From Aid to Resilience: West African Farmers Lead the Way

16 Oct 2012

8:00 PM

Cardinal Room, Memorial Union

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Through Oxfam's Strengthening the Livelihoods of Small-Scale Farmers in Nigeria (SLISSFAN) program, Susan Godwin has in the last four years adapted her production to meet market demand, established a growing groundnut processing business, and received the 2012 Female Food Hero award in Nigeria. She serves as a role model not only for her community, but also for her husband and five children. Dienaba Diallo has seen firsthand the encroachment of the Saharan Desert into her community's grazing lands, but these challenges did not keep her from leaving a teaching career to rejoin her ethnic group's traditional vocation of animal herding. Diallo helped found the Association for the Promotion of Animal Rearing in the Savannah and the Sahel (APESS). To feed their animals in spite of shrinking pastureland, APESS encouraged planting hay for animal fodder, trained them in milk processing and provided literacy classes. Diallo also founded the Needi association with 156 women supporting each other's professional development and schooling for all their children. Part of the World Affairs Series.

Jim French, the Midwestern regional coordinator of Oxfam America, will moderate the discussion. The SLISSFAN program improved livelihoods for small-scale farmers using an integrated approach. In addition to learning new agronomic methods to increase yields, farmers also learned accounting methods, leadership practices, and how to form internal savings and lending groups. Equipped with this suite of tools, Godwin emphasizes that farmers who previously had nothing were then able to take care of their families.