05 August 2002

Bonn, Germany: Burkinabe UN Volunteer Solange Sandouidi works with farmers in Komandjari province under a Programme for the Support of Rural Communities (Programme d'appui aux initiatives communautaires de base - PAICB). After three years of support to local agricultural development, she has become a spokes-person for rural groups submitting requests for PAICB funding. With her help, villagers receive the training they need to manage their affairs economically and ecologically in the years to come.

Many of Burkina Faso's villagers are poor. One out of two inhabitants in rural areas lives in poverty. In the eastern province of Komandjari, the situation is most severe: life-sustaining sources of water dry up and soil becomes more and more barren, leading to worrying consequences of malnutrition, chronic illness and increased infant mortality. A localized environmental disaster looms as the land is degenerating. Solange says it is difficult to persuade farmers to stop the practice of brush fires to fertilize the soil or to keep their cattle in pens so rambling livestock do not destroy grass and brush.

Solange fights poverty in villages with a team of 11 Burkinabe UN Volunteers. Together, they help create small farming cooperatives for cereal production or animal husbandry - two important sources of income for rural West Africans.

These associations benefit from PAICB credit schemes financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The groups pay back their loans once they are able to turn a profit. Fifty kilometres away in the village of Haaba, Solange makes regular visits to discuss environmentally sound agricultural practices. The programme provides basic instruction to protect the environment, like the unnecessary uprooting of plants and shrubs or killing insects out of fear that they damage the crops - which they actually do not.

"The farmers go to the fields with agricultural experts who give advice on crop rotation and the benefits of natural fertilizers such as goat dung," she says. Farmers also learn how to apply a thin layer of earth to conserve soil moisture.

Training is an important part of the UN Volunteer's work. She seeks to combine economy and ecology in a way that improves future prospects for farmers.

Trainees learn to calculate costs of production and earnings from the sale of cereals.

"They go to the markets to compare prices. It is also a way to recognize serious traders and make good deals," she says. With the farmers of Haaba, Solange worked up a detailed plan to produce sesame and maize and secured credit from the PAICB. Farmers were then advised on how to plant crops quickly and efficiently as well as on irrigation methods that avoid losing water through evaporation.

Solange works with Burkinabe UN Volunteer, Charlemagne Zougmore, to assist villagers in Ouré-Niebe, Bartiebougou and Penkatougou. "We have brought together farmers in a common, structured economic activity that they are learning to manage themselves," said Charlemagne.

With their credit, farmers buy spades and carts to plant, harvest and transport their goods, which include rice, peanuts, beans, sorgho and maize. With the help of the UN Volunteers, they learn to save and build up stocks to get through the rainy season. Some of the families have saved enough money to send their children to school - planting seeds for a more secure future.