Okra bloom
As part of our new field initiative designed to benefit women farmers, myAgro now offers additional vegetables and crops for choice planting. This harvest season, we are seeing the immediate benefits of our new okra and peanut bundle programs!
Vegetables are an important staple of West African cuisine. They also have the power to boost nutrition for farm families and increase income & liquidity when farmers sell the surplus. This season, myAgro bundled an okra package (seeds, fertilizer, and training) into the peanut packages.
Okra has several advantages to offer the smallholder farmer.
- It is often planted traditionally alongside peanut fields, so farmers are used to this crop already.
- They are considered as “super food”, packed with vitamins, protein, and fiber.
- They are easy to plant: okra can be planted in one step, directly into the soil without first planting a nursery.
- They can be stored or transformed for the market in many ways – fresh, dried, sliced, or as a powder.
- They are like an ATM: farmers harvest okra & sell over 6-8 weeks bringing in critical liquidity before their peanut or maize fields are harvested.
- It’s high impact: based on previous studies, myAgro estimates that this will increase farmers’ net income gains from myAgro by > 80% on 1/8 HA of peanuts ($87 in net income increase from peanuts and $75 in net income increase from okra).
M. Korian Doumbia shows a traditional field grown using her own seeds, no fertilizer and no training.
In the past, myAgro only offered traditional cash crops (i.e. peanuts, maize, and sorghum) because smallholder farmers planted them primarily. With further field research and program development, myAgro discovered additional choice okra packages can help 10,000 women farmers stabilize their financial and food security. Nearly 70% of myAgro farmers in Mali, most of whom are women, purchased this bundle.
The myAgro team knows that women smallholder farmers tend to have small vegetable land plots. In order to maximize and monetize these limited assets, many were already growing okra. However, with no fertilizer, bad seeds, and ineffective planting methods, much of okra’s economic and nutritional potential went to waste. This past planting season, 10,000 women bundled okra in their peanut packages, resulting in quality training and materials for optimal planting. This harvest season, we are expecting to see an additional $80 of farming income! Compare that to their traditional revenues of less than $1.25 day. With additional harvest on the way, more results are coming soon.
M. Korian Doumbia shows us a field grown using myAgro seeds, fertilizer and training that was planted the same week as the traditional field.
Swimming in a sea of green – Over 9,500 farmers planted vegetables with myAgro this year. M. Korian Doumbia (pictured) shows us the difference she sees in her okra fields. She said her traditional farm was used to add to the family’s meals but now with her myAgro field (top photo) she’ll be able to sell at the weekly market for the first time and eat more at home. Both fields were planted the same week next to each other.
Based on the popularity and impact of this vegetable bundle, myAgro will include vegetable bundles (okra and other crops) for maize crops in as well as peanuts in 2017.
