Published on : 31/05/2022 – 00:30
In Senegal, every weekend during Ramadan, a professional agricultural organization offered training to around twenty young entrepreneurs in agriculture. On the menu: sustainable agricultural techniques, agro-ecology, peasant leadership and training on climate change, marketing, how to manage between family and business.
The ten students of the composting training, organized by the National Council for Consultation and Cooperation of Rural People in Senegal (CNCR), go in search of plant waste, dry matter, ash or manure in order to make a substrate that can enrich the soil.
Khadija Dia grows lettuce, onions and mint in Dakar. While she currently uses fertilizers in moderation, she came to train in agro-ecology. ” I haven’t started composting yet. We are in the tradition of agro-ecology. Every producer must feel responsible for the health of the population. We must grow healthy to reduce diseases. »
The participants pour the different materials layer by layer into holes dug in the ground. Fama Gningue, trainee in an organic market gardening company, has already attended other training courses on marketing or the management of a family business: ” Today I learned a lot of things. There are several ways to compost. Currently, I complete my skills in the field of agriculture. »
For a healthy, clean and economical agriculture
During the theoretical course on the different kinds of composting, Abdoulaye Gueye, trainer and agricultural technician, encourages young people to use these techniques in their fields: “ It helps plants grow faster, it means you don’t need to use fertilizer and it’s free. A bag of fertilizer costs 35,000 CFA francs. Composting is good for your health, for the economy, and it’s also good for the environment. »
Field tests have shown that compost allows a high and constant yield, while fertilizer gives a yield that is certainly a little higher, but which decreases each season, which means that more and more fertilizer has to be purchased.
Mamadou Diop, program manager at the National Council for Consultation and Cooperation of Rural People in Senegal, was then worried about the dependence on fertilizers in the context of the war in Ukraine: “ The biggest fertilizer producers are currently in conflict, or have problems. Currently, there is a shortage of fertilizer in Senegal. The fertilizer that comes from Russia or Ukraine has increased. Alternatives must therefore be found. »
For the next agricultural campaign, the government has earmarked 41 billion CFA francs for fertilizer subsidies.