Without land, the food security of Malian farmers is seriously threatened
In Mali, rice farmers do not own their land and have to pay a tax every year. If they have suffered from a bad harvest and cannot afford to pay, they are evicted from their land. Without plots to grow food, Malian farmers can no longer support themselves and their families.
SEXACON for land rights
In response to these unfair practices, small-scale producers came together to create the Niger Office Farmers’ Union in 1996. Today it gathers 15,500 farmers.
Its objectives :
- Reinforcing farmers’ access to land and water
- Conducting advocacy actions to increase the size of their farms
- Proposing mechanisms for the concerted management of land and water in the Office du Niger area
In short, the aim is to constructively defend rice farmers in the highly sought-after area of the Niger Office.
SEXAGON & SOS Faim
Since 2007, SOS Faim has been financially supporting the operation of SEXAGON (payroll, office expenses) and some of the activities it carries out, including awareness-raising and advocacy work, and training in appropriate production technologies.
Encouraging results
SEXAGON’s efforts are being successful. Thanks to an economic survey, entitled “farmer investors”, which was commissioned by SEXAGON and co-financed by SOS Faim, SEXAGON was able to propose to the Malian government the implementation of an innovative land project.
In this project, the farmers would partially participate in financing hydro-agricultural developments in their area. In exchange for this participation, they would receive a long-term lease (50 years). This would guarantee them access to land and water in the long term and allow them to increase the size of their farm, which is currently insufficient to be profitable.
This project has won the enthusiasm of the Office du Niger, which has set aside a 4,000 ha plot to carry out a pilot test.
Quelles perspectives ?
SEXAGON would like to welcome more young people and women and continue its advocacy work to facilitate farmers’ access to the new plots of land in the Office du Niger.
“The farmer is the one who feeds the world, it is important to put him in good conditions so that he can continue this task”
– Faliry Boly, Secretary General of SEXAGON