Audit in Africa: BioTropic visits growing areas
This spring our project leader for Africa, Kuemkwong Siemefo, visited the organic farms in the Ivory Coast, Mali and Burkina Faso. This time he was accompanied by our new agricultural engineer Marnie Lara Kathem. She not only supports Kuemkwong Siemefo with day-to-day business, but will also be taking over the organisation of the pineapple production in the Ivory Coast.
At the destination airport in Abidjan both were given a warm welcome by Stephane, the manager of the Ivoire Organics producer group and Josephine Outtara, a logistics specialist. The first leg of the trip took our colleagues to Bonoua. There, the smallholders working for Ivoire Organics are growing pineapples and coconuts to organic specifications.
Inspecting the local conditions onsite and making personal contact with the people working there weren’t the only reasons for making this trip. This time the objective was to conduct training seminars as part of one of the PPPs* initiated by BioTropic and the new machinery was to be started up. We will report on this public-private project in greater depth in future. In addition to this, some thought has been given to altering the crop rotation in Bonoua, the aim of which is to protect the soil from losing its nutrients over time. A large-scale compost project which has already been started up on a smaller scale is particularly exciting, since in many places Africa’s soil is exhausted and could be regenerated by applying organic farming practices over the longer term.
It was the first trip to Africa for Marnie; she had not known the employees of Ivoire Organics personally hitherto. In spite of this, she quickly established a rapport with them. No wonder, since she speaks perfect French, which is the official language of the country. She was particularly impressed by the downpours of rain she experienced in the Ivory Coast. Temperatures of around the 38°C mark were normal everyday while sudden rainfall could leave the streets knee-deep in water within 10 minutes. This body of water also drained away quickly. Such extreme climatic features also threaten to strip local soils of topsoil and leach out the nutrients. This is why our compost project mentioned above is all the more important, since it feed the soil permanently with nutrients and consequently it is better able to store water.
The project trip continued onward to Korhogo, in the north of the country, where a small co-operative of smallholders belonging to Ivoire Organics is cultivating and processing Mangos and Cashews. Here too the PPP set up will take effect: the product range is being expanded with dried fruit made of mangoes. Last year, special drying ovens were supplied for this, which dry the sun-ripened fruit while storing the goodness.
From the Ivory Coast the trip went on to the countries Mali and Burkina Faso, likewise located in West Africa. The smallholder families organised in co-operatives cultivate organic mangoes. Kuemkwong Siemefo spoke with the persons responsible about the coming mango season. He also inspected the mango trees there.
*PPP = The PPP project (Public Private Partnership) is a scheme designed to be applied for two years. It is financed in equal part by the public sector and private business sector. In this instance there is the Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) on the one side and BioTropic on the other. Such projects serve to promote specific resources and areas such as, for example, the expertise, capital and employees in countries with weak social and ecologic benefits or to provide long-term support. This is how the government of the Federal Republic of Germany is able to achieve its own development policy goals with the assistance of SMEs.
Tags: Pineapple (GB), Burkina Faso (GB), Cashews (GB), DEG (GB), Ivory Coast (GB), Ivoire Organics (GB), Coconut (GB), Kuemkwong Siemefo (GB), Mali (GB), Mangos (GB), PPP (GB), Stéphane Goa (GB)
