Rodale Institute Regenerative Agriculture Research Center teamed up with farmers' groups and government researchers in Senegal to promote regenerative agriculture to increase food sufficiency, lessen farmers’ dependence on external inputs, and improve soil quality.
Case Studies
Location: Keita Department, Niger
Since 1984 the Keita Rural Development Project has focused on restoring the area’s ecological balance and pursuing social and economic development. The project was critical in stemming ecosystem degradation resulting from climate change and human activities while improving livelihoods and increasing food production.
Location: Casamance, Senegal
An innovative community program supporting rural women’s associations boosts gender equality and provides resources that facilitate family and community well being.
Location: Uganda’s Lira and Oyam Districts and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North and South Kivu Provinces
As part of its food security and livelihood programs, Action Against Hunger (ACF-USA)* has organized seed fairs in rural areas of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide farmers with seeds. The fairs have been widely spread and had a great number of direct beneficiaries and vendors, successfully facilitating local agricultural production.
Location: Moshi, Hai, and Rombo districts, Tanzania
Himo Environmental Management Trust Fund has worked to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers facing low productivity and soil erosion on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Farmers have been trained in soil and water conservation techniques and built small rural infrastructures.
Location: Central Plateau, Burkina Faso
Since the early 1980s, farmers in the northern part of Burkina Faso’s Central Plateau have made significant investments in low-cost soil and water conservation techniques. These techniques greatly improved agricultural, social, economic and ecological conditions and reversed declining agricultural yields, migration, poverty, and environmental degradation.
Location: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
Orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties are poorly disseminated in Africa, but several important research-based initiatives are producing the crop and encouraging consumption to reduce undernourishment, especially Vitamin A Deficiency.
Location: Timbuktu Region, Mali
Northern Mali’s Timbuktu region is one of the most food insecure regions in the Sahelian nation. Agriculture depends on the floodwaters of the Niger River and highly variable rainfall that averages less than 200 mm per year. Annual rice yields average less than one ton per hectare, and irrigated rice yields average four tons per hectare. Using the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which requires wider spacing, transplants, and organic amendment such as manure or compost, the NGO Africare and local farmers have obtained yields as high as nine tons per hectare—more than twice the conventional irrigated rice in the area. Overall revenue from rice produced using SRI earned farmers double that of conventional irrigated rice.
Location: Minova Health Zone, DRC
Banana wilt is a devastating bacterial disease caused by the Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum bacteria. The wilt dries out the male bud and causes premature ripening of the banana plant’s fruits, making it impossible to consume or commercialize the product. In 2008 Action Against Hunger (ACF-USA) implemented a food security and livelihoods program to reduce wilt disease’s impact and propagation.
Location: West and Northwest Cameroon
Launched in West and Northwest Cameroon in 1999, the Agricultural and Tree Products Program is now working with over 10,000 farmers and 50 entrepreneurs in 485 communities. In addition to establishing more than 40 nurseries where tree propagation techniques are studied and disseminated among farmers, the program improves farmers’ incomes, the environment, and entrepreneurial opportunities.