Challenges faced by rural, smallholder farmers around the world are being amplified by climate change and conflict as communities struggle to recover from the market-distorting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of people affected by hunger has increased by 46 million since 2020– reaching 828 million globally.
In Mali, where agriculture makes up 33 percent of Gross Domestic Product and employs 62 percent of the population, even small shifts in the agricultural market can spur dramatic effects on the economy. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Feed the Future Mali Sènè Yiriwa (Prosperous Agriculture) works to empower producer organizations with climate-smart approaches to farming that increase productivity, strengthen resilience, and promote environmental conservation.
Fatoumata Mariko, a member of the Badénia Farmers’ Cooperative in Zantiébougou, was having trouble keeping up with the rising cost of pesticides, which she needs to protect her crops from the insects. The cost of inputs such as chemical pesticides has increased all around the world as conflict, extreme weather events, and lingering pandemic-related supply chain disruptions restrict production and trade.
Fatouma’s cooperative partnered with Feed the Future to help strengthen resilience to these price shocks. "To cope with the fast-rising prices of agricultural inputs, Sènè Yiriwa taught us new techniques,” she says. “We learned how to make [organic] pesticides using leaves from the neem tree [Azadirachta indica]. I applied it to a ¼-hectare plot and the result is impressive. Without pesticides, my bean yield on this field is only 20 kilograms due to insect damage. However, with this neem-based product I didn't have a problem. This year, I produced 50 kilograms…We are happy to have learned these new techniques that are less expensive and protect the environment. Chemicals are very expensive. For this small field, I would have needed four bottles of chemical pesticides. Each bottle costs 1,250 F (US$1.80), which not everyone can afford, while the neem is almost free."
For Arouna Doumbia, a rice farmer in Guerekélé, the mounting cost of agricultural inputs was becoming too much to handle. Through Sènè Yiriwa training, Arouna used data to make better decisions that saved him money.
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"In our village, 90 percent of the population grows rice -- it is our main food,” he says. “The cultivation of this crop is traditional. However, with climate change, poor soil quality, and the high cost of agricultural inputs, we can no longer cope. [Our cooperative has] been working with Sènè Yiriwa since 2021 to manage these difficulties. Through this project, we have seen the need to adopt new techniques and technologies. We understand that we must abandon certain traditional agricultural practices to gain more.”
“Previously, we were using estimations because we did not know the exact size of the fields. For a one-hectare nursery, we used 100 kilograms of seeds,” he explains. “But with Feed the Future training, we learned how to measure our fields ourselves; we now know we can use just 20 kilograms of seeds in the same area."
According to Bakary Mariko, a maize producer from Zantiébougou, "With chemical fertilizer costing more and becoming increasingly unavailable, thanks to advice and training from Sènè Yiriwa, I startedproducing and using my own organic manure fertilizer. For my two hectares of land, I used about 200 carts of organic manure. This year, I hope to make a record harvest. According to [Mali’s national agricultural directorate], the average yield per hectare is 20-25 bags. I barely had 40 bags in previous years. However, this year, god willing, I hope to exceed 50 bags thanks to these efforts and the contribution of organic fertilizer."
Fatouma, Arouna, and Bakary are just three of the nearly 11,000 smallholder farmers who have learned new, more climate-smart practices from 80 Sènè Yiriwa-trained Village Extension Agents. Over the next three years, USAID will continue to empower producer organizations in Mali’s southern zone to adopt better technologies and practices; help raise awareness about best practices for sustainable intensification, natural resource management, and resilience; and support improved decision-making through simple digital solutions, data sharing, and analysis.
Feed the Future Mali Sènè Yiriwa in the southern zone is a five-year, USAID funded activity implemented by a consortium led by RTI International with the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO), North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), the Association des Organizations Professionnelles Paysannes (AOPP), the Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et de Recherche Appliquée (IPR-IFRA), the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), and Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF). Learn more here.
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