Gardening Improvement
From Peace Corps Wiki
Info about the Gardening Improvement
In the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, adequate fencing is just as necessary to a productive garden as seeds and water. And gardens are necessary to life. Oftentimes gardens are the only affordable access to vegetables that villagers have. In an effort to reduce the number of malnourished children, a women’s gardening cooperative in Mauritania is doing its best to improve their vegetable production. For this a decent fence is desperately needed, as the gardens are currently being ravished by goats, cows, donkeys, and warthogs.
The cooperative is attempting to protect the growing vegetable plots by a security guard rotation maintained by the women and a fence made out of local materials (wood and thorn bushes). These attempts are only semi-successful against domesticated animals and not at all against warthogs.
From Peace Corps Partnership Program, we are asking aid in buying better materials to construct an effective fence. The plan is to rebuild a fence made of local materials and wrap that with good quality, strong, metal fencing and barbed wire to create a barricade against animals. With this fence in place, women will have protected gardens and be able to study and practice better gardening techniques. For example, thorn bushes will not be needed to protect vegetable nurseries from goats, which will lead to the opportunity for proper thinning and weeding practices. In addition, a long lasting metal fence in place will stop depredation on local trees year and after year.