Vincent Favreau is a market gardener who has been practising organic farming and distributing his produce via short supply chains for more than fifteen years. Valentin Beauval is a retired seed farmer and agronomist. He is involved in numerous networks supporting agroecology in France, West Africa and Madagascar. Both men are from the Anjou region in France, and in February, they travelled to Mauritania to meet with women market gardeners supported by GRET.
As part of the Résanut project to improve the resilience of vulnerable populations in terms of food and nutritional security, since 2014, GRET has been supporting farmers in three communes in the Guidimakha region: Arr, Ajar and Ould Mbony. This region, located in the south of Mauritania, is marked by a high level of food insecurity, despite its significant agropastoral potential.
GRET’s teams provide their support to groups of women market gardeners seeking to improve food for their families by diversifying produce and prioritising fresh food. They also help them to develop autonomous economic activity within their household, and have even set up a space for collaboration between women beyond the framework of the family home.
GRET proposes technical and organisational support, and empowers local framers to decide on their own activities and necessary investments. Frequent peer discussions make it possible to share practices and find collective solutions for the problems encountered.
This is the context in which the two Anjou farmers, Vincent Favreau and Valentin Beauval, travelled to the Guidimakha region in early February to talk to the women market gardeners supported by GRET.
Numerous subjects were covered during these discussions: soil fertility management (use of animal manure and green fertilizers); management of cultivated biodiversity (crop combinations, crop rotations) and of irrigation water (frequency of watering, techniques to reduce water requirements); and lastly, attacks on crops (prevention and use of bio-pesticides).
Continuing to grow knowledge mutually
Vincent Favreau and Valentin Beauval observed the commitment and motivation of the men and women farmers they met with, and the agroecological dimension of their current practices. Very few chemical pesticides or synthetic fertilizers are used in this zone. The two men encouraged GRET’s teams to continue their efforts to support and strengthen the emerging farmers’ organisation and enable women market gardeners to find their own agroecological solutions to the constraints they encounter.
During this visit, workshops bringing together women from different villages were facilitated by the two French farmers and the GRET advisory team. One participant, a woman from the village of Bouguirbè in the commune of Arr, told us: “This meeting has enabled us to get to know each other and realise we are practising market gardening differently in each group, and especially that we can learn from each other. For example, I didn’t know about the aubergine-salad combination presented by the group of women market gardeners who hosted us. We would like to continue holding these discussion sessions regularly, with the help of the GRET advisor, to continue to grow our knowledge mutually.”
For their part, Vincent Favreau and Valentin Beauval highlighted the advantages available to women farmers in the Guidimakha region in terms of market gardening. The following are among the main elements that drew their attention:
- substantial available quantities of organic manure, which is vital for practising agroecological market gardening. Given the large number of grazing herds present in the region, this cost-free organic matter is often easy to collect;
- a high level of biodiversity in the sectors, and interesting combined crop practices in individual plots;
- trough/micro-ridge practices tested in several sectors with a view to saving water, put in place following support provided by the GRET advisory team;
- low quantity of pesticides currently used by the farmers in this landlocked Sahelian region;
- the skills demonstrated by numerous women, some of whom have been growing diverse market gardening crops in the cold season for more than 20 years;
- the support provided by the three GRET agricultural advisors, in both technical and organisational terms, seems to be highly appreciated;
- the obvious desire of the women in numerous groups to meet and work together in the various sectors, and to have discussions with neighbouring groups.
After one week of meetings in the various villages, the visitors from Anjou facilitated a discussion workshop on agroecological market gardening, with participation from farmer representatives, the decentralised Mauritanian technical services, and teams from GRET and other NGOs working in the Guidimakha region.
This action was carried out as part of the Résanut project, which is funded by the European Union, and which will come to an end in April 2018. Complementary funding from the French committee for international solidarity (CFSI) (in French only) and the Fondation de France will make it possible to continue this support service until the end of 2018. The GRET teams are working on finding additional resources that will make it possible to consolidate this service and extend it to other communes and other farmers’ groups in the Guidimakha region who have already requested it.
