Despite many challenges for our affiliates in West Africa, IUF national coordination committees are committed to making progress in protecting vegetable growers and the environment across the region through our Ecosanté program. Key achievements from 2021 include:
- In Burkina Faso, the IUF coordination committee conducted field visits to Bobo-Dioulasso in the Hauts-Bassins region to familiarize vegetable growers with agroecology and to demonstrate the possibility of growing crops without pesticides; the committee noted a significant increase in the number of vegetable growers such as KUINIMA group investing in organic production
- In Senegal where cases of poisoning among vegetable growers were numerous a few years ago, the IUF coordination committee carried out a campaign using safety data sheets to track the use of pesticides and remedial measures needed; the committee observed vegetable growers’ increased reliance on the Labour Inspectorate
- In Mali, the IUF coordination committee organized its first training programme for 200 vegetable growers on the fight against pesticides focused first on best practices for pesticide use including the challenges of wind and heat; a second phase focused on alternatives to pesticides including compost and natural methods, with all training sessions available on the vegetable growers’ WhatsApp network in Bamako
- Also in Mali, the IUF coordination committee educated rice producers to encourage adoption of an intensified rice cultivation system which uses less urea than conventional practice
- In Togo, IUF coordination committee vegetable growers are no longer using pesticides and have focused their efforts on organic farming; through the use of these methods, and despite COVID-19 and the closure of land borders, growers were able to increase their harvests and improve their average monthly income by 6% from 2020 to 2021
Abdou Diaouga, Sub-regional Coordinator for IUF Africa, stated, “One of the fundamental objectives for the IUF is to build the capacity of workers around food safety so that they can produce safe and healthy food. Undoubtedly, the Ecosanté experience brings quantitative and qualitative improvements.”
