Day 3, Tuesday, March 4th, 2014

It is another fascinating day.

This morning we went about 45 minutes out of town to see a village called Sadoré, where Dov started spontaneously piloting the FOF over 7 years ago. Sadoré village is just across the street from ICRISAT, the organization he spent ten years working for when he came to Niger. It does scientific research on crops and Dov was the lead scientist involved with crop diversification.

At that time, Dov wanted to teach the women in Sadoré how to build a tree nursery and graft trees.  He also started programs for the children having gardens right outside their classrooms. His philosophy for the FOF was borne of years of research.  He found that the older generations simply would not change their attitudes to agriculture. They relied on rain fed crops and subsistence agriculture rather than market – oriented agriculture using high value crops that could generate income.  The only way to change this mindset was to focus on the children and their mothers.  And so the concept of the Farmers of the Future was born.

Each woman looks after her own plants and is responsible for marketing and selling them.

The women in Sadoré were poor, as most women are in Niger. They lived in straw huts.  For the next two years, technicians from ICRISAT and Dov spent hours teaching them how to graft, how to sell, how to take care of the plants and the nursery, and how to become businesswomen.   In 2010, Dov left his position at ICRISAT and no longer lived full time in Niger.  He wasn’t able to return to Sadoré for a few years. But in 2013 he heard that a remarkable transformation occurred there, and he went to visit. The entire village was changed and all the women were hugely successful. New homes, electricity, fridges and many more luxuries that they could only dream of before.

The FOF team meets the women in Sadore and listens to their story.

So our visit to Sadoré was an opportunity for all of us to hear more about how this miracle happened.   We sat down with the President and Secretary General of the Women’s Association. The Secretary General told us that each woman contributes $20,000 cfa at the beginning of the year to a communal petty cash, to cover their repair and maintenance costs for the larger nursery.  But they have their own trees and manage their own micro -businesses.  Not only does each woman participate in the larger nursery,  each also started their own private nurseries in their backyards, which their husbands help run. The Sadoré women have a reputation in the region for producing excellent plants, and they have been hired by our own pilot schools to help coach the women there.  The Women’s Association elects six positions, President, Secretary General, Treasurer and three Deputy positions.

Secretary General of Women’s Association in Sadore

President of the Women’s Association of Sadore

They told us that their lives have totally transformed in these past years and the village is prosperous.  They have a standard of living beyond most rural women. And their children are going to Secondary school and some to University. 

The children are being sent to Secondary Schools and then to University.

Dov was received with cheers, dancing and huge adoration. They call him a name which means “papa”.  He was humbled and told them that it wasn’t him, that “they did it themselves and that they finally learned to believe in themselves”.

The women sing and dance as they welcome Dov!

What is so exciting for us, is that we can see the the model for the FOF has worked and there is now even greater optimism for the future success of the program.

After our visit to Sadoré, we  had a meeting with the  Director of the Triple N initiative.  He fully endorsed the project, echoing his colleague’s remarks from the day before.

Bachir Mamanfifi, the Senior Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister, who used to work at the Niger embassy in Canada, visited just before dinner.  Bachir was as elegant and warm as always and hopes to visit Sadore with Dov in the coming weeks.  

At dinner, a lesson from Dov. He told us to always have a big vision to aspire to in life.  If you dream small,  then you will gear your life to that. If you dream big, then you will rise to that occasion.

Another special day in Niger with the gracious Nigerien people.