SEE Solutions - Social and Economic Empowerment

Economic and Environmental Enhancement

Location: Senegal
Focus: Agricultural Development
FY11 funds required: $690,169
Status: Implementation

Needs

Many farmers in Senegal cannot produce enough food because the land is overpopulated and because widespread deforestation has led to poor soil fertility. Dependence on rain-fed agriculture means that drought often spells disaster for farming families who have few alternative income sources. A 2008 study showed that 51.2% of Senegalese households suffer from a severe state of food insecurity. This is not difficult to comprehend when 68% of household expenditure is on food.
Goals
To increase crop yields, improve food security and stimulate economic development by supporting farmers to plant trees and drought tolerant crops, as well as encouraging communities to conserve their environment.
Activities

Farmers are receiving training and support to introduce drought-tolerant crops, such as cassava, as well as fruit and multi-purpose indigenous trees, to improve family nutrition and provide additional income sources.
At the same time, farmers are learning how to regenerate indigenous trees to reverse the effects of deforestation and establish a sustainable source of food, fodder and fuel. Successful farmers have been selected to act as role models in their communities, promoting the importance of environmental protection for food and income security.
Beneficiaries

Over 80,000 men, women and schoolchildren will benefit from the impacts of these activities in 11 different regions in central Senegal.

The Situation

Updates

Update: September 2010

Farmer training and environmental awareness raising activities are progressing well. Farmer managed tree regeneration is proving more popular than tree planting because many newly planted trees don’t survive the impact of things like insects and cattle grazing. An exception to this is the planting of jatropha, oil seed-bearing trees, which is gaining significant uptake.

The number of hectares now under the practice of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) has grown to over 31,000.
Almost 200,000 jatropha plants have now been grown and distributed to the community.
Over 140,000 other types of plants, such as fruit bearing trees, have been planted.
Approximately 360 community leaders and farmers have participated in information sharing exchange visits both within Senegal and to neighbouring countries.
Regulations for the use of forestry resources have been drafted and are in the process of being reviewed by authorities.

Update: March 2010

The project is in full swing and has been enthusiastically embraced by the community. This is due in part to the close working relationships that have been developed with various groups in the community; women and men, traditional and government leaders, Muslim imams and Christian pastors, school teachers and children. Across all regions, some of the progress achieved has been:

Over 1,500 lead farmers (men and women) have been selected and given farmer-to-farmer training. These lead farmers are now conducting training on their own farms in Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and hedging fields with jatropha plants. Lead farmers are also educating other farmers on the role of trees in agriculture, and their ownership rights to those trees under the Forestry Code.
Over 25,000 hectares of farmland are now under the practice of FMNR, which is well above expectations and which has been attributed to extensive awareness raising activities and the participation of community members, religious leaders and government partners.
Over 180 teachers have been trained to incorporate environmental land management into the school curriculum, resulting in over 4,500 school children learning FMNR techniques.
Over 1,500 farmers have been trained in hedging fields with jatropha, an oil seed-bearing tree. Following the distribution of over 90,000 jatropha plants, 612 hectares of land is now protected by living fences.
In addition, approximately 460,000 other multi-purpose trees have been planted to complement annual cereal crops.
Not only has the supply of wood - for fuel and fodder - been increased through these activities, the preservation of this resource has also been enhanced through the construction of 100 fuel-efficient wood stoves.