Production and storage of hay to support the animals of the modern farm Souff, Louga region in Senegal
AREA:
Senegal – Louga region
LEAD PARTNER:
VSF Italia
FINANCING BODY:
Waldensian Evangelical Church, Call 2022
BUDGET:
21.466,39 €
DURATION:
12 months
MAIN GOAL:
Contribute to the sustainable reduction of the food and nutritional vulnerability of the modern farm Souff of Nguith, municipality of Dahra, Department of Linguère
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
1. Promote mowing and hay production practices more suited to the local context, at the modern farm Souff, to improve livestock nutrition;
2. Promotion of the circular economy and financial management of GIE Le Djolof.
BENEFICIARIES:
The direct beneficiaries of the project are the 30 members of GIE Le Djolof, of which 10 people trained in administrative and accounting management and 15 trained in the production and subsequent use and sale of hay.
Indirect beneficiary population is that of the Municipality of Dahra 32,941 (2013)
DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE:
The proposed action aims to make the modern farm Souff, created on the outskirts of the town of Dahra, Department of Linguère in Senegal, autonomous from the point of view of hay production, with funding from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in 2021 implemented by ARCS Colture Solidali https://www.arcsculturesolidali.org/progetti/souff-sostegno-e-cosviluppo-per-il-rafforzamento-della-comunita-di-linguere/ .
The Souff farm is managed by the GIE – “Le Djolof” Economic Interest Group, mixed, made up of 12 men and 18 women agro-pastoralists, 10 of whom are young people from the area. The farm, equipped with all the structures and tools necessary for livestock breeding and the production of vegetables and legumes, is built according to modern standards for sustainable and long-lasting farming and is adapted to the local geoclimatic context.
The farm was also designed respecting an agroecological model proposed by RESEDA Onlus http://www.resedaweb.org/salvaguai/index.htm. Since its creation, much has been done regarding the production of vegetables on the farm, but less attention has been paid to hay production. On the farm, in addition to sheep and small ruminants in general, on average around thirty, a horse and 3 donkeys are managed for transport.
For now, animal feed depends on external fiber supplies purchased on the market (permanent meadow hay, millet straw, peanut straw) deriving from the rainy season and it is always from this period that the animals are led out to pasture (period which occurs between the end of May and the first months of October). The project therefore aims to train the staff employed in the structure (10 people) in mowing, collection and drying of the available herb essences in order to improve the nutritional intake of the animals, all while completing the energy requirements with the sowing of hay of niebé on the irrigated part of the land.
The project will also focus on creating sales channels for good quality hay produced on the local market for the benefit of other farmers in the area. In this regard, to encourage the sale of hay at a local level and improve the economic margins of the farm, a training session on the managerial and administrative-accounting management of the farm will be carried out in the first months of the project and a subsequent follow-up of the activities production and loading-unloading of the income of the Souff farm, will be carried out in the following months.
The training activities will be carried out in conjunction with the operational partner Brooke Senegal who has an expertise on the production of red niebé in Senegal as well as other West Africa countries.
