PIONEER FARMERS

Group picture with many of the beneficiary women and other committed people

From October 27th to December 1st, 2020 we carried out a WeMakeIt campaign. With the support of the Impact Funds 2020 from WeMakeIt, we raised over CHF 68,000.

With this contribution we want to support 60 pioneer farmers in converting their fields from mono- to permaculture: Thousands of new trees, sustainable soil structure, diversity, healthy manual labor, better quality of life.

THANKS VERY MUCH

What we have achieved so far.

Success is contagious

The three most successful among the pioneer farmers in the village were selected, who will now be given a permanent position for three years in order to assist the other women farmers in converting the fields.

Image: Team WeMakeIt. Employment contracts with Koffi Attikpoglo, Alobandé Mignanou and Komlan Maneokpo under the supervision of Attisso the agricultural expert and Happy the sociologist).

Agricultural offensive

600,000 pineapple seedlings, 2,400 tree seedlings and 4,000 passion fruit plants will be planted in fields by 60 different farmers on almost 20 hectares of land this year.

Image: Preparing pineapple seedlings.

Extensive fields

Image: Surrounded pineapple field with fruit trees

Training cooperation with GIZ

A cooperation with the German GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation) could be initiated on site. This helps to initiate the necessary legal steps when setting up a cooperative. They also support us in training the farmers to be cooperative, in the processing and storage of pineapples and passion fruits, and they are at our side with the organic certification of the fields.

Image: Further training on the farm with GIZ

Resource-saving cooking

In 2022, a further CHF 15,000 will be spent on the procurement and introduction of the pyrolysis cookers and on building a studio for the production of bundles of wood. In this way, we enable more resource-saving and smoke-free cooking and produce valuable biochar, which we want to enrich with nutrients and bacteria and return to the soil.

Image: pyrolysis cooker in operation

Nutrients for the soil

Image: Ash from the pyrolysis cooker serves as a nutrient in the soil

The wemakeit campaign from December 2020

Thanks to smallholders in sustainable agriculture

Smallholders produce more than half of our food, are immensely important and have the potential to feed the world sustainably and thereby strengthen natural resources such as soil, water and climate. Unfortunately, especially in West Africa, there is often a lack of prospects for rural regions, access to education, health services, investment capital, locally adapted seeds, and secure land. Intensive, non-organic agriculture is replacing traditional cultivation methods. The soils are becoming impoverished, there is great poverty and rural exodus drives people to overcrowded cities. But there is huge potential and a way out of this vicious circle and that's where we start, in Donomadé, a small village in Togo.

Our goal

We want to support 60 pioneering farmers (38 women and 22 men) in the transition from mono- to permaculture. Over the course of three years we will work together to upgrade approx. 20 hectares of land with diversified fields rich in biomass, with thousands of new trees and with intensive humus build-up in the soil. This has a long-term influence on the sustainable cultivation of the fields, enables the farmers involved to have a significantly better income and promotes biodiversity. It also has a catalyzing effect on other farmers who will convert their fields to permaculture in the future.

We will also train and support these farmers in converting to cooking with pyrolysis ovens and provide the necessary infrastructure. The pressure on the wood in the adjacent protective forest is reduced, wood is used much more efficiently and the women are less exposed to the harmful smoke when cooking. In addition, the biochar obtained through pyrolysis can be returned to the soil.

With the “Happy Togo” association, we guarantee that the project will continue to be supported after these three years. We have been committed to the research and model farm in the village of Donomadé in Togo for several years. We are proud of the annual progress that we have developed together with the experts from the Togolese association «Étoile Verte» and implemented together with the local farmers.

I take part!

On November 9th at 2 p.m. we made it

200 donors | CHF 33 552