Senegal-Gambia Agro-Ecological Villages

This project seeks to enhance food security or access to safe nutritious and sufficient food reduce poverty and create sustainable livelihoods through agro-ecological farming. Agro-ecological farming applies ecological principles to the design and management of sustainable agriculture systems that may be based on traditional knowledge or alternative agriculture. The project beneficiaries are 2 100 subsistence farmers in the Gambia and 900 in Senegal living in ten vulnerable agrarian communities as well as 9 000 subsistence farmers located in surrounding communities. Some specific project objectives include: (i) training rural communities in Community Based Organisation and Participatory Planning for sustainable community development; (ii) developing the use of resource-efficient ecological farming methods and systems by women and men; and (iii) improving women and men farmers’ food security nutrition and ability to earn a living by improving access to better plant material resources for food fodder and soil management. This project is harmonized with national development and poverty reduction strategies including the Gambian and Senegal Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers the Gambian Vision 2020 the Senegalese Food Security Strategy and national objectives relating to agriculture and food security. The local partners for this project are the Agency of Village Support(AVISU) in the Gambia and the Cadre Locale de Concertation des Organisation de Producteurs (CLCOP) in Senegal.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (i) increased capacity and engagement of communities in equitable self-organization and proactive planning for sustainable community development; (ii) increased adoption of ecological farming and soil conservation methods by men and women in beneficiary communities; (iii) increased cultivation of a diversity of improved agricultural products increased use of sustainable agricultural inputs and ecological management techniques and increased research and problem solving capacity for on-farm challenges by men and women farmers in beneficiary communities; (iv) increased diversification of livelihood activities of men and women in beneficiary communities; and (v) reduction of local deforestation practices women’s labor burden and health risks from smoke inhalation.