Category : Sustainable agriculture
NATUDEV supports farmers working around protected areas by encouraging them to apply the modern technique of assisted natural regeneration (ANR) in their agricultural holdings. It is an agricultural technique that allows cultivation while preserving the plant cover in the field.
According to the ANR technique, the maintenance of trees, large and small, is done while respecting a certain density of the feet in the field. This allows their natural regeneration. And plant debris from trees is a natural fertilizer for the soil.
ANR has at least three advantages: slowing down the rate of extension of the planted areas and therefore reducing land pressure on conservation areas; availability of forest products from preserved trees (fruit, medicinal products, etc.); and maintaining soil fertility.
NATUDEV support consists of equipment, training and follow-up advice for farmers. Thanks to this, a total of thirty-six (36) beneficiary producers who voluntarily apply the assisted natural regeneration (ANR) technique on a hundred hectares of farms on the edge of the protected areas of the PONASI complex in the region of Center-South. The average area of ANR fields is 3.66 ha and the density of trees is between 422 and 76 feet per ha.
In a partnership that is as technical as it is financial, especially with ULB-Cooperation, it is a set of activities that have been carried out to achieve these results which producers welcome:
Trainings
Equipment
Technical support in the field
Cartographic evaluation
Balance sheet-capitalization workshop
Making of capitalization brochures