“My assignment in Senegal with Winrock International on micro-garden was such wonderful experience. It enriched my knowledge of human development and of the integrity of cultural diversity as fundamental keys to ensure sustainable development and social cohabitation.

My mission could not have been completed without the humble professional support from both the Djilor Professional Training Center and Winrock Senegal. They made my journey in Senegal successful. From the beginning, a specialist from Winrock Senegal gave me a splendid tour of Dakar city and the ongoing micro-gardening projects. One of the micro-gardening projects was managed by the city hospital and the other by a women’s group. The tour enlightened me about the potential that micro-garden projects can contribute to poverty alleviation in an urban area. Our introductory session with the Djilor Professional Center was a great opportunity to observe how a local institution was committed to pivot local rural development through varieties of training programs.

The board members of the Djilor Professional Training Center guided us to meet with four Women’s Vegetables Farmer Groups and to assess their agricultural practice in the field. All of the four Women’s groups have been functional for 20 or 30 years. Thus, it was very important for me to learn their experiences, success, challenges, adaptations, and motivations keeping them running for that long period of time. What are their goals and objectives? How have they tackled problems together? This visit helped me to adjust the training themes to adapt to the field contexts. I am so thankful of their sincerity to share with us their capital knowledge on gardening and vegetable farming. The field visit was successfully completed with the diligent supports from the Director of the Djilor Professional Training Center, the two Assistants from Winrock Senegal who professionally translated every discussion with local people.

I trained approximately 19 people. The trainees included all of the Instructors and Professionals of the Djilor Professional Training Center, two Peace Corps Volunteers, and two representatives of the Women’s Vegetable Farmer Groups of the commune of Djilor. They were very enthusiastic to attend the training and greatly participated in every discussion and activities. The two women from the Women’s Vegetable Farmer Group proudly shared their field experiences, which provided rich illustrations and examples for micro-gardening practice.”

Farming is a constant responsibility, but luckily we get a little time off in the winter when the crops are dormant. It’s the time I look to broaden my awareness of the world, and traveling to countries with intact agricultural societies is my favorite way to do that. I just returned from my 4^th Winrock International/USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) assignment, this time in southern Senegal, teaching micro-gardening skills to trainers at the Horticulture Initiation Center in Ziguinchor. Micro-gardening is the growing of crops in the smallest of spaces: in recycled containers, or woven poly grain bags, even impromptu raised beds lined with brick and lined with plastic—whatever is available. Micro-gardening was identified some 15 years ago by the FAO as a way to provide access to fresh vegetables to the urban poor and unemployed, an increasing problem with the constant movement to cities from rural farmlands. We took a look at the existing projects in Dakar, based on planting tables using peanut hulls and rice hulls as a planting medium, and chemical nutrient solutions as fertilizer. As a certified organic grower, I of course immediately started looking for natural alternatives to the expensive imported fertilizer, and later we found just that: homegrown fertilizer produced using on-site chicken coops and vermicompost.

Arriving at the Horticulture Initiation Center in Ziguinchor, I felt immediately in my element, surrounded by beds of lettuce and cabbage, with the students busy each morning as we arrived, watering, shaping and fertilizing beds, planting and weeding. During the four-day session, I introduced both technologies from the States (‘Smart-Pot’ planting containers, seedling plug trays, hand-held seeders) and from Kenya (vertical grow bags and sack gardening); and in the afternoon practicums we adjourned to the garden to plant.

One afternoon, the only woman in class, Amy Diedhiou, invited us to visit her rice field where she was finishing up bundling the rice to carry home and thresh. While in the field visiting with Amy and her sisters, Amy’s husband called on her cell phone and asked to talk to me. He said, “Mark, thank you so much for coming to Senegal. We have a lot of energy, but no means, and we can’t see the way forward. Please think very carefully about this for us.” I spent the rest of the evening pondering this. What are the wisest investments that can help transform these subsistence growers into market producers? The question is pressing, open-ended, and creative…and will not be forgotten.

We spent time in class discussing the expansion of micro-gardening to micro-market farming, and the importance of crop choices for maximum profits and tight crop scheduling for year-round marketing. Hopefully, all these topics will be included and expanded on by the trainers in their respective horticultural schools.

When farmers meet farmers across oceans of cultural difference, hearts expand and we recognize each other immediately. I can’t think of a better way for an agriculturalist to spend their ‘off-season’ than to meet and share with their global counterparts–everyone is enriched from that meeting.

In June, I had the honor and pleasure of traveling to St. Louis, Senegal to work with CONCEPT. I worked with CONCEPT’s dedicated training staff to develop a training program for artisans and agricultural processors.

In Senegal, per capita income is only $1,000 (less than 2% of that of the United States) and life expectancy is 66 years (vs 79 in the United States). Poverty in Senegal results in part from the weakness of the private sector and the shortage of strong business skills and behaviors.

The Senegalese non-profit organization CONCEPT has trained artisans and food processing micro-entrepreneurs in production. Artisans include carpenters, and food processing micro-entrepreneurs transform millet and other crops into food products. For example, some of CONCEPT’s trainees make a popular dish called “thiakry” from millet and milk and sell it on the local market.

After production training, the CONCEPT staff realized that the trainees also needed improved business skills to complement their technical skills to succeed in their microenterprises. CONCEPT solicited Winrock’s assistance to train its trainers in management and entrepreneurship. This training was intended to enable CONCEPT’s trainers to help artisans and food processing micro-entrepreneurs develop stronger businesses.

Under the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program with Winrock, I spent two weeks in Senegal training CONCEPT in management and entrepreneurship. Training was highly participatory with numerous games, exercises, case studies, and discussions. Topics included entrepreneurial behaviors, communication, marketing, communication, recordkeeping, financial analysis, and business planning. After the workshop, the CONCEPT trainers prepared a training session of their own to present to each other and to practice in preparation for training of local micro-entrepreneurs.

The training was held in St Louis, on the coast of northern Senegal near the border with Mauritania. The island of St Louis near the mouth of the Senegal River is on the UNESCO World Heritage list due to its past role as capital of Senegal and its distinctive colonial architecture. Although tourism helps the local economy, business activity needs to be stronger to raise living standards.

Since I visited during the Muslim fast of Ramadan, most of the local population was not eating or drinking during daylight hours. Although a day without food or liquid in the heat of St Louis can be tiring, the CONCEPT staff participated very actively in the training and showed strong motivation to pass on their learnings to their beneficiaries.

F2F volunteer with CONCEPT participants

To me, human capital is more important than financial capital. My hope is that CONCEPT’s trainers will be able to empower micro-entrepreneurs in St. Louis to strengthen their businesses, thereby improving their lives and those of their employees and families.