Abstract
In the current setting, marked by the major challenges of growing food demand and climate change impacts, the ability of sub-Saharan agriculture to meet population needs depends on the resilience and adaptation capacity of this system. Using agrobiodiversity to promote agricultural sustainability is a strategy that has garnered much attention lately. Research suggests that mixing species or varieties within crop fields could increase the yield and/or stability. This mixing is also geared towards the conservation of crop diversity while ensuring that the various associated products and services will be available at the farm level. Few recent research studies have highlighted the benefits of varietal mixtures for Africa. This lack of research is a concern, given that this continent is considered to be highly vulnerable to climate change. This study was carried out to test whether plots with varietal mixtures would outperform monovarietal plots in terms of yield and pathogen regulation under smallholder farming conditions in Senegal. Together with farmers, we conducted 30 experiments in which mixtures of early-and late-flowering pearl millet landraces were grown in these farmers' fields, while monitoring their low input management. We noted a significant positive effect of varietal mixtures on grain yield (mean gain of 63 § 31.5 kg ha À1 for mixture plots, p = 0.046) with a relative yield total (RYT) averaging 1.87 § 0.94. Both early-and late-flowering landraces benefited from mixtures, with a greater