producton and consumpton of food for nutriton and income. • objeCtives Program implementaton approach fosters integraton and coordinaton through engaging communites. Communites self-assess assets, systems and structures, such as organizatons, value systems, power structures and belief systems that regulate people’s access to and use of assets. The process engages community, government, religious leaders, and other stakeholders, and builds capacity of communites to facilitate the process. Results are used to develop annual program plans, define com- munity level indicators, and monitor and evaluate progress using giant scoreboards. Final goal is to foster program ownership, encourage community-led management of actvites, and plan for the project exit strategy from start-up. • methodology With focus on ICRISAT interventons, following are the actvites: Acvity 1: Increased household hortculture producton for consumpton and income Acvity 2: Increased household knowledge of staple crops Acvity 3: Improved seed management and supply chain established Acvity 4: Improved household mastery of soil fertlity management techniques Acvity 5: Improved household mastery of integrated pest management techniques. • aCtivities Focusing on actvites with ICRISAT involvement, the following can be considered: 1• Aſter three years 99 units of Biological reclamaton of degraded land (BDL) covering 171.57 ha involving 4,081 women were implemented 2• Women of one of the sites (Zakarawa) increased their annual income by 80,000 FCFA per partcipant through the sale of annuals such as okra, sorrel, and Sena Obstufolia 3• A total of 80 vegetable garden sites were developed covering 89.5 ha with the involvement of 4,433 producers 4• A total of 163 local experts were trained to conduct demonstratons in part- cipatory variety selecton, Integrated Soil Fertlity and Pest Management, as well farmer field schools in additon to which 24,806 (67.1% women) program partcipants received short-term agricultural sector productvity or food se- curity training 5• Following the demonstraton actvites in partcipatory variety selecton and integrated soil fertlity management, 26.8 % of farmers used at least one im- proved variety of macro-nutrient dense foods at the end of year 3 of the pro- gram compared to 8.7% at baseline. • results and main aChievements • Current partnerships and future engagements for out sCaling The actvites contribute strongly to improve food quality and quantty at household level The level of actvites achievement indicates the engagement of the communites for program ownership. Successes in term of knowledge acquirement and technology pickup consttute strong asset at community level for acton perpetuaton. Partners: The Catholic Relief Service (CRS), ICRISAT, GRET and the Ministry of Agriculture • ConClusions It is a development program which involves: 1• The ministry of Agriculture 2• The ministry of health 3• The ministry of environment 4• GRET 5• ICRISAT 6• INRAN 7• The University Abdou Moumouni of Niamey 8• The University of Maradi DFAP - Reducing Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Among Vulnerable Rural Population in Niger Dougbedji Fatondji 1 , James Quarshie 2 1 ICRISAT Sahelian Center 2 Catholic Relief Service, Niger Corresponding author email: [email protected] Legume harvested in BDL plots Discussion during Agro-ecolocal analysis session in a Farmer Field School