Project Irrigation Initiative

Background Information

Project Irrigation Initiative will provide a reliable, year-round water source and irrigation system for four of the most knowledgeable and motivated farmers in the department of Saraya. Within the region of Kedougou, this department has many farmers interested in establishing orchards and expanding their dry-season gardening, but most lack the knowledge of low-external input methods to expand these activities themselves. Irrigation systems will allow the farmers to expand not only the size of their orchards, but the activities within them.

The farmers' villages of Diakhaba, Pondala, Faraba, and Sanela, are situated around the departmental capital of Saraya, which has experienced recent growth and investment from newly established mining operations. While Saraya is a fertile area with annual rainfall well above the national average, fruit and vegetable production in the area pales in comparison the other departments of Kedougou. Senegal is considered a food deficit country, unable to feed its own population and at the mercy of foreign markets. Considered a vulnerable area by the World Food Programme (WFP), the Kedougou region receives food subsidies from programs like WFP's Food-for-Education and Food- for-Work program. According to a recent local survey supported by UNICEF, the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (i.e. wasting) is 10 percent for children under 2 years of age in the region of Kedougou, with higher rates of stunting and malnutrition, levels considered serious by the World Health Organization (WHO). Thus, promoting fruit and vegetable production could dramatically increase the food security and health of the population in the department of Saraya.

Despite the long-term issues of environmental degradation and contamination, international mining companies offer the benefits of increased employment and nearby markets. Mining companies, such as MDL, used to fly their produce down from the capital, Dakar, over 600 miles away. However, with the help of area Peace Corps volunteers, a couple of mining companies are now purchasing produce from local-area growers and transporting it back to the mining camps. All of this new investment in the area has spurred population growth; as a result, demand for produce is much greater than the local supply.

Poor roads, hilly terrain, a lack of transportation, health care, and communication have all contributed to the geographic isolation and relatively slow development of the region of Kedougou, the poorest administrative district in Senegal. With some of the densest forest cover in Senegal, the region is rapidly thinning due to frequent forest fires, the clearing of land for agricultural use, and the use of wood fuels (e.g. cooking). The decrease in land cover has negatively impacted rainfall, agricultural production, and contributed to the loss of habitat for endangered species, such as chimpanzees.

Project Protocol

Sina Danfakha, Sadio Mady Keita, Cissé Mady Singoura, and Fawa Mady Danfakha all live in different villages within 40km of each other. These farmers are considered tree experts in their villages, employing multiple agroforestry technologies in their orchards, after having worked with Agroforestry PCVs for nearly 4 years. Per Peace Corps referral, these farmers have recently been approached by Wula Nafa, a USAID natural resource management initiative, and Trees for the Future to help in their extension efforts as well.

Each of these four farmers approached us individually to express their interest in digging a well within their orchards to allow them to increase production, and to work with various women's groups to garden within their already well-built fences. Each had slightly different ideas about the best way to set up an irrigation system, but through conversations with the four farmers, we settled on the best, most cost-effective system, which will obviously be tailored to the terrain of each field.

With the help of the Peace Corps Partnership Program funds, we will dig wells in the orchards, install pumps, and construct small water towers, allowing the farmers to water trees at the far corners of their orchards with garden hose. These orchards will serve as excellent demonstration sites for farmers from surrounding villages, as well as gardens for local women's groups.

The majority of the community contribution for this project will come in the form of in-kind contributions. Each well will take an estimated fifteen days to dig, and the digger will need the help of three men for that entire period. In addition, the team will bring sand and gravel to the well site to mix the cement for lining the well. They will also be responsible for building a table on which the system of barrels will be raised out of locally found materials. In summary, the farmers will contribute digging labor, food and shelter for the expert well digger, sand and gravel for cement mixing, and aid in the construction of the water tower. In addition, they will contribute 10% of the project costs in cash.

In addition, the farmers will also be constructing tree nurseries to expand their orchards this year, and protecting the out-planted trees with locally made fences. In the long term, they will work with women's groups to expand good gardening techniques within their fields, with the use of their water sources.

Action Plan

Phase Action Parties Responsible

Phase 1 Purchase materials in Kedougou and transport to each of the four sites.

Phase 2 Beginning in Diakhaba, and working outward from Kedougou, the well digger will excavate the hole until he finds water. Professional digger plus team of four laborers from each village.

Phase 3 A team will come in with their molds to extend the well five meters below the water table.

Phase 4 Once each well is dug, pumps will be purchased in Kedougou (motor pump for one farmer, hand pumps for the other three farmers) and transported to the four villages.

Phase 5 Tables will be constructed adjacent to the wells.

Phase 6 A welder will be brought to the villages to connect the three barrels and attach a faucet to the bottom of one of them.

Phase 7 Farmers will be ready to outplant this years' trees and irrigate them using the new system.

Phase 8 When the rainy season ends, farmers and women's groups will begin their dry season gardens, watering with the new water source.

Technical Description

The most technical portion of the project will be the establishment of the wells. Given the variety of terrain, each well will be different, as will its placement within the orchard. For each orchard, a relatively high and central location has been identified. Villagers will aid a professional digger from GADEC in the construction of the well, which will be dug to approximately five meters below the water table.

For Sadio Mady Keita, Cissé Mady Singoura, and El Hadj Fawa Mady Danfakha, a hand pump will be purchased to extract water from the well. For Sina Danfakha, a motor pump will be purchased to extract water from the well, since he has more available funds to contribute.

A table will be made using local materials next to the well at a height of two meters, to ensure enough pressure to carry water 100 meters with 25mm hose (a table height and hose diameter recommended by Alioune Diouf, technician for the Israeli irrigation project, TIPA).

A system of three oil barrels will be placed on top of the tables. They will be connected with pipe by a local welder in order to share pressure. A tap, or robinet, will be connected to the lowest barrel, which will fit the hose. Each farmer will be equipped with hose clamps so the hose can be taken on and off, allowing them to fill watering cans next to the well to water gardens near to the well. If gardens are located far from the well, the watering cans can obviously be filled with the hose.

The systems have been designed to facilitate the future addition of drip irrigation systems. For a materials cost of 125,000 FCFA plus transport and minimal installation costs, a drip irrigation system could be attached to the barrel water tower.

Until those drip systems are installed, gardens will be watered with watering cans. The orchard owners will continue to work with the women they already are within their orchards, and will also continue their own extensive gardening practices. The 100m of hose purchased for each system will allow them to also make their water source available for women who have existing gardens surrounding the orchards (a feature common to three of the four sites).

Project Goals

The ultimate goal of this project is simple, and the outcome sustainable: to increase levels of fruit and vegetable production. A long-term increase in production, enabled by a permanent water source, will improve the diet and health in the four villages while also increasing the income of not only the four farmers, but also those who collaborate with them to sell to international mining companies working in the area.

The orchards in which the irrigation systems are implemented will serve as model fields, integrating a variety of agroforestry (live fencing, intercropping, wood lots, and erosion control) and irrigation technologies, as well as gardening techniques. The four farmers responsible for those fields will inform, demonstrate and train other people in their villages about integrated farming and help them establish similar sites.

As a result of the increased knowledge and access to water, gardening production will double within two years and irrigation will speed orchard production. Secondary benefits of the project include the increased economic value of trees, local understanding of deforestation, and increased food security.

As the irrigation project is being implemented, PCVs Andy Jondahl and Aaron Cohen will be working with farmers in the Department of Saraya to form an official federation to collectively negotiate with locally-operating mining companies and for the sale of produce, creating an immediate market for the increased production resulting from the project. Bassari Mining and Arcelor Mittal have expressed interest in buying from local farmers; whereas, MDL is already purchasing produce from Kedougou-based farmers.

The farmers have begun communicating with each other, and hope to soon formalize their relationship into a farmers' federation to exchange technical advice and to increase their market power.