Africa's Young Farmers Seeding the Future

Senegalese Cooperative Gives Youth Reasons to Stay at Home

By Koffigan E. Adigbli
Like many other young Senegalese, Pape Mokhtar Diallo long dreamed of escaping his rural home in northern Senegal for a better life. Three times he tried and failed to go overseas. But the establishment of an agricultural cooperative here in the village of Boyinadji has put another dream within his grasp.

Mauritanian Women Turn to Poultry to Fight Poverty

By Mohamed Abderrahmane
The building is standing empty now, but Fatimetou Mint M'Barkenni is looking forward to when it is again filled with the soft cheeping of day-old chicks. Earlier in the year, she raised a first batch of broiler chickens as part of a pilot project, to boost rural incomes and food security here at Bourate, in rural Mauritania.

Surviving on a Meal a Day in Ghana’s Savannah Zone

By Albert Oppong-Ansah
In order to ensure that he and his family survive this year's failed harvest, Adams Seidu, like farmers in other rural communities in Ghana’s Northern Region, has implemented a strategy for survival. They are using what Seidu calls the "one-zero-one strategy" for children, and the "zero-zero-one strategy" for adults.

Plant Diseases Threaten Food Security in Kivu, DR Congo

By Baudry Aluma
Plant diseases affecting bananas and cassava are gaining ground in two provinces in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to South Kivu's provincial minister for agriculture, Gisèle Batembo.

DRC Farmers Reap Benefits of Soil Fertility

By Baudry Aluma
Just two years ago, rice farmers on the Ruzizi plain in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo were content to harvest 2.5 tonnes of rice per hectare. The adoption of new techniques has seen their output rise to between six and eight tonnes, with smallholder farmers also increasing their local market share.

Super Cereal For Mali’s Malnourished Children

By Soumaila T. Diarra
Millet has become the basic ingredient for an enriched flour at the heart of an effort to establish a local, sustainable response to malnutrition in Mali.

Youth grow flowers to get money

By IPS Correspondents
Farming flowers in slums is becoming an option for jobless youths in cities across Cameroon. Flowers and ornamental trees are planted to decorate compounds ,roadsides, lanes and tourism sites. Aaron Kaah reports.

Snails boost food, medicine production

By IPS Correspondents
Starting plantation farming in Cameroon in the 1980’s, and the spraying of pesticides, almost drove certain snail species to extinction. But farmers in the coastal regions of Cameroon are now cultivating the animals for food, traditional medicine and income.

Cameroon farmers plant trees for bees

By IPS Correspondents
Honey producers in Cameroon are looking to restore bee habitats by planting trees in areas where deforestation have left the countryside bare.

The Guinean Women Who Earn a Little Coin From Gardening

By Moustapha Keita
Market gardening in the peri-urban areas of Conakry, the Guinean capital, is growing quickly, bringing in income for groups of women and giving them some autonomy.

Eco-Villages Breathe New Life Into Rural Senegal

By Koffigan E. Adigbli
Eighty-odd kilometres outside Dakar, the Senegalese capital, solar power and an irrigation scheme are transforming a traditional village into what the government hopes will be a model for the future of the countryside.

Mushroom farmers bloom in Cameroon

By IPS Correspondents
In the NW region of Cameroon, mushrooms are a cherished delicacy, eaten by almost every household. Yet in the markets mushroom is scarce and farmer say successful cultivation is highly profitable.

Mauritian Farmers Hooked on Fair Trade

By Nasseem Ackbarally
In finding a way to survive a 36 percent cut in sugar prices, Mauritian farmers are not only exporting a variety of fruit and vegetables to the European Union, but they have also begun farming in a more environmentally sustainable way.

Market Gardens Key to Autonomy for Niger Women

By Ousseini Issa
Four figures bend intently over their work in one corner of the large vegetable garden near the western Niger village of Dioga. Months after the village's main harvest has been brought in – and eaten up – the irrigated green of the garden is welcome relief in a part of the country where hunger never seems far away.

Mauritanian Cooperative Contributes to Meeting Need for Vegetables

By Mohamed Abderrahmane
Fourteen years ago, unemployed and discouraged by a failed business venture, Mohamed Ould Abderrahmane turned to farming. Today the cooperative he set up to grow vegetables on the outskirts of the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, employs several dozen people and provides its members with a handsome income. 

Moringa Leaves Saving Lives in DRC

By Anselme Nkinsi
Seated under a tree, biologist Zozo Bazomba welcomes a steady stream of visitors to the Action Nature et Médecine centre in Bumbu commune in the DRC. Suffering from a range of ailments, they have come from across Kinshasa, the capital, in search of sachets of powdered moringa leaves.

Agriculture Key to Liberia’s Youth Unemployment Challenge

By Travis Lupick
With his gold chain, baseball cap, and baggy denim shorts, Junior Toe wears the uniform of Liberia’s urban youth. Spend just a few minutes with the young man and it is evident that he possesses the street smarts to match the look.

Partnerships make Sao Tome cocoa grow

By IPS Correspondents
Small farmers in Sao Tome are reaping the benefits of entering niche markets. Andrea Serpagli, a spokesperson for the International Fund for Agricultural Development in Sao Tome, told Tinus de Jager that the success of the farmers sprout from partnerships and knowledge gained from other similar projects.

Traditional farmers adapt to climate change

By IPS Correspondents
Experts say small-scale farmers are in a better position to adapt to climate change. IPS’s Tinus de Jager interviews Andrea Serpagli, from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, on their successful programme in Sao Tome.

Farmers can grow food and bio fuels in West Africa

By IPS Correspondents
Tinus de Jager speaks to Hugo Verkuijl, DG of MaliBiocarburant, who produces biofuels “in a way that supplements farmers' incomes, contributes to poverty alleviation and respects the environment”. The question is whether farmers can grow both food and fuel in Western Africa.

Cameroon farmers fight infertile soil

By IPS Correspondents
Farmers blame infertile soil for the low food crop yields in many part of Cameroon. Aaron Yancho Kaah reports from the North-western region the country.
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