Practical training session on good ecological market gardening practices

350 market gardeners from the Savannah region of Togo were trained on good ecological market gardening practices in the seven prefectures from 14 to 17 December 2023 as part of the implementation of the FSRP.

The Savannah region remains an excellent off-season market gardening area. The cropping systems are diversified, with a fairly large proportion of food crops for both consumption and sale. However, the ever-increasing demand for market garden produce has led to the use of pesticides, which is harmful to human health and has an impact on production capacity.

To help reduce the use of pesticides in their activities, the growers have learned new ecological cultivation practices. The aim of this training is not only to improve the productivity of market garden farms, but also to support market garden producers in setting up and managing their plots of land in accordance with good agricultural practices, and to improve their access to the market.

In Tambonga, in the prefecture of Tandjouaré, Mrs Kolani Damnou makes no secret of her satisfaction: “We have always worked individually, if not in groups, and I personally had never felt this attention from a project. We recently received market gardening kits from the FSRP and now you’re here to train us in ecological market gardening. You can’t imagine how much this fulfils our expectations here in Tambonga. I’m sure that with this training, we’ll see some big changes”.

As for Mrs Nakoro in Nali, Oti Sud, this training has enabled her to acquire new knowledge: “With this training, I have improved my knowledge of composting techniques. I learned how to transplant, maintain, and protect crops. So I’m not like I was before; I’ve changed scale”.