This story of change recounts an exchange visit where partner organisations from Senegal visited their colleagues in Burkina Faso and Togo to learn more about sustainable agriculture. Malick tells us about his experience.
‘It was an inspiring exchange visit to Burkina Faso and Togo’.
Malick Ba is the Executive Secretary of Symbiose, an organisation supporting community development in Senegal. Symbiose assists local authorities in the elaboration and implementation of local development policies. This happens in cooperation with the residents of the department of Nioro du Rip, who are experienced in supporting grassroots development.
Excessive use of chemical fertilisers to grow cereals and vegetables is a major problem in Senegal.
The use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides destroys the soil and is harmful to the farmers' health. As Symbiose is striving to promote sustainable agriculture, the technical team wants to support and accompany the population in finding other ways of cultivating. The team is therefore looking for approaches that are easily accessible and applicable.
The exchange focused on agroecological methods and approaches.
The exchange visit was organised by knowhow3000 and the horizont3000 Senegal office. The project managers of the partner organisations in Senegal as well as the horizont3000 team in Dakar had the opportunity to visit 5 organisations working in the field of agroecology.
After seeing the approaches and successes of colleagues in Togo and Burkina Faso...
Symbiose came up with the idea of a pilot project in agroecology. As part of the project, field schools have been set up to promote action research through learning by doing and observation. The schools aim to raise awareness about the problems of agriculture in general and the solutions that agroecology can provide, particularly in relation to soil degradation and fertilisation.
Today
Entire communities are committed to creating biological corridors and having a positive impact on the environment. They are now using methods like assisted natural regeneration, conservation farming, compost production, and Zaï, a technique to restore degraded drylands and increase soil fertility.
