As soil depletion and climate change affect crops, the need for small-scale food producers to adapt cultivation methods and crops to the new conditions is increasing. We are continuously working on finding new solutions.
Nakamtenga, Burkina Faso
Parmoussa
Ongoing since 2011
– Ensure access to food at our preschools and schools by funding, and further develop it together with us
– Nutritionist for annual training of our staff.
– Subsidize drip irrigation facilities for food security and income possibility for young people and small farmers.
– Experimental farming is about to start (currently 4 hectares bought for this) We need both expert teams and financing.
– Another need, is to create seed banks to reduce vulnerability in the years when the crops fail.
– Frameworks for sustainable consumption and production patterns. We are looking for someone who can contribute by formulating our framework based on our strategies.
– Plant a tree, and get a diploma to keep yourself or give away!
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Join Yennenga NetworkMost of the residents of Burkina Faso are employed in self-sustaining farming, which is usually small-scale. This creates a very vulnerable situation for the families. With the depletion of soils and climate change affecting crops, the need for farmers to adapt their cultivation methods and crops to the new conditions is increasing.
Traditionally, people live on nutritious, organic, locally produced and nutritious food with good fats, without sugar, and meat only at ceremonies and parties. That is to say what many in countries like Sweden idealize and long for. The risk of transitioning from the self-sustaining farming to a market society is that what is bought is downright harmful. At the national level
in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, we already receive alarm reports on dangerous over weight, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. How do we prevent this from reaching the village but at the same time create food security?
A first direct investment to ensure that we have no malnourished children in the village is the school meal with nutritious food every day as well as fruit time in both preschool and school. There are also preventative programs by providing reliable information about nutrition at the youth reception, maternal care, as well as at preschools and schools.
We are planning on a train the trainer education for school dining staff and restaurant staff so that they can also train the rest of the population, for example, at parent meetings.
All efforts made are planned to be sustainable and take us closer to a more sustainable lifestyle. Awareness of how production and consumption patterns affect both health and the environment is one of our favorite issues!
In addition to investments in climate-adapted agriculture, the stark truth is that families cannot just secure their situation through investments in agriculture. We must help families to diversify their incomes. Also a seed bank needs to be set up to overcome bad harvests etc.
The Yennenga center conducts experimental agriculture on our 4 hectares of land, purchased to develop best practice on food security. New methods must be tested and developed. Solutions for collaboration to achieve large-scale benefits. Climate-adapted seed, must be produced and subsidized to the farmers.
The year around vegetable cultivation with drip irrigation is an important solution to food security. At the Yennenga center we cultivate vegetables for out schools and restaurant. Our hope is to be able to subsidize in the first place one facility per block (7 in Nakamtenga) and preferably one per household (142 in Nakamtenga)
We collect and implement methods to develop best practices for stopping desertification and to restore land: crescent excavation and digets (small stone walls that create natural terraces that stop the water masses that bring with it the small soil layer that exists), fenced land to prevent animals eating up that binds the ground, drip irrigation, tree planting, school garden etc. We are happy to receive more input on methods to test.
... for small-scale food producers.
We provide the small-scale food producers in 20 villages in our area with the weather service ISKA (Ignitia), which is adapted for small farmers in the Sahel area. Our field workers, coaching the farmers, are trained to advise on agricultural improved agricultural methods and adaptation to climate change, the use of fertilizers and pesticides as well as organic farming to gradually improve soil and soil quality. With this knowledge, farmers can conserve and utilize ecosystems and biodiversity in a sustainable way.
The green team cares for and replant trees and plants at the center. They create inclusive green spaces in the village, which is beautiful, welcoming and creates hope for a greener future. The garden team employs four people. In recent years we have planted at least 1,500 trees every year. The aim is to show that it is possible to recreate vegetation in the harsh landscape. It is a great job to protect the new trees from hungry goats and other livestock. Our tree plants are therefore driven into nurseries at the center.
Fish farming in a "closed system" with its own production of spirulina, is being developed with hope of spreading this technology for fish farming in the areas of the country that do not have running water permanently throughout the year, and to reduce external disturbances such as external pollution, Herbal toxins and other chemical products that vegetable growers use extensively. The Project is studied to contribute to increased food security, creating jobs, as well as increasing knowledge and inspiration for sustainable production.