The increasingly urbanized youth are often reluctant to help with digging and hoeing, even during the holidays, forcing some families to pay day workers to do the job.
“I cultivate a much smaller area than in the past, because I have to pay people to work my land,” said farmer Catherine Badiane, in her 50s, who lost her husband years ago. “Each year I pay people to work my land. My sons, most of whom live in Dakar, refuse to come back to Casamance to farm. When I ask them to come, they say they are busy...
“My produce is not even enough to cover myself and my grandchildren for eight months. I really should be able to feed the family year round by farming. I have had to start trading in Ziguinchor [Casamance’s main city] market so we can get by. This year there was plenty of rain, but I did not grow much; I just cannot afford the workers.”
Farming amid fighting |
Confronting aid challenges in volatile Casamance |
One landmine gone, hectares of farmland gained |
Residents warn of attacks’ impact |
Despite poverty and unemployment in the region finding non-family members to work the farm is not always easy, residents said. Lined up along a road on the outskirts of Ziguinchor almost daily – especially during the rainy season – are women waiting for workers.
Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN |
WFP and the Casamance NGO PADERCA are assisting villagers save rice fields from salt water |
Paddy fields
Abdel Kader Coly is an agriculture expert with PADERCA (Projet d'Appui au Développement Rural en Casamance). PADERCA, along with WFP, assists communities in reviving rice fields engulfed by salt water. He said it was important to lure youths back to the land.
“We are investing a lot in agricultural infrastructure… The process of retrieving these valleys is under way, ” Coly said. “Eventually we will come to a point where a lot of land will have been restored for use. But most people work with traditional tools. The problem is that the population that could farm this land are aging, and we find fewer and fewer youths doing this work.”
He said mechanization was essential. “That could mean ox-drawn carts, tractors – but we really must think seriously about mechanization… to really succeed in developing the land. Were this realized, this region alone could cover not only the rice needs of Casamance but of other regions as well. We could contribute significantly to rice self-sufficiency in Senegal.”
But those with other opportunities appear reluctant to go back to the land: “Farming with the `kadiandou’ [traditional long shovel] is tough, especially in the rice fields during the rainy season. You expend a lot of energy, sometimes to the point of becoming ill,” said Matar Diémé, 27, a builder’s apprentice in Ziguinchor.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions