Increasing Women

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Increasing Womens livelihood Activities
through Sustained Vegetable Production in San
Segou, MALI Sponsored by
CIIFAD (Cornell University)

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Background Information on Mali

• Size 1,241,238 square kilometers 65 is desert
  or semi desert
• It is served by 2 great rivers Senegal and Niger
  and their tributaries
• Population 13 Millions
• Climate
• a. The Sudanic zone 900 to 1,100 mn of
  annual precipitations
• b. The Sahelian Zone 200 to 500 mn of
  precipations
• c. Saharan Zone little or no rain
• 3 Seasons
• Rainy Season June-October
• Cool dry November-February
• Hot Dry Season March-May
• TemperatureAbout 16 degree Celcius in January
  40 degrees celcius in April
• Subsistence crops millet, maize, sorghum
• Cash crops Cotton, rice, peanuts, tabacco, tree
  crops

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A. Study Context

• In Mali low precipitation, drought,
  desertification and deforestation are factors
  which undermine agricultural production
• Increase periode of food shortages
• Women engaged in veg. Production to suplement
  food crops and for income generation to satisfy
  other basic needs
• Despiste their contribution, Women are
  constrained to have access to productive assets
• West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) adresses both
  hard and soft components of water.

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B.Study objectives

• To determine the social and economic
  characteristics of female veg.producers
• To identify and assess the sources of water and
  womens access to water and other livelihoods in
  San
• To determine the relationship between womens
  vegetable production and their households access
  to food
• To identify the constraints and opportunities
  related to womens access to productive
  resources water, land, credit, market )

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C.Methodology

• Focus groups were involved in semi-structured
  interview
• Questionnaires were used to determine individual
  womens socioconomic characteristics and to
  assess their income
• Observational methods and visual aids were used
  to assess water sources, plot size and technology
  used.

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a. Study Participants

• A. Criteria of sites selection

Village with high access to water Intermediary villages Village with low access to water
Tamaro N'goalani Nesso Bambara  Sourountouna Peulh Sourountouna Bambara Niasso Sourountouna Bambara Bogossoni
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Study Participants (Cont)

• b. Criteria for Womens groups selection
• Groups initiated by womens themselves
• Groups initiated by external organizations such
  as World Vision) assuming that those initiated by
  external organizations has a strong internal
  structure and good bargaining power.
• 150 women participated in the study (54 for
  income assessment)

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Womens livelihood activities in San

• a. Raining Season
• Farming activities farm laborers in growing cash
  crops, grow their own fields of cash crops,
  Collection of wild herbs, fruits and woods.
• b.Dry and cool season Vegetable production
• c.Year Round petty trades, servants for urban
  households
• NB Womens engagement in different activities
  prove their vulnerability to ecologic and
  socioeconomic factors and show their coping
  strategy to meet household food security

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This chart explains interrelation among
socio, natural, financial, physical capitals to
achieve sustainability. Source Department For
International Development D) Diagram 1.
Sustainable Livelihood Guidance Sheets
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Vegetable production as Major livelihoodin San
Market oriented and home based Vegetable accross
villages

Villages Market-oriented vegetable Vegetable for home consumption
Tamaro Tomatoes, Lettuce //
Sourountouna Peulh Tomato, Lettuce Onion, Okra
Sourountouna Bambara Tomatoes cabbage lettuce Onion, Okra
Dasso Cabbage Hot pepper Onion, Okra
Ngoalani Tomatoes, Cabbage, Hot pepper Papaya Lettuce Carrot Melon Onion, Okra Sweet potato
Nesso Bambarara Tomato, melon, hot pepper Okra, Onion
Niasso Eggplants Onion, Okra
Bogossoni Onion, Okra
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Comprison between Home- based vegetable and
exotic vegetable
Home based vegetable Exotic vegetable
Use in the local diet (leafy sauce) Do not require enough water Less time to grow (short cycle) Do not require much labor, Use fertilizer (animal dung) Do not attract pest Grow in year-round basis Conserve easily traditional post harverst methods (dried up on sun or open space and sell/exchange against other food) Exclusively for income to supplement food crops (school fee, health services or ustansils) Low veggies consumption Motivativation (proximity to market such as Tamaro) Long cycle veggies Water demanding crops High capital investment to purchase imported seeds Use of modern fertilizer (urea)
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Assessment of home based vegetable income
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2. Assessment of exotic vegetable income
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3. Constraints and opportunities of womens
access to resources. Summary of Land and Water
Constraints Regarding theNumber of Group Members
Groups size Traditional wells Improved wells
Tamaro 20 2 0
Souoruntouna Bambara 30 1 1
Sourountouna Peulh 60 3 1
Dasso 110 3 1
Nesso Bambara 105 3 0
Ngoalani 60 2 1
Niasso 20 2 0
Bogossoni 110 3 0
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Constraints/Opportunities related to Land and
Water (cont)

• Land Mode of acquisition
• Allocated by the traditional autority
• Borrow land
• Voluntary community members
• Adhesion fee is 500-1000 CFA/plot/person
• Wells
• Women contribute to pay fee to dig well

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Opportunities/constraints

• Credit
• Existence of micro-credits implemented by PDR,
  and SDV
• Women are cautious on engaging in credit because
  of lack of collateral
• The negative connotation related to it. It means
  juru or puting a rock round the neck in local
  language.

Access to credit N
No credit 27 50
Own credit 16 30
Revolving funds 8 14
Total number 51 100
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Contraints/opportunities

• Market
• Distant market and lack of adequate means of
  transport
• Unability of market to absob all veggies because
  they are grown and ripe the same time and sell in
  the same markets (San)

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b. Womens household level of Consumption

• No production 14.80
• Consume all 3.70
• Consume half and sell half 55.60
• Sell all 26
• This show that women tend to sell more than they
  consume directly at home.
• NBThis does not imply households do not benefit
  from veg, they indirectly benefit from income to
  buy other food, drugs and school materials.

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Consequences of ressources constraints on
Vegetable producers

• 1.Health
• Water scarcity and long feching hours
  require lot of energy for those who kept on
  working backache, loss weight, fatigue. San
  women are poorly nourished, they eat whatever
  left after men and children. This negatively
  affect health of pregnant and lactating women.
• 2.Partipation
• It depends on water availability. eg Women in
  NGoalani have more yield/income than those of SB
• Womens age A retired from household chores
  devoted much time to those responsible for
  household chores
• 3.Plot size
• New adhesion progressively reduced plot size of
  others (Tamaro)

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c. Women vegetable Production and Food security.

• All sample villages are food insecured because
  they lack assets to produce food and low income
  to purchase food.
• except NGoalani because of existence of rich
  irrigated rich soil favorable for rice, cotton
  and peanuts cultivation which represent the
  source of income for men
• Groups organisation level
• Existence of boutique villageois,
• Existence of cereal banks to be used during food
  shortages
• Large size of garden plot
• As a result, they have a relatively higher
  purchasing power comparing to other villages.

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Conclusion

• Womens household consumption increases as their
  production decreases. The lower the womens
  yields, the more vegetable they consume.
  Conversely, the higher production, the greater
  they likely for bringing to market
• How would women consume if productive assets were
  made effectively available to them to get higher
  production? Or Does higher production necessarily
  translate into household vegetable production?

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Study Recommendation

• Social cultural
• Improve men and womens educational level so that
  men could be flexible in the application of
  cultural norms regarding distribution of
  resources
• Economic and Technical
• Reinforce capacity of groups to better organize
  the international structure of their
  organizations
• Promote the drip irrigation for water
  conservation and preserve soil moisture
• Promote research of cropping systems for year-
  round vegetable production and availability
• Improve rural infrastructures (transport, roads)
  and adresse the software aspects of maintaining
  water equipments.
• Develop post harvest technologies consevation,
  storage
• Disseminate information or advocacy for
  consumption of vegetables on health.

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THANK YOU!

• QUESTIONS?
• Hadji Diakite
• hadji_d_at_yahoo.fr

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