Burkina Faso: Green Farming Cooperative

Burkina Faso: Green Farming Cooperative

• Objective: improve farming output to fight famine and create a local economy
  Farmers in Tamassago, a village of 2000 inhabitants whose closest city is Kaya, 25 km away, have long struggled against the draughts of Burkina Faso’s dry seasons, which lasts from October to April. Water scarcity is a common feature of the period in Subsaharan countries, and its impact on agriculture leads to malnutrition, or worse, famine.
  
  To help producers provide for their nutritional needs and boost economic growth in the region, the Alstom Foundation partnered with the Cooperation pour l’exploitation des resources and the Association Synergy of Action for Development to create a green farming cooperative, employing basic irrigation systems, market gardening techniques, and eco-aware training. Along with a building to store crops and tools, and an effective management system to ensure autonomous administration, the project aims for the farm to reach autonomy within two years.
  
  All in all, the project will:

  • create an 8-hectare farming cooperative
  • provide an irrigation system
  • erect a tool and crop storage building
  • strengthen farming skill through training
  • ensure farm sustainability through eco-awareness and practices
  • set up an effective management system for autonomy 
    
    
    
     

  Key facts:
  
  Beneficiaries: 2000 villagers of Tomassago
  
  Duration: 2 years
  
  Location: 250 km from Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso 

Partnership

•  CERes (Cooperation pour l’exploitation des Resources) is a French humanitarian association created by 8 engineering students from Paris’ prestigious Ecole de Mines with the sole purpose of creating the farming cooperative in Tamassago.
  
  and ASAD (Association Synergy of Action for Development) is a Burkinabean rights organisation that promotes economic development through rural means.