A letter from one of our partners in Benin:
My name is Clémentine Sèbio. I am 42 years old and married with six children. I live in Gnonfihoué, a partner village of Dékpo Epicenter [with The Hunger Project-Benin].
I would like to tell you that I have much hope for the upcoming years to increase my harvest. As you probably know, we, as women, could only have limited access to land for our own farming. And we used to do with that. But, soil fertility decreases year after year. We women are always the first exposed to decreased harvests stemming from poor soil.
[Following agricultural training at the epicenter,] we opted for collecting household wastes to fertilize our lands. We would use baskets and other receptacles and then carry the waste products on our heads over the land, scattering them as we went. That way, the wastes are only spread on very limited plots. We see a significant difference compared to plots without wastes.
In addition, we know from experience that chemical fertilizers, when used, induce expected results only when organic matters are present in the soil!
Now, with the epicenter initiative “Clean Villages, Fertile Farms,” I am hopeful that I will have better harvests because I can use the services of the epicenter youth partners, who have been supported by THP-Benin in obtaining a motorbike equipped with a rickshaw. This will definitely make the waste transport easier. I’m sure that this will improve food production on my three ‘kanti’ plot (1 kanti = 400 square meters) during the next agricultural season.
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April 13, 2012
