• About
  • Our Work
  • Join
  • Partner
  • Media
EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER

Sign-up for monthly updates on Winrock's work around the world.

Volunteer Blog

VOLUNTEER BLOG

Training fish farmers in West Africa

  • SHARE:
  • Copy

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Jen Snow

Volunteer Bill Nichols shares thoughtful & humourous stories from his recent trip to Mali. (Thanks for your hard work, Bill!)

“In mid October 2011, I arrived in Bougouni, a town of 25,000, in a mainly cotton growing region of southern Mali. My task was to assist a newly formed fish farming cooperative with business training.

img_3867-toula-village-fish-farmers

                                                       Bill & Toula village fish farmers

Do not confuse Mali with Malawi in East Africa. But you can remove the aw from Malawi and get Mali. Mali is poor: its GDP per capita ranks 205 of 227 countries tracked – – $1,200 per person vs. $47,000 in theU.S. It is a large country, almost twice as big in size as Texas…but less populated: 14.2 million people live here, 25.1 million live inTexas. To find Mali, head due south from the southern tip of Spain into the bulge of West Africa until you reach landlocked Mali – – shaped a bit like a butterfly in flight. So, you can think ofMalias a big, poverty stricken butterfly. But a beautiful one.

I spent 2.5 weeks, helping the fish farmers’ cooperative. They are attempting to raise tilapia and catfish in hand dug ponds. The farmers’ hope is that their fish ponds will provide additional food for their families, plus some extra to sell at the market in Bougouni. My assignment followed, and overlapped by four days, work done by another volunteer. Like me, he is an American volunteer. His role was to teach the aspiring fish farmers how to build effective ponds and how to raise fish. My job was to help the fish farmers develop their business, sales, marketing and production plans.

From the other volunteer, I learned that tilapia are mouth brooders. After the female lays her eggs, the male will fertilize them. The female will then scoop up the eggs in her mouth, where they will incubate until hatching. She will not eat – – cannot eat – – until they hatch and swim out of her mouth. While still tiny, if they spot a threat, say a wading heron or a hungry catfish, the little tilapia will swim back into mommy’s mouth. This flight to mouth-safety will continue until they can no longer fit there. Fascinating.

I spent many days in Toula, a small village just ten miles outside of Bougouni. The members of the fish farmers coop would gather under a large shade tree next to their mud walled compound to listen to my morning business lesson. In the afternoons we usually visited their prototype fish pond to ensure that the fish were still alive. Since my lessons were given outdoors there were many interruptions to deal with. One day during my lesson a hunter from the village walked through our alfresco classroom carrying a shotgun and a recently bagged rabbit – – poor Peter Cottontail. My class erupted with congratulations and praise for the successful hunter.

That day the villagers ask me to stay for lunch. The village ladies cooked up enough food to feed the entire business class. As a visitor I was invited to dine in a nearby mud and thatch hut with senior members of the cooperative. Six of us sat on low stools around a large dishpan full of rice (I think it really was a dishpan shortly before it was filled with rice.) All six of us ate with our hands out of this communal vessel. And we ate the same meal found in every restaurant in town: chicken with rice. But that day, the chicken was augmented by the ill fated Mr. Cottontail. That culinary change of pace was quite welcome. Variety is the spice of life.

img_3954-sharing-a-post-training-class-lunch

                                                                   Sharing lunch

Also adding variety was the daily snack our host fed us. Thin strips of grilled beef were skewered on a wooden stick, then we rubbed the beef-on-a-stick in a dry mixture of ground peanuts, millet, chili and other spices. And also, dried, ground goat testicles.

A fair number of the villagers who attended my training classes are illiterate, so I used symbols as much as possible when I drew on the flip chart. For example: A fish silhouette with a sun above it represented a dried fish. A small fish with an arrow toward a larger fish indicated size growth over several months of feeding. A fish with whiskers signified a catfish. But just how do you represent such business terms as a board of directors with these signs? It was kind of fun trying to think creatively in symbols.

One of the legacies of French colonialism inMaliis that French is the official language. However, outside of cities and towns (like Bougouni) where the educated speak French, numerous local languages are the means of communication. About 80% of Malians speak Bambara as their first or second language. Consequently, Bourama, my interpreter turned my English into occasional French and more frequent Bambara. Through all of this I learned that when working with an interpreter it takes twice as long as normal to share an idea with the audience. And twice as long to learn what their response is. I usually made up for this delay by talking twice as fast…and thinking double time as well. But it really wore me out.

Ultimately, I trained about 30 people in fish production planning, marketing and sales of fish, how to organize a cooperative, and basics in business planning. And also in symbol drawing.

In addition to the hunter mentioned above, I learned to deal with other disruptions. I pretty much got used to the crowing rooster, chickens, and guinea fowl in front of my flipchart. As a teaching point I asked the class the age old business question: What is the difference between marketing and sales? One hand shot up, then another and another, soon over half the class had a hand in the air. I thought, wow, these farmers are really business-sharp. But it turned out they were not answering my question. Instead, they were waving at a friend bicycling along the road that ran past our outdoor classroom…and shouting greetings too. As well, they inquired about the health of his second wife and new baby and about the price of corn in the market. I just about had regained their attention when a young man herding thirty cows down the road lost control of his cattle. The herd veered off toward the village cotton field. Most of my students jumped up to divert the cows from their precious cash crop.

These sorts of interruptions tended to throw me off my patter. However, in the end, I think they learned something. After all, they had a teacher who very much enjoyed his work.”

–Bill Nichols

img_3938-the-traditional-way-to-catch-fish-near-bougouni

                                                          The traditional way to catch fish

*Bill’s trip was part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program in Mali.

Posted in Mali
ABOUT FARMER-TO-FARMER WINROCK VOLUNTEER ASSISTANCE

SUBSCRIBE TO POSTS

Loading

ARCHIVE

  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011

CATEGORIES

  • AET
  • Africa
    • Ghana
    • Senegal
  • Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Cuba
  • El Salvador
  • Ethiopia
  • Field Staff
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Latin America
  • Mali
  • Myanmar
  • Nepal
  • Nigeria
  • Postharvest
  • Rural Livelihoods
  • Senegal
  • Spotlights
  • Volunteer Feedback
  • Volunteer of the Month
  • Winrock Staff
WinrockIntl
Tweets by @WinrockIntl
Follow @WinrockIntl

204 E 4th Street | North Little Rock, Arkansas 72114

ph +1 501 280 3000 | fx +1 501 280 3090

2451 Crystal Drive, Suite 700 | Arlington, Virginia 22202

ph +1 703 302 6500 | fx +1 703 302 6512

  • Contact
  • E-News Signup
  • Low Bandwidth
  • Code of Conduct
  • Winrock Privacy Statement
  • Site Map
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © 2015- Winrock International
DEV ENVIRONMENT