The Boucle du Mouhoun and Nord regions are characterized by a fairly high poverty rate. Increasingly intense and recurrent climatic shocks in these regions are creating a cycle of vulnerability, putting populations at risk of food and nutritional insecurity, as well as community crises.
Agricultural and fodder production deficits are persistent and chronic, making the northern region in particular a zone of chronic food and nutritional insecurity. The main causes are: low production due to climatic hazards, unsuitable cultivation techniques, inaccessibility to agricultural inputs, and lack of knowledge of good agricultural and nutritional practices. These same agro-climatic characteristics are observed in the project’s intervention communes in the northern part of the Boucle du Mouhoun region.
To change this situation, the RESICOM project in these 02 regions has begun a process of reclaiming degraded land through a number of soil and water conservation/soil defense and restoration (CES/DRS) techniques, including: manual reclamation (demilunes, “three-stone” stone cordons, runoff water collection basins (BCER), zaï), and mechanized land reclamation using the Delfino plow, etc.
A multidimensional, multi-stage process
With a view to facilitating the construction of infrastructure and ensuring that it is properly taken on board by the beneficiary populations, the RESICOM project intervenes at several stages: training beneficiaries in the construction and maintenance of works, providing them with appropriate small-scale equipment and technical supervision for the construction of the various infrastructures, while ensuring that they are developed for agricultural production, with the emphasis on agroforestry and pastoralism.
Practical training in half-moon creation
On February 16 and 17, 2023, an official CES/DRS equipment handover ceremony took place in the communes of Gourcy and Rambo, in the presence of local authorities (President and Vice President of the special delegations) and deconcentrated technical services in charge of agriculture and the environment. The equipment handed over includes wheelbarrows, rope, watering cans, gloves, shovels, cement bags, buckets, crowbars, tape measures, water levels, picks, forks, etc. The Vice-President of the Special Delegation of the Gourcy commune expressed his gratitude to the RESICOM project and invited the beneficiaries to mobilize for the success of the activity.
CES/DRS kit handover ceremony in the commune of Gourcy
As a reminder, in the Gourcy commune, some 438 ha of degraded land have been reclaimed using the delfino plough in 10 villages. CES/DRS infrastructure work is currently underway in the project’s two intervention regions, Nord and Boucle du Mouhoun.
Ultimately, the project aims to train 8,000 host households in CES/DRS techniques through the contribution of model producers serving as relay trainers, in order to make a lasting contribution to improving agroforestry production in these 02 regions.
