Between January and May 2010, Fatou Batta, Groundswell’s Co-Coordinator for West Africa, organized a series of planning workshops that brought together representatives of a number of government agencies, non-governmental and community-based organizations working in the field of agroecology to define a shared vision to improve the food security and wellbeing of tens of thousands of rural families living in eastern Burkina Faso. This process identified a number of successful innovations, including Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration Trees, which have already proven their potential to greatly improve food production while restoring the environment. In addition to a shared vision, the process permitted Groundswell and these local partners and organizations to develop a plan to promote and expand successful experiences in sustainable agriculture and food security. Below are a few highlights of achievements and results achieved during the plan’s first year:
- Local Groundswell partners organized awareness raising and training sessions on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration of Trees in 13 villages with the participation of 382 farmers, including 157 women. These sessions strengthened farmers’ understanding about the benefits of FMNR and gave them the knowledge and skills to apply it on their farms. FMNR is an improved tree cutting technique used by farmers to restore the vegetative cover on their land. It consists in leaving out some sprouts from the various thrushes and trees per hectare during farmland clearing activities to follow up on their growth while ensuring maintenance and pruning of the sprouts selected.
- Groundswell organized a cross visit to the Zandoma Province in the North, which allowed representatives of community-based organizations working with our local partners ARFA and APRG to meet with other farmers’ organizations. Twenty-six people participated in the cross visit, including 19 women from nine villages located in the communities of Diabo, Tibga and Gayéri. Participants visited nearly a dozen sites, learning about soil and water conservation, soil restoration, vegetable production, processing and storage of products, and sheep fattening activities, all run by women’s groups and farmers’ associations.
Groundswell-sponsored CBO cross visit to Zandoma Province, Burkina Faso
- Fatou and local partner staff provided support to women to improve vegetable production during the dry season, not only allowing them to generate revenue by selling their products in local markets but also improving both the quantity and quality of food for family consumption, especially for young children. Participants have been trained in agroecological techniques for vegetable production – for instance, in the use of organic manure to improve soil fertility and pest control with natural products, such as Neem tree leaf extracts.
- A three-day training session was organized for 50 women from five villages on processing techniques for Shea nuts and soap making, with the aim of improving the quality of the products and thus increase their value in the market.
- Groundswell provided support to the Gayeri women’s group in digging a well and in rehabilitating the garden wells in three other villages – Tampoutin, Tiguili and Louargou.
- Groundswell organized training workshops on techniques for drying and storing vegetables. Two five-day trainings were conducted, benefitting a total of 50 women from Gayéri and eight neighboring villages. Training in preservation techniques is a necessary because vegetable producers often lose much of their harvests. The participants in these vegetable preservation training events shared what they learned with other women in neighboring villages — thereby extending the reach of the program and fostering increased learning and exchange between women’s groups.
- As part of our strategy of promoting agro-forestry, Groundswell and local partners have provided women with tree seeds to grow trees that can be used as live fences around their vegetable gardens. Fencing is essential to prevent free grazing animals from destroying vegetables, yet wire fencing is costly. Although live fences take time to grow, they cost much less than wire fencing and have the added benefit of breaking the wind.
- In collaboration with its local partner ARFA, Groundswell organized information, reflection and training sessions for farmers’ organizations in three villages on the use of modern genetically modified seeds (GMOs) and pesticides. The goal of this activity was to raise farmers’ awareness about biotechnologies and the risks associated with their use in crop production and animal fattening. The eastern region of Burkina Faso is an area where genetically modified cotton (Bt cotton) is grown and where there is intensive use of pesticides. In recent years, the negative environmental consequences have become obvious, as articulated by producers gathered at the regional conference and civic dialogue on “Sustainable management of natural resources and the production of cotton in the Eastern Region of Burkina Faso.” Participants highlighted the many negative effects, including the disappearance of some plant species, and even some animal species, that have traditionally played important roles in food security coping strategies during the hungry season.
These are just a few of the achievements Groundswell and its partners have made over the past year. As our program grows and becomes stronger, we expect many more successes in the year ahead.
