Dryland Farmers Diversify and Succeed Over a decade ago many dryland farmers in northern Togo considered migrating to Lomé in search of a better life. Over-cultivation, long dry periods and flooding made the land increasingly difficult to grow their staple crop, maize. To encourage young farmers to remain home, RAFIA, an IFDC partner, successfully intervened to improve their maize harvests and introduced tomato growing, a new source of revenue for Togo’s poorest and most agriculturally challenging region.
supplies are low and prices are high. 1000s+ will provide some materials to kick off the venture, including specially built equipment for dehydration and plastic bags for packaging. 1000s+ is also arranging for the product’s chemical analysis to allow for distribution in Togolese supermarkets, and later will assist with radio and other publicity efforts.
Farmers’ coops in
Northern Togo profit
More recently, IFDC’s 1000s+ project has again partnered with RAFIA to further empower local farmers. This time the goal is to help increase their incomes by processing their commodities. To achieve this, farmers selected to test two products—sun dried tomatoes and animal feed or provenderie. They determined that a women’s cooperative would be responsible for the tomato processing and another predominately male cooperative would be in charge of the provenderie.
by adding tomato processing and developing an
affordable maize-
based animal feed.
Altogether the cooperatives grow approximately 788 hectares of tomatoes and ___ hectares of maize. “We had so many tomatoes at harvest time that they would rot in the fields,” says cooperative member, Kombate Fatima. “Usually, when the tomatoes are finished, we have no work and we sit,” says Fatima. “Processing the tomatoes will help us earn income when there are no longer fresh tomatoes for sale,” says cooperative member, Mama Azara. Thinking like true entrepreneurs, the women strategically decided to sell their new product when tomato
Another cooperative, Kanlanfei Provende, recently began testing their provenderie, made from their locally grown maize and sorghum. RAFIA’s technicians helped produce three new formulas according to the livestock involved. The milled grain is currently being offered for sale in small plastic sacks at five test locations and training is also offered to livestock owners on its optimal usage.
“It was a struggle for us to raise healthy animals because of the harsh environment and the lack of feed,” says cooperative treasurer, Layeme Kampatine. However, farmers in the drylands cherish their livestock since mature animals can be used to feed their own families or sold for relatively large amounts. This reality prompted a small group of farmers to request assistance from RAFIA in producing high quality, affordable feed to increase their livestock’s survival rate. “Processing the maize will help the farmers because it increases incomes for producers whose maize prices will rise with the increased demand,” explained Kantami Koukou, president of the small cooperative.