Baseline Survey of My Village

Below is a baseline survey of my village I conducted during my first two months as a volunteer. The survey includes basic information on village demographics, education, economy, agriculture, environment, agroforestry, animal production Per Peace Corps regulations, I have replaced the name of my village with "Village." Please email me any questions you have about these topics and I will answer them in a future post.

Baseline Survey: Village, Kedougou

1. Community Demographics and Basic Information

                About 415 people live in Village. The village is located in the department of Kedougou. Jaxanke (about 80%) and Pulaar (about 20%) people are present in the community. The most commonly spoken language is Jaxanke, though a few people only speak Pulaar. Some younger people occasionally speak French or mix French words in with their Jaxanke/Pulaar. The village chief is my host father, Sedy Traore. Major holidays celebrated in the village include Tabaski, Ramadan, the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, and Koritee. The village is all Muslim.

2. Education

                In Village, there is one primary French school with two rooms. If children want to go to college or lycee, they must go to other villages. Often this requires living in another village for the duration of the school year. Not all children attend school. None of my three host siblings who are school-age currently attend school. Kids that do not attend school sometimes work in the fields or cut grass for thatched rooves; sometimes they just play or wander around the village. In the primary school, students study the standard subjects in Senegalese school which include French, Math, Science, Geography, and History. The two schoolteachers are from other regions of Senegal. The school director lives in a nearby village. The Senegalese Government built the school and the Ministry of Education pays for the teachers. The teachers live in a small compound near the schoolyard.

3. Economy

                Most men in the village make money from farming. Some have vegetable gardens or make furniture. Many men also raise animals for income. A few men travel outside the community to work as day laborers in cities or mining gold during the hot season when there is no farming to be done. A few men from the village are in Europe working. Women in the village do not make as money as men. Many have gardens, a few raise some rice or peanuts, and a few own animals. At least one woman in the village sells beignets during the day. Some men and women in the village sell small items normally found at boutiques for a little extra income. These items include tea, sugar, laundry detergent, cigarettes, Jumbo and Kirene phone credit. There are no boutiques in the village. The closest weekly market is in a village about one hour away by bike or three hours walking. Many people in Village go to the luumo every week; men ride their bikes and women generally walk. Most people do not buy very many of their cooking ingredients other than Jumbo—they eat what they grow. If they do buy other ingredients to cook, it would generally be from the luumo or from someone else in the village. Most construction materials like bamboo and bankala are cut from the forest. Other materials such as wire and cement are purchased in towns such as the luumo town.

4. Agriculture

                The vast majority of families in Village farm corn, rice, and peanuts. These three crops form the basis of farmers’ incomes and diets. Some people farm cotton as well. People in Village used to farm fonio and millet, but fonio is difficult to process and birds eat the millet; corn and rice are easier to farm and process. Fields are watered via rainfall only. Crops are seeded at the start of the rainy season; the harvest/processing season continues until mid-January. Corn is seeded first, followed by peanuts and rice. The crops are generally harvested and processed in the same order. Major challenges in farming include the lack of machines, the cost of manure for fields, and the distance of the fields from the village. Many people farm in a village 30 minutes away via bike or  another village about 1 hour away via bike; this commute means they often spend much of the harvest season away from their families.

Many women have gardens near the river, about 1-2 kilometers from the village. The most-grown vegetables are bitter tomato, onion, jabare. Less-frequently grown vegetables include okra, lettuce, cabbage, hot pepper, hibiscus, and mint. Gardens are watered via the nearby river. There is one garden near the forage that is watered via the forage. For farming crops, seeds are saved from the previous year’s harvest. For garden vegetables, most seeds are purchased except for onion, which are sometimes saved. Pounded manure is often used in gardens. The expense of fertilizer or manure for farms is prohibitively expensive for farmers, so these products are not used on larger fields.

5. Environment and Natural Resources

                One of the most important environmental challenges in the community is the inconsistent rainfall. During a year with a lot of rain, there is plenty of rain to cultivate the crops. Before about 10-15 years ago, there was a consistent large amount of rain every year. In the last 10-15 years, the rain has not been consistent. Some years there is comparatively very little rain, which causes some crops not to grow as expected. These years are difficult for farmers, as their income is not as large as expected. Another environmental problem that faces the village is soil degradation.

                There are three forages in the community and at least three wells, two of which are inside compounds. The Senegalese Government pays for wells initially, but after that repairs are paid for by the community. The village chief oversees organizing collections of money should repairs be necessary for a well or forage. People in the village do not pay to pull water from the wells or to pump water from the forage.

                Generally the soil in and around Village is good for farming. However, soil quality around the village was be better around 15 years ago. After about 10 years of farming rice on the soil without any inputs of manure or other organic material, the land is no longer good for farming rice. This is one of the reasons that many farmers have their fields in faraway villages—some of the farmland around Village no longer has good soil. The people in Village are aware of soil degradation and its causes but do not have the financial resources to mitigate this problem by input of organic matter, so they deal with it by moving their fields to different villages.

                The forest cover around Village has decreased in the last approximately 15 years. The main causes of this include villagers cutting down trees to use for construction in the village and farmers clearing land for new fields by starting bush fires and cutting down trees. These causes of deforestation are understood by the people of Village, but they say that taking just a little wood from the forest is okay because it grows back every year. Products routinely taken from the forest include bamboo for fences and roofs, dead trees for firewood, bankala for chair and bed construction, and large branches for fence and table construction. Cooking is done almost exclusively using firewood collected from the forest. The coals from cooking fires are then used to make attaya. If you want more land around Village, you need to ask the village chief and he can grant you permission to use the land once you explain your plans for the land. It is then your responsibility to clear the land and use it how you wish. It appears that this system is independent of any formal government system for owning land. Some land that the village chief has granted use of to various people is technically forest land in the government’s eyes.

6. Agroforestry

                Many families have a few fruit trees planted in and around their compounds. The most commonly seen species are mango, papaya, petit pois, and moringa. Some compounds have partial Jatropha live fencing for their yards—these were for the most part planted by former Peace Corps volunteers in Village. A few cashew trees have also been planted in and around the village in the last three years with the help of former Peace Corps volunteers. Village residents do not plant trees in their rice, peanut, or corn fields. Past volunteers have conducted tree nursery trainings in the village; there are at least two very knowledgeable work partners who are proficient in establishing a tree nursery. These work partners planted cashew trees last year, many of which have died, and want to plant more this year.

                There are bush fires around Village fairly regularly. Community members prevent the fires from reaching the village by doing a controlled burn of grass between an existing fire and the village so that the fire stops before it reaches anyone’s fields or compound. Many Village residents are aware of live fencing and interested in planting them around their compounds or fields, but they may underestimate the amount of work required to plant and maintain a successful live fence. The live fencing that exists in the village is mainly Jatropha. Community members do not plant trees for windbreaks, firebreaks, or woodlots, but they easily understood these concepts when I explained them.

                Some community members do alley cropping by planting rows of beans in between their corn or peanuts. Nobody in Village has yet done alley cropping with trees such as petit pois. There are no productive fruit orchards in the community, but many people have some fruit trees in their compounds. A few community members have attempted to start small cashew orchards with former Peace Corps volunteers. Many community members are interested in planting more mango, cashew, and citrus trees. My ancien’s counterpart has only grafted a tree as part of the counterpart workshop training in Thies last year. Others in the village have not grafted trees before.

7. Animal Production

                Many people in the community raise animals including chickens, cows, goats, and sheep. A few families also raise ducks or a dog. Almost all compounds raise at least one type of animal. During the cold season, most animals forage on their own for food in the bush. Chickens and ducks sometimes get leftover meal scraps. During the hot season when there is less food for animals in the bush, farmers feed their animals dried peanut stalks that they have saved on top of their roofs for this purpose. During this time of year, many animals do not get enough to eat. Buying more food for them is expensive. This is one of the major challenges in animal production. Another challenge is getting enough water for the animals if the forages in the village run low during the hot season.