SummaryOn March 19-20, 2009, 27 men and women with varying degrees of gardening experience, but mutual enthusiasm, met in the Cour Bombey Banana Plantation; one of Senegal’s largest agricultural operations that has grown from a single orchard plot more than 10 years ago through proper management and long-term planning. The scale and success of the site inspired participants to think big and beyond traditional agricultural practices.
Context
 The southern region of Kolda in Senegal has superior soil conditions and ample rainfall making it ideal for gardening and agricultural practices. Local farmers grow traditional crops such as corn, millet, and peanuts largely for domestic consumption. Only a comparable minority plant fruit trees such as mango and cashew apple despite considerable interest. Outside of potential profit, planting these and other trees is vital to soil health, provides wind break and begins to address increasing food security concerns.
PCVs have long identified the interest for more technical knowledge of fruit tree orchard planting and management throughout the region, and more recently, realized the insufficiency of local training resources. Thus, PCVs recruited Peace Corps Training Director, Demba Sidibe to facilitate a training with added emphasis on medium to large-scale orchard planting, not strictly tree grafting skills like several similar trainings previously done throughout the country. Mr. Sidibe is a nationally respected expert in the field with intimate knowledge of the Ziguinchor and Kolda regions. Local citrus expert and PCV Counterpart, Demba Balde was also instrumental in organizing the event and providing a local contact for participants after the event.
The Approach
 Each PCV identified up to two participants for the training who had previously shown interest and motivation in their work, rather than strictly having experience. Most PCVs in the region accompanied their villagers to the training to act as a resource when they returned to their communities. The intent was to build the capacity of the participants who could then independently empower other Senegalese providing sustainability and ownership of gardening activities in their areas.
A Peace Corps Small Projects Assistance (SPA) Grant was approved to cover the cost of the participants’ travel, food and technical materials for the two-day training. Each participant made an individual contribution to be involved, and the community of Cour Bombey generously provided housing for all participants and PCVs; enthusiastic to help and be involved in such a project.
Day 1: Participants received an extensive tour and history of the Banana Plantation from a lead technician followed by a discussion of medium to large-scale orchard operations. PCVs invited a representative of the NGO Wula Nafaa, to speak to the participants about their local work in citrus orcharding and establishing field-to-market channels which gave participants an idea of newly-established local resources.
Day 2: Participants focused on technical skills acquisition. They collectively discussed benefits of and practiced making a tree nursery. This activity was followed by an extensive tree grafting presentation and practice, which was videotaped and will be edited into a training video for other PCVs to use in the field. Each participant was able to take home their grafted mango tree as an example for potential future trainings.
Results
 Since the initial training was scheduled far enough in advance of the annual rainy season, participants and PCVs had sufficient time to return to their respective communities to share and put to use the information they gained. To date, PCVs report that participants in at least eight villages have formally presented their new technical knowledge to members of their communities; with many more having individually made use of the acquired skills within women’s groups, community gardens and individual plots.
Additionally, three participants from the Arrondisement of Dabo went one step further, replicating the training in its entirety in May 2009. The three participants worked together to identify men and women from nine surrounding villages with gardening and small-scale orchard experience. Dabo area PCVs helped coordinate materials beforehand, but the day of the training, the three men expertly facilitated both grafting and pepeinere activities they had previously learned, holding a captive audience for more than five hours. An area Agriculture PCV lead a discussion educating participants about profit potential by comparing price per kilogram and labor input in traditional farming versus incredible opportunities in citrus such as mandarin and orange – crops they’d never considered. Participants asked questions, sought advice from each other and at the end of the day, adamantly requested additional training opportunities which are being organized.
Next Steps
Despite interest and most recently, initiative to use these skills and knowledge, access to quality and quantity of citrus seeds is limited greatly to the Ziguinchor region where Peace Corps Volunteers are not currently working. Creating channels both to procure seed and/or young trees, and to then sell the product in several years is the next major step for those who are willing to make the investment. Peace Corps is addressing this by reinstalling 3rd Year Agriculture/Agroforestry Volunteers in the Ziguinchor region, which will no doubt prove invaluable to the success of citrus orcharding in the many of the southern Senegal regions.
In the Arronidsement of Dabo, the replicated training opened serious dialogue among local farmers for potential investment in a small-scale cooperative orchard operation. The men and women have begun discussing an informal five-year plan that would put to use their grafting skills having learned that grafted citrus fruit pulls a higher profit per kilogram at market. In the meantime, PCVs are actively organizing additional learning opportunities in individual communities and potentially region-wide following the harvesting season.
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