When you live in the Mopti region of Mali, every drop of rain counts. Average annual rainfall is measured in millimeters—for those of us who don’t think much about rainfall, that means it usually rains less than 10% of what we get in Washington, DC, where I live. Most farmers know they will never grow enough to feed their families, and the rainy seasons are getting shorter and less predictable.
This week’s inspiration is personal. From 2005 to 2007, I lived in a tiny village in the Mopti region, where about 20% of the kids died of malnutrition every year. When I—naïve and appalled—asked the local chief what disaster was happening, he told me, “Disaster? This is normal. We’ll never have enough for everyone.”
Imagine then, what it’s like to finally grow enough food to keep your kids healthy, and to have hope you might be able to do that every year. That’s what’s different now for families in Mali. Not just Mali, but actually the village where I used to live, and many others like it. They’ve improved enough land to cover Paris, and their kids are more than twice as likely to have enough healthy food to eat.
The Feed the Future component of the USAID Nutrition and Hygiene component reached 14,820 farmers between 2016 and 2019 with $4.4 million in funding. CARE partnered with the Malian NGO YAG-TU.
What did we accomplish?
- Narrowed the gap between men and women: Before the project, men were 9% more likely to get access to agriculture services than women and 16% more likely to use improved practices on their fields. By 2019, those gaps were 1% and 9% respectively.
- Incomes went up. On rice alone, women increased their incomes by 3.5 times—up to $950 a year, from $271. Men increased their income on millet by 22 times.
- Women are producing more, and catching up with men: In 2016, men produced 10 times more than women did. By 2019, it was only 4 times higher.
- Women’s productivity and efficiency are growing: Women are able to get 5 times more millet per hectare at the end of the project.
- Children are healthier: Stunting went down 14%, and children were 2.5 times more likely to have healthy diets.
- More people have clean water: Access to drinkable water went up 28%.
- More farming is sustainable: There are 11,431 hectares (that’s about 10% bigger than Paris) using sustainable agriculture techniques, which not only increase production now, but also mean they will be able to grow food well into the future.
How did we get there?
- Hold trainings for women and men: The project trained 3,161 women and 7,480 men in sustainable production techniques.
- Focus on the familiar: Rather than introducing new and risky crops, the project worked with farmers to increase their yield on crops that they knew and liked. That meant they were more willing to try new techniques because there was less risk involved.
- Use the radio: Local radio stations hosted shows on nutrition, agriculture, and child health. 84% of families said that this was satisfying and useful as a way to get information.
- Connect people to markets: The project created producer groups, and helped those groups build ties to local markets so they could sell their goods easily and at a fair price.
Want to learn more?
Check out the final evaluation (in French).
Minimum Acceptable Diet measurements