AGRICULTURE
OF THE WORLD - THE DOGON COUNTRY
Somewhere
in West Africa, in Mali, between the Niger River and the border of Burkina Faso,
there is a region with a Sahelian climate, where life is hard. Yet, there is a
people with such rich culture, art and craftsmanship that many Western
collectors know about it, often without ever having been there.
Picture: http://www.pedagogie.ac-nantes.fr/servlet/com.univ.collaboratif.utils.LectureFichiergw?ID_FICHIER=1302900519082&ID_FICHE=1317055908671
It's
also one of the regions of the world where people of different religions
cohabit in perfect harmony. Islam is the most represented religion, but there
are also many Christians and Animists. This religious mixture is present in
towns, villages, and sometimes even within the same family.
This
is the Dogon Country.
In
this region, life is rough. Access to water is one of the keys to subsistence.
Social
life is organized around men, shepherds, hunters, gatherers, caretakers of
palaver and tradition, and women, farmers, mothers, housewives, responsible for
water and education of children, and sometimes sellers of their meager surplus
production or products of their own handicraft.
Agriculture
is made up of small, fragmented plots separated by small track trails. The work
is done by women, by hand, helped by the children when they are big enough.
Irrigation,
if necessary, requires great effort, as water must be fetched first, then used
for irrigation. It's only possible when water points are close enough.
It
is a rudimentary, subsistence agriculture, of which only a very small part can
be sold to generate income. The bulk goes directly to the family's diet.
A local association, set up in 2005 by Dogons who felt concerned about the
future of their people, is in charge of building projects to improve their
living conditions through the improvement of living and working conditions of
Dogon women. They are the pillar of this endearing people.
ARAF-Plateau
Dogon (Action for the Strengthening of Feminine Activities in the Dogon
Country) is an association of 80 groups of 25 to 40 women each, to support them
by education, training, technical support, supply of basic tools for fieldwork,
the elaboration of local projects (one of the projects in progress is the
creation of a workshop for the transformation of shea oil to butter to sale it
for cosmetic uses).
Permanent
actions include training in agroecology techniques. In particular, one of the
objectives is to promote the modernization of agriculture, thus the improvement
of the income of Dogon families, through the sale of their surplus production.
But the lack of training, the lack of equipment and the lack of means are
amongst the reasons for the orientation towards organic farming.
It
is essential to modernize agriculture through methods and techniques that
improve productive capacity without, however, creating dependence on inputs or
tools and machines that are currently neither possible nor priority.
The
Dogon agriculture must remain autonomous because the necessary investments,
which are many, must be reserved for basic infrastructures.
ARAF's
aim is to improve the productive capacity of the Dogon country's agriculture,
but with a minimum investment, since the first necessary investment is the
creation of a network of access to water which will allow villages and their
inhabitants to improve their autonomy, to gain in hygiene, and above all to
stop devoting half of their time (women and children mainly) to the manual transport
of water.
And
that, the access to water is a probably long-term, but so important project!
The
Sahelian climate includes a rainy season, especially during the months of June
to September, during which it rains in abundance, which makes possible the
reconstitution of soil reserves, and allows certain crops adapted to this
climate.
One
can imagine the creation of a network of canals to lead the water from the
Niger River to these withdrawn areas. But it would be Pharaonic works, long and
extremely expensive.
However,
the creation of reservoirs and boreholes, much more accessible and requiring
lighter budgets, would enable more permanent agriculture, a great improvement
in food security, and a much higher level of income. By the way, this would
also allow access to subjects, so obvious to Westerners, as health or hygiene
services, and thus a clear improvement in the living conditions of the Dogon
people.
A
few months ago, through social networks, I was approached by the president of
ARAF, Issiaka Konaté, to participate in a humanitarian work, through an aid in
the implementation of agroecology techniques. I have no "vocation" to
that, and in fact, I never did it. My life is organized around my work, which
is a big-time job, as all farmers know, my family to whom I owe a minimum of
presence and support, and my ancillary activities, as is the case with this
blog.
We
talked a lot with Issiaka. He told me about the life of the Dogon people and
the difficulties of this life, the many projects that are still facing a
recurring problem of financing.
Tourism was an important source of income. But since 2012 and the attacks of jihadist terrorism, this source has disappeared, blocking or delaying many projects.
Tourism was an important source of income. But since 2012 and the attacks of jihadist terrorism, this source has disappeared, blocking or delaying many projects.
I
soon realized that the political and economic situation in Mali, as well as the
jihadist attacks in the region, complicate Western actions and NGO
interventions.
Unable
to intervene directly, I decided to bring my little piece of sand to this
fragile building.
I
therefore proposed to Issiaka a text, illustrated with many photos, to explain
the situation, and to ask the readers for economic aid.
The
director of a French NGO, Gérard Cinquin, from DNPLS (From the North for the
South), who works with Africa, helped us with his experience, his wise advice
and the layout work, and especially through the availability of his donation
platform.
Then,
through my network of contacts and friends, I was able to start the work of a
collaboration project with a Spanish NGO, Madre Coraje, who devotes a large
part of its activity to recovering used clothes and objects to send them, in
Spain and throughout the world, to communities in fragile situations who can
either use them for their own needs or make them a source of income through
resale.
And
this is precisely why we launched this project: importing used clothes into
Mali, so that sorting and selling generate, on the one hand, jobs and therefore
income for a certain number of families, and especially income to finance
educational and development projects. It seems simple when you have managed to
make contacts.
Starting
from this idea, everything is complicated. The project is progressing, but many
things have had to be put in place, and investments have to be made that, for
now, are putting in imbalance the ARAF budget.
It
was necessary to create a company with the possibility to import, trade, and
generate profits, in order to transfer them entirely to the association ARAF
(non-profit association).
It
was necessary to find carriers, and to solve the problem of transit from
Senegal (Mali has no access to the sea and therefore must pass through the port
of Dakar).
The
sorting centers must be prepared and a network set up to handle the resale of
clothing and the logistics necessary for their distribution.
Much
of these costs has already been borne by the association, its members and a few
benefactors.
The
project opens up a wide range of possibilities, but for now it requires finding
the financial supplement that will enable ARAF to self-finance itself and
finance its projects.
This
complement is very reasonable, seen from Europe, since it is less than 7.000 €
(6.852 € to be exact or 8.200 US$), but seen from Mali, it is difficult to
find, either in the form of loan or in the form of donation.
The
banking system in Mali does not allow this type of project to thrive.
As
you can see, Dogon Country agriculture needs a lot of investment, mostly low
cost, because the projects are carried out by the people themselves. Now the
development of this agriculture depends on the development of this people.
But
this development, so that it is sustainable, must be able of being autonomous,
and therefore self-financing. This is the main goal of the project with Madre
Coraje.
From
then on, everything will be in the hands of the Dogons themselves, and that is
what is most important.
The
purpose of this blog is not there, but just for once, I need you to be able to
concretize this project. If you wish to participate, you can donate through the
DNPLS online platform, indicating ARAF DOGON.
Your
participation may also be limited to spreading this article widely. The more
sensitized people there are, the more opportunities there will be for solving
this small, but serious problem.
And
think that a like is good, but it does not diffuse. A sharing is much better.
Photos by courtesy of Issiaka Konaté
Very inspiring post you dropped here for the readers. I know about Mali, the great natural place. Anyway the agriculture of the world details you explained in this post was very interesting and significant. The world food chain is getting centralized day after day that leads to the world food store in a great threat. So, it's time to think about the implementation of decentralization ideas that can create a pioneering open-source community with a shared vision to design and build an ecosystem of DAO-like Decentralised Autonomous Supply Chain Organisations (DASCO’s) that remove powerful centralised authorities from global food supply chains.
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