If you look around a Senegalese village, you will see connection.
Farmers under a mango tree drinking the afternoon pot of attaya (tea). A cluster of children from all corners of the community magnetically gathering around a soccer ball like Mecca and the idea that they could be the next Sadio Mané. Or a group of women at the well staying a little longer than they need to, talking about everything under the hot Senegalese sun and pulling more than just water but also information, gossip, and often a good laugh out of each other.
This is Senegal, or Sunuu Gal. Its very name, meaning “one canoe” in the local Wolof language, encompasses the idea of one boat: togetherness and unity. It’s a culture where the concept of community is mired in the very identity and birth of a nation.
Yet, when it comes to climate-smart innovations for adapting to Senegal’s increasingly frequent droughts, heat waves, and erratic rainfall patterns, there are many who have missed the boat, so to speak, and been left behind.
Farmer cooperatives—which offer access to seeds, information, and training—provide a pathway to improved agricultural productivity, resilience and livelihoods, but distinctly lack women’s participation and leadership.
The gender disparity, arising from an array of cultural, social, economic, and institutional factors, is complex but the result is not: Senegalese women simply do not have the same access to life-changing seeds, climate information, and training that they need to fully support their households in adapting to the new realities of agriculture.
The Case of Mabo
But things are different in Mabo, a bustling village in the heart of Senegal’s Peanut Basin. Here, 86 women have been newly recruited to the Mabo Network of Local Cereal Producers this year alone—almost half of their newly registered members. This goes against the grain of a long history of low participation by women, and an anomaly against a backdrop of male-dominated local cooperatives.
To understand what’s going on, you only need to sit down with one of the women and talk, to see how the pieces have fallen into place.
Mbathio Mbaye, a farmer and mother of three holding her newest baby of just one month in her arms, explains how she got involved in the cooperative and—more importantly—how things look different for her field, family and finances.
The key is a project that brings together a group of organizations and services that Mbathio needed to adapt to Mabo’s changing climate, led by the climate-innovation scaling project Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA).
“I was born and raised here in Mabo, farming since I was a small child. Now I’m all grown up. I farm everything—millet, peanuts, beans,” says Mbathio. “I have seen significant changes in our climate: the rains aren’t starting or ending when they used to. Our crops don’t grow and reach maturity.”
These challenges are far from unique to Mabo. Senegal and the West African region have seen the increasing frequency of false starts to the rainy season, often followed by prolonged dry spells. And they make for extremely difficult planning for the agricultural season in a country where more than 90 percent of the population depends on rainfed agriculture.
Bundling for Impact: Multiplying More Than Seeds
But when paired with timely, tailored and location-specific climate information delivered at the right time, improved and climate-adapted seed varieties offer hope and can take some of the guesswork out of farming in a changing climate for women like Mbathio.
In Mabo, AICCRA and the National Agency for Agricultural and Rural Council (ANCAR) have teamed up to not only extend improved and certified millet seeds to Mabo, but also to undertake multiplication efforts for the seeds so that they can also be extended to surrounding communities like Mbeuleup, Ndiognick, Segre Gatta, Darou Salam, Thiaré and Kahi in the Kaolack region.
Coupled with information like forecasts, drought and flood warnings, and agricultural advice delivered straight to farmers’ phones (via the Jokalante social enterprise), they are better to able to know when, where, and how to plant.
Mbathio says she’s learned a lot about farming: “We didn’t know about the improved [climate-adapted] seeds. And we used to plant our seeds and not know if and when it was going to rain, if there would be wind, and so on. This project has really brought a lot,” she says.
It’s not just the existence of these activities, but the way these activities are being implemented, that are making them impactful for women.
Jokalante, for example, was founded by rural Senegalese woman Ndeye Amy Kebe who is well versed in these challenges. It delivers agronomic advice via text and voice calls—a critical choice of format that includes illiterate people, especially women, so they can easily access information vital for their livelihoods.
Moreover, by intentionally targeting women’s cooperatives and cooperatives with significant female membership, the project multiplies more than just seeds. It also multiplies the number of women reached by the seeds, information and training.
“[Then] when you have good knowledge,” explains Mbathio, “you share it with your peers—other women.”
Each One, Reach One
Fatou Mbaye, Mbathio’s older sister, is testament to the idea that reaching women with information and training has amplifying benefits.
New evidence demonstrates that this approach, including sharing climate-smart agricultural practices, can catalyze reach to other women, enhancing community development and resilience.
“If my sister hadn’t invited me to the group, I don’t know if I would have joined,” explains Fatou. “I had no intention of joining; it just wasn’t on my path. I think 10 or 20 years could have passed, and I wouldn’t have stepped foot inside the group.”
But now that she has, Fatou is living experience of the power of women reaching women. Beyond the improved yields and attendant economic benefits from joining the group, Fatou has found social benefits which span from Fatou’s own confidence in herself, to her decision-making power in her home, and even the welfare of her children and community.
For Fatou, the approach of using women to reach more women is simply logical: “Involving women in the community makes sense.”
Fatou elaborates: “In Senegal, one man can have up to four wives. So if you’re only training the men, it’s difficult for improve the household.”
“But when you take women and train them, and then they return to their home with this knowledge, that’s how the whole household advances together. The children too, they advance. This is why it’s so important to include women in these activities.”
Creating Shared Value
Fatou’s increased earnings from her climate-adapted millet and training have concrete benefits in her life and for those around her. They have allowed her and her sister to pay for school fees, school supplies, clothes and more nutritious food for their children—but Fatou has now saved enough money to open a shop in the market selling kitchen supplies and start earning her own income.
“I myself am contributing to the finances of our household,” smiles Fatou.
“Before AICCRA came, I was at the house doing nothing besides washing, cleaning, etc. It was my husband who did the work in the field and who made all the decisions.”
“But when I came home [from the project] and started discussing all the things I learned with my husband, he realized that I had mastered the knowledge. Now, we make our decisions together. Before, I didn’t even share in one decision.”
Fatou’s newfound respect has given her noticeable and infectious confidence: “Now, I’ve invited other friends to the group, too!”
“When my friends saw I had confidence in myself, they asked me where I got it from and where I had learned everything. And, I told them they could learn too if they partook in the group.”
Community as Catalyst
With women reaching each other, the 1,200-strong Mabo Network of Local Cereal Producers now boasts 200 women members—a milestone for the community and for increased and more equitable access to climate-smart innovations.
Beyond the borders of Mabo, seeds of change have also sprouted within smaller cooperatives in the villages surrounding Mabo.
Amy Ndaue, a cooperative member who lives in Ngoui village, is also now sharing in the benefits because of other women who told her about the benefits of the seeds and information.
“Last year, I wasn’t part of the cooperative, and I bought 10 bags of fertilizer,” she says with pain in her eyes. “I went to apply the fertilizer in the field, and then it rained heavily and it all got washed away.”
“But this year, I got the Jokalante messages on when it would rain, and I applied my fertilizer at the right time. The AICCRA project has increased my knowledge and awareness of resources I can use,” she says before hopping up from her chair to proudly grab two full hands of ripe beans amongst a mountain of others.
Ngoui and Mabo are more than 20 kilometers and a 45-minute drive from each other. Amy and the Mbaye sisters have never met, but they’re connected to the same seeds, information and skills—because women are connected to each other and talk, and because of an approach that recognized that simple fact to amplify women’s resilience in rural Senegal.
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Photo courtesy of Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT/Amanda Grossi
