USAID/Guinea:From subsistence to success

April 15, 2008

Mrs.Bah

From subsistence to success

Mrs. Bah lives in Pita, a remote village in Upper Guinea. She is the mother of three children and has been a farmer since she was very young. Despite 12-hours of daily work in her fields, she had little economic belongings to show for a lifetime of work.

“I could hardly survive,” she confessed.

Thanks to a USAID-sponsored OIC project, Mrs. Bah now has doubled her farming income and started a small business that provides her and her family with a living wage.

“My life changed completely.” Mrs Bah said.

Launched in 2005, OIC objectives are security, access, and food availability. The results reported in 2008 are:
Household enhances food access by reducing food and crop losses.
Farmers reduce vulnerability through sustainable increase in food production and productivity, built on improved economic access to food through infrastructure development.

Since 2005, 186 rural farmers associations have been formed and intensive compost making for the farmers and wide use of organic fertilization have been promoted by OIC intervention.

In addition, OIC staff trained 246 members (70% of these members are women) in democracy and good governance with an emphasis on gender issues.

OIC trained Mrs. Bah in new cultivation techniques and also provided her with potatoe seedlings for her individual plots, considering that potatoes generate more income than other vegetables. The potatoes proved a successful cash crop. Her revenues doubled, and provided her with funds to start a new business raising and selling chickens and goats. The women who once could hardly feed her family now saves 200,000 GNF per month (about $50) which she reinvests in new activities.

OIC also emphasizes sustainable agro-forestry techniques designed to increase appreciation for the environment. “Thanks to the project I have also learned the importance of natural resources management,” said Mrs. Bah. “I have planted fruit trees that will generate an income and help our forests.”

Mrs. Bah and other women of the village enlisted the help of their husbands in planting trees in the forest and soon felt the positive effects of increased vegetation. “Since the planting of more trees we no longer lack water for our fields like we used to. This is good for our crops.” She added.

In less than six months in two of the twenty forests near Pita area 5700 teak and other forestry trees were planted.

The Irish potato fields are not owned only by individuals but also by farmer’s associations.
Like a lot of women of the same village, Mrs. Bah belongs to the farmer’s association. The farmer’s association manages other three potato fields. The harvests have been so successful that this year the women collectively purchased a tractor.
‘We are very proud to be able to invest our new incomes and buy a machine that will help us to increase our crops.”
“Before we used to work the soil by hand, but now we can count on this agricultural equipment to reinforce our capability and productivity” a woman added.

Story and photo by Francesca Munzi