West African Woman Finds Success With FFF

Ramata Kindo, 22 years of age, is a young lady living in the rural setting of Kouka, the same village that Emile Sanou, who teaches and practices FFF, comes from. As a woman living in that culture, Ramata Kindo has limited access to and control over any available farmable land. As a result her first obligation is to first work in the family field. If she wants to cultivate her own plot she must officially submit a request to the head of the family for authorization.

It should be noted that the participation of women at an agricultural training is very rare because men often forget to even invite them. However, on this particular day, the life of Ramata Kindo was going to drastically change. Upon noticing a large gathering of people, she went up to the group out of curiosity to find out what was happening. There group was assembled around Emile Sanou who was providing a training on FFF which he himself had learned during the ECHO Forums at Ouagadougou. Ramata Kindo was immediately captivated by the relevance of this methodology and was drawn in by how this could dramatically increase crop yields. So she requested a small plot of land to try and implement this new approach. On her property Ramata Kindo was able to harvest more than 200 kilos of corn which is the equivalent of two 100 kilo bags. This is significantly more than she had observed being harvested from a family field of approximately the same surface area as her personal experimental plot. Since that time, Ramata Kindo has not stopped promoting FFF which she states needs to be utilized to help others rapidly increase their agricultural yields.

Related Article: MEAS Summary #2 - Gender Equality in Agriculture Extension

Related Article: ECHO Tech Note #71 - Foundations For Farming