Real Life Story - Information communication learning Demonstrations_KnO 100043

Demonstrations

Practical Action

Real Life Story

Practical Demonstrations Preserve Rainfall in Sudan

Like much of Sudan, farming is hard in the areas around

Kebkabiya in North Darfur, in the west of the country. The

land is arid and rainfall is scarce and unpredictable.

Most of the land owned and cultivated by the local farmers is

sandy loam soil with a hard surface. Any rain that does fall

tends to run off the sloping land. Under such conditions, the

traditional hand hoe is an inadequate farming tool which is

time consuming to use and causes many hardships to women

who perform 75% of the cultivation activities. In the 1990s

several development organisations came together to develop

new donkey draw ploughs to help tackle the cultivation

problem. The ploughs were designed with the help of local

farmers, and made by village blacksmiths.

A series of local demonstrations were designed to familiarise

local farmers with the new way of ploughing. Farmers were

shown how to link the plough to the donkey, how to train the

donkey to pull the plough, and how to undertake cultivation.

Donkey feeding and healthcare was also taught.

After the demonstrations local farmers explained that they were

now able to break up the soil’s surface crust and plough big

Practical Action Sudan

ridges. This meant that precious rainfall was captured and

allowed to soak into the soil, instead of being lost. Some farmers mentioned that the

ploughing also made subsequent weeding easier.

Real life story by kind permission of Practical Action Sudan