Pump-flood irrigation enables Senegalese women to combine rice and fish farming

Outside the town of Ndioum, on the banks of the Senegal River near the Mauritanian border, six women's groups have learned a new way of combining rice and tilapia growing that is reversing the effects of overfishing and pollution.

Rice fields must be flooded constantly until the grains can be harvested. Previously the women had to carry water from the river to the fields in jugs to keep the rice sufficiently watered. But now, with a pump provided by U.S.-based Counterpart International that more easily brings river water to the fields, the women have a unique way to use water in the fields to combine the growing of rice and the growing of tilapia, a nutrient- and protein-rich fish that is a favorite of people in northern Senegal.

The fish need approximately the same amount of time as the rice to mature. When the rice is ready to be harvested and the water must be drained, so too are the mature tilapia ready to be caught and sold.

The women are able to raise and sell hundreds of pounds of fresh fish each harvest season, improving the diets of their families and communities. In addition, the women fence off a corner section of each field for compost production. The use of organic fertilizer reduces the need for polluting pesticides. The blended compost-rice-tilapia fields can be a model for other villages, said Kudi Ba, Counterpart's agriculture program manager.

"The first harvest will be for our families, but then we can sell to other villages," said Houleye, a leader of one of the women's groups. "I hope to buy medicine for my family with the profit," said another woman. The women noted that another goal is to sell enough fish and rice to pay for gas
to power the pump.

Innovations