elvie and rebecca

7/29/2019 Elvie and Rebecca

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Elvie and Rebecca's Chance

Elvie and Abegoudou

Emanuella wasn't born yet when her future

mom, Elvie, and dad, Abeguedou, bothgraduated from the agricultural internshipprogram at Songhai Centre in Porto Novo. Butshe may turn out to be one of the beneficiariesof the training in intensive farming methods herparents received, especially now that Songhai isable to help her with a small loan, gearedtoward women farmers, from the US non-profit,Eliminate Poverty Now.

Elvie and Abeguedou live about 40minutes north of Porto Novo near the

town of Adjohoun. About 18 monthsago Elvie qualified for a loan of 2.5million CFA (about $5,000) fromEliminate Poverty Now. The loan hasallowed Elive and her husband, Abeguedou, to start chicken production (layers andbroilers), rabbit production, aquaculture (catfish and tilapia) and crops. That mightsound like a farmer who isn't sure what to focus on, but in the Songhai playbook, thekey to productive subsistence farming is the synergy between different inputs andoutputs (feed, seed, water, and soil, mulch, manure, crops, and animals). Songhaiinterns learn a lot of sustainable agronomy; they can mix and make their own animaland fish pellets, they know how to follow breeding lines for rabbit production, and they

practice irrigation farming with intensive recycling. For example, effluent from the fishponds is used on crops as fresh water is pumped to both.



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We were visiting Elvie and Abeguedou as part of adelegation from GonzagaUniversity, which has had apartner relationship with

Songhai for six years. PastGonzaga engineering facultymember, Dr. Brad Streibig,worked with Songhai todevelop a sustainable waterfilter for home use inBenin. Songhai has beenproducing the filters andselling them for 5years. Study abroad groupsfrom Gonzaga have engaged

in health education with Songhai interns, and Nursing faculty have consulted onSonghai's model for small rural clinics. We continue to bring students for study abroad,research, and service. A potential new form of service involves documented outcomesfor Songhai grads such as Elvie and Abeguedou.

With training and knowledge from Songhaiand financial support from Eliminate PovertyNow, Elvie and Abeguedou have a chancethat only a few farmers in Benin have -- tobecome rural entrepreneurs. Now, 18 months

into their project, we observe how thingswere going. They chose to set up theirchicken and rabbit enclosures at Abeguedou'suncle's house, where Emanuella also receivesschooling. The loan also allowed them tobuy a small plot of land about two minutesaway. They chose land that naturally slopedtoward a marsh so they could lay out bothcrops and fish ponds. Their water tower ismade of wood rather than concrete, as theones at Songhai are, but it allows them to

store water from the wetland and avoid thehazards of dry land farming.



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They practice other Songhai methods on a small scale. Their crops are green andlush. While their land is measured in square meters now rather than hectares,

Abeguedou explains to us, through our interpreter, Rolland Adoukonou, that he plans toexpand crop production when the high water subsides.

But even with all of this support,they have had a bigsetback. They lost 400 of their500 egg laying chickens to a fastmoving disease. Songhai wasable to consult with them to savethe remaining 100 chicks. Eggproduction is profitable in Beninand the proceeds from 500 layerscould have met a substantial partof the loan payments, which startin October. Abeguedou shows usthe farm ledger accounting forthe loss and he and Elviediscusses its impact with us

through Rolland. Even with this significant loss, fish and produce have realized 32,000CFA in profits recently. They were losing some rabbits early on, but now things arestable and they will soon have rabbits to eat and sell.

Rolland listens for arelatively long time as

Abeguedou expressessomething even morecomplicated thanagronomy. Rolland nodsand translated for us. "Hesays that they knows thatthe loss of the chickenswas serious, but he andElvie are determined tomake up for it with theirother production." Many

things are going well forElvie, Abeguedou, andEmmanuella. They havelots of food to eat andmore and more to sell. They know how to get more food from their efforts because of their education. With the loan from Eliminate Poverty Now, they have started adiversified and sustainable enterprise. Their sense of determination and resiliency are



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native to Benin, but also a staple of Songhai's training model, which not only focuses onagronomy, but also personal discipline and entrepreneurship.

Rebecca

Our intinerary included visits to two farmsthat day, so after leaving Elvie and

Abegoudou, we were puzzled as our drivertook us into Cotonou, the biggest city inBenin. Home to over one million people,most of its streets are unpaved, especially inareas most distant from the office buildingsand port activity at the city’s center. Wespent some time bouncing down reddishclay roads impossibly deformed by lastmonth's rains. The driver signaled to awoman on a scooter whom he knew. Sheturned out to be our second farmer,Rebecca, and she was keeping an eye outfor our truck. We followed her through amaze of narrower roads to her father'shouse. After introductions, we were led intoa courtyard with a large rabbit enclosurebuilt into one side.

The enclosure itself showed was about 9 meters long and only 2 to 3 meterswide. After dipping our shoes in disinfectant, we entered to find two rows of newcages, many of which were full of mature rabbits, dozens of rabbits. On top of thecages, in small boxes, baby rabbits huddled together, still seeking warmth in spite of the high heat and humidity of the day. Rebecca described the main features of therabbit enclosure. The concrete floor with drainage makes cleaning droppings easy andreduces disease. Males and females are separated and their breeding linestracked. Early in the project, Rebecca was losing some baby rabbits to cold, but nowthe enclosure holds more heat. Keeping the babies in a small box has helped. Thedesign and knowledge to raise rabbits came from Rebecca’s training at Songhai. The

resources to build the hutch came from Eliminate Poverty Now, a US based non-profitorganization.

Rebecca's rabbit farm is going well. Soon she will have more rabbits to sell. She plansto expand her operation to her brother’s farm in the near future. Like Elvie, she hasendured some setbacks and is becoming an entrepreneur of a profitable andsustainable business.



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Dr. Mark AlfinoGonzaga-in-BeninGonzaga University

Spokane, WA USA Summer 2012

elvie and rebecca

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