Campaign 2007

2007: Africa also has Talent

‘I know for a fact:
for all we do here now
the future looks promising.
Tomorrow shall be better than today
just like today is better
than the years behind us.
We can make sure
the whole population
has sufficient food
of good quality.
We won’t emigrate
but remain here.
We shall live in a good environment,
and have a good life.’

 

 It is Salif speaking here, a farmer in Koumbi, Burkina Faso.

His words speak an odd opti-mism against the arid landscape in the picture. His words, however, are not a hyperbole. Like just about everyone here, Salif belongs to the Union Groups in Koumbi (see also page 24). United with their organisation the farmers have begun a stubborn battle 30 years ago against famine and the advancing desert. Their experience and know-how today makes a difference. The aridity of the landscape on the picture is misguiding. It was taken in January, in the height of the 8 month dry season. But you see green trees, cattle that can graze, fields that are protected against erosion. During the rainy season the landscape colours are green. Here in Koumbi the desert is not expanding anymore.
Not that the farmers get a free lunch. In Yatenga province, in the north of Burkina Faso, the climate is unstable, and rain rarely comes. Rocky hills vary with sandy terrain and big arid plains. The landscape bears scars of strong erosion. Decades of deforestation and overgrazing surrender the vulnerable soil to the extremes of wind, heat and downpour. The once fertile land is open to desertification.
The biggest problem of this region is a chronic water shortage. Just about everyone here depends on farming. Yet 90% of the population is unable to sustain itself. This triggers de-population of the countryside towards the cities or neighbouring countries.

Our partners do not execute our plans but theirs. For sustained development cannot be forced, commanded or imported upon them. It grows from the choices and capacities of the locals, from their culture, knowledge, experience and at their pace. This is BD’s basic principle. The story of the Naam groups strongly confirm that this is the right way. Only one‘s own plans to combat poverty and injustice are genuinely adapted to the local situa-tion and are really supported. Only then can talent really yield returns.

Talent at work: the battle against famine

To hope for enough rain, a good harvest, a year without hunger or food shortage... Food security is the number one theme in the life of Sahel farmers. For famine is a ghost. It set-tles in your house and in your mind. It controls your thoughts and your conversation. It makes you look for grass, herbs, leaves to make something edible. It makes you sell any-thing that’s sellable. Hunger sucks out your energy and your health, just when you need to work the hardest. This is due to the fact that food shortages occur during the rainy season when the new harvest is growing on the field. It’s when people work incessantly on the field in order to get through the next year.
Just then the food prices are at their highest, which often makes people have to take a loan in order to buy food. When the new harvest arrives, prices are low. Still people have to sell during that very period to pay their debts and to buy necessary supplies. That’s how they are trapped in a poverty cycle.
Where there is no food, there’s no money for education and health care, or for investments in clean water, information, roads or other basic supplies.
Famine in this area is a recurring phenomena. And when in a given year rainfall is low, disaster is hard to avoid. Salif recalls well the 1980 and 1984 famines: ‘At the time I was very young, but I still remember it to be a total catastrophe. Literally all families were hun-gry. Many of them left the countryside for good, to build a life elsewhere. It motivated me to join the Union of Naam Groups of Koumbi. That’s how I could work to improve my farming activities, to make a better life. Thanks to the Naam Groups the depopulation of the coun-tryside mostly stopped. To leave is actually never a solution. The solutions are right here. During the past three years rainfall was low, and harvest was bad. This has severely af-fected our stocks. Bur everyone has remained.’

Food is life

Food is literally vital. It’s a basic right for every person. Ever since we can remember the right to sufficient healthy food has been instilled in spirituality, traditions and symbols of all people on the planet. That is no different than the biblical and Christian tradition. Famine is intolerable and dehumanising. Famine shocks us and calls for action. The right of food is written in solemn declarations and political texts. BD itself was founded 45 years ago from an action against a famine. Indignation about hunger in the world is an important element of Lent, and to this day colours our spirituality. 

The grain bank

The stocks Salif mentioned are in a grain bank. This is where the Union keeps a supply of corn, sorghum and millet. The stock is annually supplied with the harvest of a common field and with grain bought from local farmers or from farmers from the wetter south of Burkina Faso. The grain bank is an important weapon in the battle against famine and poverty. Those whose food stock is exhausted can buy or borrow food from it and pay off with a part from their new harvest. Because prices are kept low, the grain bank can only make a low profit: €1.50 per bag of 100 kg. Even so the bank can buy a bit more stock each passing year.

Horticulture during the dry season

The grain bank is but one of the many initiatives the Naam Groups take to combat hunger. ‘That we could get by these past few years was not only thanks to our grain stock, but surely also thanks to our horticultural activities’, according to Salif. ‘People had to use their supplies economically. They could not dig in, but what little they ate was varied and of good quality.’
The gardens seem like unreal fresh green oases in the arid January landscape. In Koumbi four water wells supply sufficient water to do horticulture on a 2 acre terrain. Ten kilome-tres down the road, in Ningui, people have even created a lake building a dam to gather water during the rainy season. There irrigation channels moist a ten acre terrain.
The horticulture harvest is not just for their own use. A big part of it is intended for sale. It’s one of many activities that enable village people to boost their income.

Talent at work: the battle against the desert

Where there are no trees and the soil is used intensively, rain is both a curse and a bless-ing. Even during the rainy season it can be dry for weeks. But when it does rain, it’s raining cats and dogs, and the water drags along anything that’s on its path: seeds, fertilizers, even soil itself. Moreover, the water can hardly seep into the soil. It washes off and is car-ried out in rivers. Often times it leaves canyons in the landscape. Through hard labour Naam Group members struggle to restore fertility to their soils.

Stones in the landscape

During the dry season the farmers jointly go into the desert in search of big rocks. A hired truck takes them to their fields. They use the rocks to build microdams, at regular intervals, taking care to align to the landscape. These past few years they have built over 100 km of these dams.
The effect of this hard labour is visible after some years: the force of the streaming water is diminished. More water seeps into the soil. This makes the level of ground water and well water go up. Washed out soil, seeds and fertilizer are staying behind the rocks. Seeds take root. Herbs, bush and trees grow.

Reforestation

Trees are our best allies in the battle against the desert. The texture of the roots keeps the soil together. The leaves make for a layer of humus. The crowns shield off sunlight, which makes ground temperatures stay lower. This prevents the humus from being burned, doesn’t dry out the soil as fast and enables herbs and crops to grow more easily. The soil regains its fertility and farmers see their harvests grow. Trees also supply materials and make an income. A representative says: ‘On the field we have planted nim trees, specifi-cally for construction. This species grows extremely fast and has multiple trunks. When we chop wood, we take only a few trunks. This enables new shoots to grow. The women gather the fruits to make soap. In between the nim trees we planted acacia senegal. These trees supply raw material for Arabic gum, which will serve a project in the capital. Nature regains its equilibrium and we shall have a profit! Along the dams at the borders of the fields we also sow acacia albidas. This tree dramatically improves soil fertility.’

With the same energy the Naam Groups address the deep eroded ditches the water has made in the landscape. If they are left alone they grow and become more devastating, and they threaten many acres of farming soil. The same rocks that are used for the microdams are used to build dams in the ditches. These block the sand and branches that are being dragged along by the current. The water stays longer, and after a few downpours the ditches are filled with fertile sludge.

Talent at work: the battle against poverty.

A good life means more than to be free of hunger. You want your children to be able to at-tend school. You want better health care. You want to buy soap, clothes and household products. Naam Groups’ education and investments are mainly intended to help families make a better living. The Naam Groups have their own reading and writing courses, and they make sure that what’s learned is immediately used in practice: simple accounting, how to work with written documents, how to trade without being cheated, etc. During the rainy season everyone is out on the field and there’s hardly any time for other activities. A lot of effort hence goes into finding sources of income during the dry season.
Irrigated horticulture is one of them. Others process their harvest and sell self made cous-cous, stock cubes, soap or dried fruits. Lots of people buy a goat or a sheep’s lamb and raise it with offal and home grown feed. Others still start up their own trade.

Microcredit: an important key

In order to start a lucrative activity. one needs money: to invest in raw material, a cart, an ox, store supplies, tools and so on. Members of the Naam Groups can address their own savings and credit institution for a small loan. In each village the members elect a credit committee that evaluates an application and guards correct pay back. A job that involves trust, for this money consists of hard earned savings. This self controlled micro credit sys-tem is an all important leverage for the development of new economic activities and em-ployment in the country side.

Talent at work: women bear development

Ever since its first beginnings gender equality was essential for the Naam Groups. This is not self evident. Often women are totally dependent on their spouse. Moreover, they have plenty of work to do. They prepare food, gather firewood, carry water, do laundry, raise children and work in the field. Women carry the heaviest loads and are the axis of the fam-ily. At the same time they tend to be the least literate and organised. A lot of the Union ef-forts are aimed at improving women’s positions. They are prioritising reading and writing centres. A lot of credit should be given to the women, because when they do have an in-come, it is for the benefit of the whole family, which means a way out of their lower and dependent position. The small trades they start often make them a few Euros a month. This may seem negligible, but more often than not this means quadrupling their income. The effects on their independence and freedom are hard to overestimate.
The Union is looking for solutions to limit women’s heavy work load. They invest for exam-ple in fuel efficient wood ovens. These benefit the environment, but they also save women lots of time, because gathering fire wood is a difficult and time consuming chore. Buying carts means that water and wood do not need to be carried on their heads any longer. By saving time women are able to participate more easily in education or group activities, or to start new profitable activities.

Our reporters in the field

Our reporters in the field, Heleen and Wim, are observing the work of the Naam Groups in Burkina Faso. If you have any questions during the campaign about the activities of this project partner, after February 20 you can send them to heleenenwim@broederlijkdelen.be.

Talent at work: own research groups

An important catalyst for the development of the region are the farmers’ research groups. Salif is very proud of the achieved results: ‘When we encounter some problem, we form a research group consisting of members of the Union. This way we look for realistic solu-tions ourselves, and then bring them to practice together. For example, a group is search-ing for kinds of grain that are best fit for the rainfall in our region. We experiment with blends to find out which is most fertile: sesame with millet, millet and njeebe (beans) and so on. Another research group is the ‘women and child’ group. We wanted to lower child mortality. This of course has to do with a lot of factors: women’s health, good family plan-ning, good nutrition, better hygiene, knowledgeable assistance at birth and so on. We de-veloped our own recipe for healthy child nutrition. People now opt for smaller families. Just about everyone here is now opposed to female circumcision. Health education is showing results. Child mortality rates clearly have come down in a few years’ time.’

The Diobass network

For their research groups the Naam Groups cooperate with Diobass, another BD partner organisation. This network of fourteen farmers’ organisations is working on themes that the farmers bring on. Diobass worker Kassoum Dembele testifies about the unique Diobass method: ‘In the past development projects invariably taught new things, overlooking the knowledge and experience the farmers already had. Diobass reversed this logic. In our re-search groups we base solutions for problems on existing knowledge and experience: a local cure for cattle disease, disease and pest control in local horticulture, fine-tuning feed or new farming techniques, making compost, developing economic activities and so on. Traditional knowledge is complemented with conclusions from modern science, but is not made obsolete by it. The new found solutions are adapted to the farmers’  own abilities and budget.’

Talent at work: the battle for the market

During harvest season food prices are low, because supply is bigger than demand. This is why the farmers of the Naam Group of Ninigui village have built a potato basement. That way they are able to protect their potato harvest from heat and conserve it longer. A good thing, for now they don’t need to sell until prices go up. But lately this hasn’t necessarily been true. Salif: ‘Normally potato prices go up in spring. But the past years there have been major imports in April, May and June of potatoes from France and Holland. They are offered at one-third of their market value. We have no way to compete. Competition based on quality would be acceptable, but this price cutting is unfair. In Europe production costs are low, but our farmers have to produce in the harshest of circumstances. Potato seed-lings are expensive, and also our sustainable farming is costing a lot. So if one is forced to sell without any profit, or even at a loss, local production is discouraged. Producers have to work together, and convince the government to protect our local market.’

Bernadette Ouattara from Inades-Formation, Burkina Faso, wholeheartedly agrees. In-ades-Formation is active in diverse African countries and specialises in guiding farmers and organising farmer groups. For some years this BD partner radically opts for lobbying. ‘It is our duty to fortify the farmer’s economic, social and political position’, says Berna-dette. ‘So we want the farmers to better understand their problems, and to be able to de-bate with the government about their own insights on development. After all they make up over 80 % of the population.’
Bernadette provides another example of unfair competition: imported rice. ‘Burkina Faso has many rice farmers: not in the dry north, but in the fertile soil in the south of the country. There we have good soils, sufficient to sustain our own supplies. But far from all usable soil is being used. Our farmers are being discouraged by free market trade. Why would they produce? Our markets are overrun by cheap Asian and US rice. The US prefer to do-nate their own old stocks instead of money for development. A poisoned gift, because this forces our farmers to sell at a loss.’
Bernadette also points out the nature of Burkina farming. ‘If farmers would make their rice fields bigger, their production cost would come down. But an irrigated rice field can only produce rice, which is too much risk for the farmers. They want to manage risks by also growing peanuts, corn or beans on their acre.’
This makes her go on seamlessly to her plea for fair farming regulation: ‘And they are ab-solutely right doing so, because no institution at all protects them. It’s not a lack of area nor possibilities. The problem is elsewhere: give a sustainable future to our producers. The countries that claim we have to open up our market are protecting their own and subsidise their own farming. We are pleading for international agreements that enable the protection of local markets. Our country can, for example, take import tax on imported rice, just like it happens today in Nigeria. These profits could enable the government to support and stimulate our own farming.’

Talent at work: worldwide alliance

This takes us to the lobby work of BD. Together with our partner organisation in north and south and with our international network Cidse we have been demanding for years that countries have the right to protect their sustainable agriculture from global market forces. This lobbying sometimes yields success. Within the WTO, where internationally enforced agreements are made about trade regulations, convention is growing that poverty needs to be combated. By the end of 2005 this led to the (albeit temporary) agreement that coun-tries have the right to select some strategic marketed products they can protect. It’s a humble beginning, but we want more. That’s why BD is participating in the joint campaign of the ‘Agriculture2015’ coalition, that positions this theme in the broader Millennium Goals context. This way a new step is taken in the building of a worldwide alliance and in global-ising solidarity. For in the south millions of talented people are waiting for chances to fur-ther realise their own plans. To give them this chance is our duty.

Agricultural management is necessary!

850 million people in the world are hungry. 600 million of them are farmers. They are being neglected by their governments. They are suffocated by big corporate competition and by free import of food surpluses. This is unacceptable. The right for food will not be realised by free market trade, for this is not driven by ethical principles but by the aim for profits. Only politics are able to command fair trade. Farmers should have a right to feed their own population. Elected politicians should be entitled to make agricultural policies that support sustainable food production and protect against global trade. We call this the right of food sovereignty.

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