The first 22 trees for the model orchard. (Photo: Ousmane Bâ)

Orchards in Senegal

About 38 million people work in fishing. A hard, dangerous and poorly paid job. If these people had economic alternatives, they would not fish as long as they do not receive a fair price. But how are alternatives created?

In 2010, fair-fish had to abandon its fishery project in Senegal. After that, we tried to create local income outside fisheries together with fishing villages in the Saloum estuary. Our last project was to bring variety into the one-sided diet with fruit orchards.
The first model orchard was planned at the island village of Fayako, under the direction of Ousmane Bâ, a long-time local fair-fish employee and gardener. The sale of the harvests on the local market was supposed to compensate the work and finance the establishment of further orchards in the region.

Unfortunately, the project already failed with the first garden for local reasons (more on this here, in German). It should have been taken up again afterwards by Bâ together with other interested villages in the region, based on our original plans, but independently of us. We never heard about it again.