Market gardening

Market gardening enables diversification of agricultural production and contributes to the creation of significant additional income for farming households. It is also a strategy for adapting to climate change. Solidar Suisse is developing various initiatives to increase the productivity of market garden crops grown by farmers’ organizations, boost the sale of produce and access to appropriate financing (rural credit), and thus improve members’ incomes. This involves transferring new sustainable technologies, agro-ecology-based market-garden production techniques, marketing techniques, and appropriate infrastructure and equipment for preserving and processing produce to target groups.

To achieve this, market garden production is integrated into :

• the production of enriched compost for local use, reducing the need for expensive chemical fertilizers;
• the use of “neem”-based bio-phytosanitary products to the detriment of chemical products;
• the use of solar energy for the water pumping system to the detriment of fossil fuels;
• promotion of plant species of particular nutritional value (e.g. Moringa).