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| Clearing land for the community garden |
One of the main problems faced by members within my community is the challenge of producing and obtaining produce during the dry season, which lasts from approximately January to late April – about a third of the year. The majority of villagers make their livelihoods through subsistence farming during the rainy season, but during the dry season their rain-fed fields are unable to prosper. In addition, when farmers are growing during the rainy season, many of them must travel very far from the village to reach their fields. Miniki is located along the side of one of the biggest mini-mountains in the region, and cultivating land on the nearby steep slopes is no easy task.
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| Building a fence to keep animals out |
About six months ago, I started pitching the idea of establishing community gardens within the village. These gardens would be convenient for villagers as they would be within close proximity to their homes, and they could take advantage of a constant supply of water that is pumped to the village from a nearby aquifer. Thus, the community gardens could serve as a way for households to grow a variety of produce for consumption and profit year-round.
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| Transplanting into fresh garden beds |
This idea encountered a ton of skepticism at first, and it took two months of weekly meetings and a lot of gift-giving of bags filled with veggies from my own garden before anyone started taking it seriously, but eventually a core group of interested individuals emerged and a gardening group was formed. And to my surprise, this group is extremely driven! Since August, we’ve cleared and cleaned up a patch of land that was covered with thick, thorny brush and was being used as a trash heap, built a sturdy fence made from bamboo, dug numerous garden beds, and have planted a variety of different vegetables.
At the moment, the group is growing okra, onions, carrots, and three different local leafy greens that are selling like crazy. It’s still a bit early to see how well the garden will fare in its first season, but its future is looking promising. Each morning I stop by the gardens on my way off for a run, and I always see a handful of the members already inside watering and weeding the plots. The amount of devotion and determination the group shows is really inspiring, and they are by far some of my favorite people to work and live alongside in Benin.
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| The gardens a few days after transplanting |
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| Miniki's newly formed gardening group |
