2016
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Date photo taken
09 June 2016
Country of origin
Burkina Faso
Region
Africa
Photo credit
James Souder
Themes
Food, Water
Description
Media caption: Etienne Tiendrébeogo explains the benefits of half-moon farming that is pictured behind him in his field in Yé, Burkina Faso. MCC photo/James Souder
Extra information: Farmers in Yé, Burkina Faso have been trained by MCC agriculture partner Office of Development of Evangelical Churches (Office de Développement des Églises Evangélique or ODE) to use half-moon and Zai farming techniques which capture rainwater during storms. These conservation agriculture techniques help control erosion, improve soil fertility, and increase water retention in the soil. These images show half-moon and Zai techniques in action, both before and after a large rainstorm. (MCC Photo/James Souder)
Pictured: Etienne Tiendrébeogo
Interview with Etienne Tiendrébeogo (farmer in the bright multi-colored shirt):
My name is Etienne Tiendrébeogo. I'm married. I have two wives and eight children. My oldest son is 24 and is finished with high school while the youngest is 7 years old and is enrolled in primary school. I have six boys and two girls. All my children are enrolled in school.
We received training with ODE; it allowed us to completely change our way of cultivating food. We changed our planting practices and received new seeds that mature more quickly and allow for higher returns. We practice the Zai and half-moons as new farming techniques that allow us to cope with erosion, poor soil, and drought.
Before the project we grew without regard to soil conservation or rainfall irregularities. This resulted in smaller amounts of food after harvest and did not allow us to meet our food needs.
These new practices - half moons and Zai - brought the solution.
Regarding the positive impact of these practices on the family, now the whole family eats well and we have enough food for everyone. We grow cash crops like sesame and we sell extra vegetable garden produce. The profits are used to send our children to school. In the past, we used to sell food saved for our family to pay for school fees, which sometimes meant we did not have enough to eat. But with ODE's technique to produce cash crops in addition to food crops to meet financial needs, we have developed into a harmonized and balanced family. Thanks to new farming techniques from ODE, our family spends less time working in the field and we receive larger crop yields than in the past.
As producers, we plan to become self-sufficient by creating a food security plan and producing beyond our household consumption, selling extra food to make a profit. ODE has helped set up seed banks who grow and save seeds. With this strategy, our seeds will be renewed every year and we will not have any breaks in accessing seeds for planting.
ODE gave us training on the nutritional values which the body needs and gave us food ration recommendations per person. This allows us to know in advance if we have enough food saved for the whole year or not. If not, we take the measures needed to deal with the situation in proper time. Before ODE gave this training, I did not save enough food for my family to eat for the year. Now I save at least 22 sacks of grain, which will last the entire year for my family of 11 people.
Before the ODE program we did not eat many vegetables. We just ate vegetables occasionally. But with the program, we have constant access to vegetables, and sell the surplus. We also save extra vegetables to meet health needs in case of illness. We noticed that vegetables help maintain a healthy growth for our children, and that they fall sick less and grow rapidly when eating vegetables. Vegetables are not only solving the problem of malnutrition, but are a beneficial source of food that our family can consume at any time.
The favorite vegetables for my family are tomatoes and cabbage.
When we first heard about half-moons, we doubted their effectiveness to get us out of the famine. But through our experience, we are delighted to use the new practices because everything went well and it did not cost any extra money. Now I teach other farmers these techniques, even those who did not participate in the ODE trainings. We do not need to use any chemical inputs because we use organic fertilizers from our livestock.
Here is the procedure for creating a half-moon:
1. Find the water slope, or the direction water will flow when it rains.
2. Draw a 4-meter line and put a 2-meter rope in the middle of the line. Create a curved line connecting the two ends of the line. The curved side must be downhill from the straight side.
3. Dig the soil inside the half-moon between 15 to 30 cm.
4. Pile the soil on the edge of the arc at a height of 5 to 10 cm. (For extra support, put rocks on the curved edge.)
5. Put a pile of organic manure inside the half-moon.
6. Mix the manure into the soil.
7. Plant the seeds after it rains.
We are starting to plant moringa this year. We have already consumed moringa sauce but we do not have the plant at home. To consume moringa, we boil the leaves into a sauce and eat it with to or rice. We can also dry the leaves in the shade and pound the leaves into a powder that we add to dishes.