Two years ago we visited the farm of two Songhai graduates, Elvie and Abeguedo. Elvie had received a $2500 grant from the US non-profit Eliminate Poverty Now and she and her husband had used the start up money to raise chickens, rabbits, and to plant the first 1/2 hectare of land of their new farm. You can read the first report on their farm from the Eliminate Poverty blog at:
<a href=”http://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/126926695″ title=”First report on Elive’s farm” target=”_blank”></a>
On this visit we had a chance to see the extraordinary progress they have made with their enterprise. Their cultivated crops and fish ponds are far more extensive, they have added pigs and ducks to their animal agriculture. They have one full time worker now and are starting to build a house on the property. Their story shows the power of the intensive sustainable farming techniques of the Songhai Training Program, especially when practices by entreprenurial and hard working graduates with a little support from friends in the U.S.!
Below: Some images from the expanded farm. Elvie near new pig pens and a view of the first tier of planted crops. From here we walked past several fish ponds to a field planted in sugar cane.
