Dewral - Teriya  Zoodo  -  Alliance or friendship

A few days ago I was in a village in the south-western region of Burkina Faso. It was a pleasure to see the results and the benefit of the friendly relations between pastoralists and farmers.

Yesterday, however, I talked on the phone to one of my Fulani friends (who traditionally own and breed cattle) to have the latest news. He said they were all saddened, because once more they had lost one of their herdsmen, who had been assassinated. Therefore I believe that at present we can not just remain passive, waiting for a rising number of disputes between farmers and livestock keepers to emerge. Soon we shall no longer be able to control the situation.

Nearly a year has gone by since I stopped  to talk to a farmer friend in the county of Tuy, near Houndé. He told me that he had joined a project called "Teriya" (which means friendship in the jula language). I asked him for some further details. He explained that the project, sponsored by Fertipartenaires, consisted in encouraging farmers and livestock owners to grow a Mucuna, a fodder plant, to fertilise the soil and increase the availability of animal feed.

What struck me most was the name given to the project: "Teriya", which means friendship. It occurred to me that rather than letting conflicts develop, why not try to forge alliances between farmers and livestock owners in a more systematic way.  Hence the words in the heading of this newsletter: Zoodo means both friendship and alliance in moore, and Dewral means alliance in fulfulde. In fact these two groups need one another. Herd owners have a shortage of fodder for their cattle, farmers often need manure to get a sufficient supply of good quality compost.

Livestock keepers could buy enough seeds of a given fodder plant for their own needs and also to offer some to their farmer neighbour, in return for a large quantity of manure, agreed upon in advance.

I asked a number of farmers and herders to find out which, in their opinion, would be the best fodder plant for such an operation. A large majority was in favour of the niebe plant. Farmers told me that 1 kg of niebe seeds could yield 1 ton of fodder. Moreover, the beans, which are very tasty, could be used for human consumption.

It should be noted that the niebe is also highly useful as a soil fertiliser, because of its capacity to bind nitrogen present in the air. At a time when there is an ambition to diversify, the niebe plant no doubt has a given place in a good crop rotation system. Rotation is necessary to ensure soil fertility, but also to stop the development of most predators.

The planting season is approaching. It is therefore time to facilitate the purchase of niebe seeds for livestock owners (and farmers). They should be able to obtain these from the Agricultural Research Station (INERA) in Saria (1 kg of seeds for the niebe fodder plant costs about 1500 CFA francs).

Koudougou, May 10th 2009

Maurice Oudet

Director, SEDELAN