Millennium Villages Blog

Reception of the Director General

On Monday 22 January, 2010, the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Jacques Diouf, visited the Community Garden of Gabane Wolof located in the Potou Millennium Village cluster. This garden is established by the Millennium Village project and used by FAO to implement its GIPD (Gestion Intégrée de la Production et des Déprédateurs) Program. Mr Diouf was accompanied by the FAO Representative in Senegal and his Assistant in charge of the Program; he received a warm welcome from the acting Cluster Manager and the Agriculture and Environment Coordinator of the Millennium Village project, together with the Management Committee of the Garden. This organization of producers, who received training in GIPD field schools, is now applying the knowledge and leveraging it around its farming areas.

Following the reception of the Director-General, the Millennium Village project staff presented the project, its approach, achievements and challenges in the area of agriculture and food security. In particular, they emphasized the ongoing effort to help producers acquire some autonomy regarding the procurement of seeds, inputs and agricultural material through a revolving funds established by the project. The alternative developed to offset rainfall deficit in this semi-arid zone is the promotion of an adapted irrigation system that allows all year round cropping through market gardening. The technology is composed of a well, a solar pump, and a main tank connected to secondary tanks in the individual plots. Technical support is provided by both the Millennium Village project and GIPD/FOA.

A Producer explaining the process of tomato farming

The National Program Coordinator of the GIPD discussed the objectives and methodologies of the CEP/GIPD approach. He presented the intervention strategy in Senegal and the sub region through the establishment of field schools to train technicians and producers. He also gave information on agro-ecological zones where program activities are implemented and ongoing partnerships with state structures, NGOs and producer organizations for good grounding of the program.

A CEP/GIPD facilitator, who also works as a technician in the Office of Rural Development, explained the process of training the facilitators and the establishment of a national network of facilitators in order to facilitate a good synergy of action to leverage the CEP/GIPD approach. He took the opportunity to mention the example of the complementary actions taken on the ground by the GIPD Project (FAO) and the Millennium Villages project (a joint initiative between UNDP, The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Millennium Promise), which are both pushing for a greater impact on their beneficiaries.

A producer explaining the training methodology

The President of Women’s Group began her presentation by warmly thanking both the Director General for visiting and Millennium Village project and GIPD for their valuable support. She mentioned that this technical knowledge enables them to be well positioned in the vegetables market in Potou. A young woman described the process of training in the CEP as well the various themes they discussed.

Following these exchanges, the Director-General visited the plots and spoke with many producers, who explained the farming processes of tillage using base dressings, nursery techniques, crop monitoring and pest management.

Group photo

The Director-General FAO indicated his appreciation of the presentations and the opportunity to visit the farming plots. He thanked the producers for the warm welcome and encouraged them to stay in this dynamic market garden production. He also expressed his deep interest in the GIPD – Millennium Village project collaboration approach, and wished that this approach be strengthened and used as a model for agricultural development programs in other African countries in order to enable farmers to acquire basic knowledge.

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