Diversifying women’s income streams through market gardening (Mali)

Establishing vegetable plots for women enables them to increase their incomes and improve their health by increasing and diversifying agricultural production and improving the nutritional quality of their food.

Market gardening also enables women to set up savings funds through their associations, builds their capacity to organise and manage market gardens and improves their cultivation techniques. Market gardens set up by women’s associations are usually sited adjacent to lowland areas or rivers so as to facilitate access to water, which is extracted from wells. The areas of these market gardens range from 0.5 to 1 hectare depending on the size of the association and the opportunities for selling produce locally. Allotment sizes range from 80 to 120 square metres per woman. The number of growers per market garden is no greater than 70 women per hectare and 35 women per half-hectare. Women receive a grant in the form of equipment and agricultural inputs. The wells created for the market gardens are 1.4 metres in diameter, have 60-centimetre-high well heads and 30-centimetre-wide footpaths from which to water crops. Eight wells are installed per hectare across the site.
1)A women’s association puts forward its needs, 2)The BØRNEfonden Development Unit carries out a scoping study, 3) Women are organised into an association, 4) The women contribute their share of the costs (10% of the investment costs), 5) A site with guaranteed access to water (i.e. close to the water table) is enclosed, 6)The market garden’s wells are dug, 7)Financial support is provided during the first growing season to pay for equipment and agricultural inputs, 8)The association undertakes a self-assessment and draws up a training plan, 9)BØRNEfonden’s Development Units provide time-limited advisory support, the duration of which depends on capacity-building needs and ranges from three to five years per village. A four-month period of advisory support is allotted to service providers (technical services and consultancies). In order to achieve the best outcomes, it is important to define rules and requirements upfront. These requirements are met by developing an internal control system and nominating an internal control committee. The beneficiaries draw up the management procedures for their site, setting out how it is accessed and how women farmers are selected through internal regulation. Selected committee members receive training in organising and managing the site. Management tools are put in place for this purpose. A plan for the growing season is drawn up with women growers, which means needs can also be evaluated. BØRNEfonden provides the funding. The production costs of sold crops are evaluated and the required funds are then reimbursed by growers through the payment of subscription fees, using a payment system that they have collectively defined. Subscriptions paid by the women are safely set aside in the savings fund created by the association in order to ensure repayments can be made on the equipment paid for by BØRNEfonden.
The women’s association makes a suitable site available and prepares the soil (clearing, grubbing and ploughing). It also contributes a 10% share of the investment and opens a bank account to provide for the repayment of the investment. BØRNEfonden undertakes site development works (laying out, well digging, fencing), carries out crop planning, buys in equipment and agricultural inputs, installs nurseries, establishes and allocates plots, prepares seedbeds, transplants seedlings, and deploys plant health products and fertilisers. BØRNEfonden supports scheme farmers with the growing, harvesting and sale of produce. Local authorities sign the service contracts established between BØRNEfonden and the private contractors hired when the market garden activities got underway (well digging and site fencing). Government and consultancy technical services are involved in performing studies, delivering training in cultivation techniques and monitoring vegetable growing plots.