FAO small-scale agriculture project trains local farmers

A six-year small-scale agricultural project in Senegal, promoted by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation using Vietnamese technical experts, has trained farmers, introduced simple technologies and raised rice and vegetable yields in several villages. "The Vietnamese showed local farmers new techniques, such as how to plant oranges and mandarins along the ends of vegetable plots. The trees' roots grow under the rows of potato, onion and lettuce, catching water that seeps through the sand," the UN agency reported on Monday. Several of the Vietnamese live in rural communities and work alongside local farmers. They are in Senegal under the South-South Cooperation component of FAO's Special Programme for Food Security which operates in 66 poor, food-deficit countries, the UN agency said. They have introduced simple technologies and machines that don't need electricity or diesel motors, such as centrifugal honey extractors that are turned by hand and concrete beehives. "FAO encourages the use of simple technology that small-scale producers can repair themselves, such as inexpensive human-powered treadle water pumps, used widely in Asia and increasingly in Africa," the agency said. [The full story is available on http://www.fao.org/news/2002 ]