How it all started

This agro-ecological school farm project was born from the meeting of the founders of the NGO GLOBE and Assane Seck, a sociologist with a degree in spatial planning at the University of Strasbourg in France, who decided in 2010 to return to his home country Senegal (West Africa) to work and contribute to the development and modernization of the primary sector and in his own way, give back.

After several years working in the field of development alongside various local actors in Senegal, I wanted to develop my own project and set up a center for agriculture, livestock and vocational training, which would be dedicated to the production, processing and distribution of milk and meat, but also to the training of young people wishing to embark on this path and embrace an agricultural profession.

It's been three years since Assane initiated his project and today, GLOBE has decided to support him to make it happen, also with your support!

Why would we do this?

Several years in the field of development and a passion for agriculture have now allowed Assane to draw several conclusions: there is too great of a gap between the current farming methods in Senegal and the modern and efficient knowledge and techniques available and implemanted elsewhere. The local production does not allow food security and self-sufficiancy for the population, nor creation of wealth in those areas, and not enoughinterest is brought to the environment and its protection.

This innovative project will therefore seek to address the four current challenges of agriculture:

Feed the populations

- Facing the risks of importing food
- Increase production capacity (currently, very low) thanks to a synergy between actors who have little contact with eachothers: farmers and engineers.

To preserve the environment

- Develop an efficient and modern agriculture in Senegal

To face the uncertainties

- Resource depletion
- Weather Hazards

Maintain economic activities and populations on the territories

- Develop a new marketplace
- Create wealth locally
- Make agriculture a profitable sector
- Fight against the rural exodus

A global response to the current challenges is agro-ecology

To meet these goals, we have developed a modern farm project, adapted to the Senegalese context that can also be a practical training framework for the younger generations of farmers. It will be about infusing an initiative with a strong social impact based on an economically viable model. In the long term c'est pas très beau mais j'ai pas mieux, it will be a matter of favoring young unemployed graduates, those leaving the traditional school system without a diploma and those coming from rural communities without any training.

Component 1: Forage Crop, Production and Distribution of seeds

The achievement of production and training objectives will require the control of animal feed through a controlled production of quality forage, abundant and diversified. Quality forage production is a real opportunity to fully support livestock feed.

Component 2: Dairy production and its derivatives

For the sake of adaptability and efficiency, mixed breeds will be exploited. They will be obtained by crossbreeding between local cows and cattle of exotic breeds or through artificial insemination protocols. The aim will be to produce quality meat and milk in order to contribute to the supply of an unsatisfied local market.

Component 3: Sheep farming

It will be articulated as so:
- A fattening project whose objective is to supply sheep operators of national events and conventional distribution networks.
- An industrial fattening and sheepmeat distribution project targeting the "high-end" red meat market segment.
The project responds to the growing demand for sheeps whose peak is observed before Tabaski (Aid el Kabir), the muslim feast when a sheep is traditionnaly slaughtered. Imports account for nearly 9% of the national meat production and more than 50% on the eve of that event, this project has obvious strengths.

Component 4: Training, education, and / or apprenticeship to different rural jobs

It will create synergies between actors sharing a common vision of development, respectful of the environment and ensuring a strong social and economic impact. To do this, we intend to mobilize human resources and / or devices with recognized expertise in the following areas:
- hydraulic / water treatment
- Agriculture in a tropical environment
- Valorization of agricultural products
- Organic waste treatment
- Support to reduce the distance to employment
- Environmental education
- The valorization of tangible and intangible heritage

How do we do it?

In terms of quantity, the project aims to reach this following goals:
- Acquire 100 dairy cows distributed on 5 farms (25% renewal / year)
- Establish an abundant and quality livestock empowerment system for livestock
- Collect 4860 liters of milk / year / cow
- Train 25 young people / year
- Transform 364,500 liters of milk into local yogurt for the local market
- Become a brand of local yoghurt recognized and marketed by the actors of the distribution

Our partners

Given the innovative nature as well as the scale of the project, we need to rely on a vast network of skills, both established in France and Senegal. This multi-stakeholder network is composed of public and private training institutions, cooperatives and agricultural enterprises and industrial companies, NGOs, local authorities, volunteers, etc. The diversity of skills makes it possible to compose a virtuous circle where each of the stakeholders will seek to mobilize on its own core business in the service of a solid and sustainable development tool. The synergy would optimize the complementarity between actors, streamline the use of resources and be more effective in the action.

They already support us :

Discussions are underway with several other partners: - Prosperite fermiere / Ingredia - Elevage sans frontière - Auchan Senegal - Regional Livestock Service - Senegalese department of Livestock.

Ferme-école agroécologique au Sénégal