Gord and the onion field

... I mean, gourd and the onion field. Actually, I mean Bill and the onion field.

Our host's friend, Bill (a variation of his Hausa name), a local Toureg man, showed the Canadien men his onion field today. The onions looked impressive, carefully spaced in their own paddy at one end of Bill's garden. Other paddies (not really paddies, but I am trying to paint a picture for you) featured luscious cabbage plants, tomato plants with some fruit (or is it a vegetable?) beginning to form, tiny little bits of lettuce pushing its way through the surface, and corn around the perimeter of Bill's market garden.

Bill showed us his well, a five foot by five foot by five foot excavation at one corner of the garden, with a metal pipe showing a few inches from the floor of the hole. Remarkably, the water rises to within a few feet of the top of the pipe, making irrigation easily accessible for Bill.

To care for his garden on this parcel of land that he rents, Bill bicycles from Madaoua several miles over a rough road, carrying his water pump on his bike. As he waters the garden, the little dikes are rearranged to divert water into the various patches of the vegetables (or fruits, as the case may be). On days off from school, Bill's seven year old son helps with the weeding, usually an all day process.

Oh yes, before I forget, there are the gourds. These grow in a field adjacent to Bill's garden. They grow to a substantial size, posing a great challenge for our host's son and our youngest male team member to hoist over their heads. The gourds are not suitable for eating, but make great containers, once they dry while sitting in the field.

Bill sells his onions to merchants who arrange to export the onions to Benin, Togo and possibly to parts of Europe. To what can we attribute Bill's successful farming and gardening enterprise? To hard work and savvy, for sure. But there is another important factor.

Our host was able to help set up Bill with a start up loan to purchase seed and the water pump.
After a couple of years, the loan should be paid in full. The problem with setting up such a loan program is that one needs to establish trust between the Nigerien farmer and his loan provider, to ensure that the prospective farmer does not sell the materials and skip town.

It is good to see this example of providing some subsidization and training to Nigeriens to become self sufficient. Without our host and his family living here in Madaoua, this would not be possible.