APAO Chad Morris watering onions
Members of the community checking out their new irrigated perimeter
APAO visits Alumni Project in Sanhoui
Sanhoui is a small village located in northern Burkina Faso, a region of low rainfall, high erosion and the constant threat of poverty and famine. The residents of Sanhoui and the surrounding villages live like most Burkinabe – as subsistence farmers managing to produce and store just enough food each growing season to survive until the next year. For them, producing a cash-crop, such as cotton that is grown in southwest Burkina Faso, is impossible in the arid, unforgiving climate where water is a scarce commodity. Until last October, the people of Sanhoui relied on a UNICEF-sponsored well dug several years ago for water. This hand-pumped well provided water for basic needs but lacked the capacity to serve as a crop irrigation system. That’s where the Association of Beneficiaries of Cultural and Exchange Programs between the United States and Burkina Faso (ABPEC/US-BF), which consists of former Fulbright, Humphrey and International Visitor Leadership Program participants, stepped in to help.
Championed by Dr. Mahama Ouedraogo, a former Fulbright Visiting Scholar fellow and agronomist, the group used an Alumni Project Grant from the Department of State to put in place a program that aims to help the local women in five villages around Sanhoui improve their farming techniques, specifically the off-season production of Bambara Groundnut, which is a traditional African food plant usually grown by female farmers that has the potential both to improve nutrition and boost food security. And, more specifically for the citizens of Sanhoui, it’s also a valuable cash-crop with a ready market in many African countries, such as South Africa. The women in Sanhoui have never before used an irrigation system activity. Previously, rice, millet, peanuts, and sorghum were grown locally, but only during the short rainy season (early May through October).
Development of the project consisted of two phases – construction of a solar-powered pump and elevated storage tank to increase water supply and flow from the existing well, and instruction to the local women farmers on establishing and maintaining irrigated fields for the groundnuts and vegetables. The program focused on production during the dry season, which lasts for eight months in Burkina Faso. The classes and setting up of the six irrigated plots were conducted during November and December 2011, the pump and tower were installed in early January 2012, and planting, with seeds provided by the alumni association, began at the same time. As part of the program, the women also will travel to Ouahigouya, a city in northern Burkina Faso, to learn from a women’s agriculture association that has used irrigation as a way to boost their incomes and fight food insecurity.
Although the first harvest will not be until late April, the project has already yielded much more than a cash crop with which to raise money, it has created a community of women from five villages united by a single goal. Together, they have taken ownership of the project, determining the layout of the one-hectare pilot project area, developing a rotating schedule of watering dates and coming up with new ideas for refining the irrigation system. Additionally, each household volunteered to pay CFA250 (about 50 cents) to maintain the pump when the manufacturer’s one-year warranty expires.