Media Contact: Lindsay Cobb
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Senegalese Farmers Plant Themselves out of Poverty in Three Years
Trees for the Future farmers graduate from sustainable ag program
February 15, 2019 (Silver Spring, MD) – Trees for the Future (TREES) honored 108 Kedougou, Senegal farmers in a graduation ceremony last month. The graduation recognized the farmers’ successful implementation of Trees for the Future’s Forest Garden Approach – a regenerative agriculture method that uses agroforestry to revitalize degraded lands and improve the lives of farmers and their families.
The graduating farmers’ Forest Gardens decreased soil erosion, improved soil quality, increased crop yields, and increased incomes by an average of 400%.
“The graduates are happy with their results,” said TREES West Africa Regional Director Mohamed Traore. “Their newfound ability to go to take their produce to market year round greatly contributed to the achievement of food security and this is a first in the region for the number of trees planted.”
In total, the Kedougou-based program participants planted more than 250,000 trees between June 2015 and December 2018.
Local representatives from the Water and Forest Services and the Peace Corps attended the ceremony, as well as the Mayor of Bendafassi Commune. Traore says the Mayor hopes to see even more women join the program in the future. Of the 108 graduates, 27 were women.
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Trees for the Future is working to end hunger and poverty for smallholder farmers through revitalizing degraded lands. Learn more about Trees for the Future and see their latest data in the TREES 2018 Impact Report.