Forest nurseries and intercropping in the Sahel: Access Agriculture films local techniques

Access Agriculture is bringing sustainable agroforestry solutions to the Sahel through powerful farmer-to-farmer video training. Following successful films on mulching and nematode management, their team is now in Mali capturing essential techniques for establishing forest tree nurseries and profitable intercropping with leguminous trees. These knowledge-sharing tools will empower farmers across Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Mali with practical skills to enhance food security and land regeneration in one of Africa's most climate-vulnerable regions.

Intercropping Gliricida-Cotton. Photo by: Salouma MACALOU

Culture intercalaire Gliricida-Coton. Photo par : Salouma MACALOU

Intercropping Leucaena-Maize, Photo by: Salouma MACALOU

As part of Access Agriculture's collaboration on behalf of the SustainSahel project, four learning videos are planned to share South-South knowledge between the project's three target countries.

So, after producing the first two videos on mulch in Burkina Faso and intestinal nematode management in Senegal (find them here), Access Agriculture set about developing the scripts for the videos on forest seedling nurseries and intercropping. The aim was also to produce these two videos.

Knowing the stages in the process of producing the farmer-to-farmer videos, preparations for developing the scenarios began in August 2024 with a discussion and scoping meeting between Fernando Souza from FiBL, Sanogo Sidi, Seydou Tangara, Oumar Coumaré, Amadou Traoré, Salouma Macalou and Fagaye Sissoko from Work Package 2 (WP2), and Jonas Wanvoeke and Paul Van Mele from Access Agriculture.

The aim of this first meeting with WP2 was to refocus discussions and exchange views on the potential topics that Access Agriculture should cover on behalf of agroforesters in SustainSahel and throughout the region. The platform met to discuss the proposed topics. Following discussions with the platform, two topics were selected:

Establishment of a forest plant nursery
Intercropping with tree legumes

After making contact with WP2, Access Agriculture carried out a literature review on the two subjects. We went through the documents and research reports received from the Malian team. After reviewing them, Access Agriculture wrote the first version of the script the video on tree nurseries. Writing the script is an iterative process; we shared different versions with the Malian team. The team's delay in responding to the different versions lengthened the process of finalising the scripts. Their contributions were invaluable. We have continued to work on the script to improve its content and have answered some questions. The script for this video is now complete and ready to be shot in the field.

However, as the aim is to film the two videos at the same time in Mali, the second script on intercropping is still being written. The Access Agriculture film crew will travel to Mali to shoot and edit the two videos in May.

Further links

https://www.accessagriculture.org/