Andando is an NGO based in Oregon that works with women’s cooperative gardens in Senegal since 2008. Groups consist of about 100-150 women who share plots on 1 hectare of land. Each garden has a hand dug or borehole well and solar pump that fills a 5000L reservoir during the day which distributes water to 6 basins throughout the garden. The women fill their watering cans at these basins and water their small vegetable plots by hand daily. Fish are a vital component of the Senegalese diet both nutritionally and culturally, but access to fresh fish in inland areas is limited and often prohibitively expensive for smallholder farmers. In the hopes of improving access to fish in the area, in 2020, Andando’s local leadership along with women from 4 cooperative gardens in Andando’s Keur Soce region of operation came up with a plan to try adding fish production tanks upstream of the existing watering basins. In this system water already destined for irrigation purposes can pass through fish holding tanks before flowing to watering basins, thereby facilitating fish production and increasing vegetable outputs due to increased nutrients in the water, allowing for a double use of water. The fish holding tank is larger than the watering basins so that only half of the water is removed daily and replenished by the solar pump each afternoon. The fish tanks are each plumbed to two watering basins with water coming from the bottom of the tank to facilitate the evacuation of nutrient rich fish waste.
Thanks to a small grant from the Tankersley Endowment managed by Auburn University, two such fish tanks per garden were installed in each of 4 gardens. For the first trial, one tank was stocked with mixed sex tilapia and the other with clarias fingerlings. The women were guided closely during the first trial by the garden technicians, who were also learning about fish. Mistakes were made before the group and garden technicians could receive in-person training towards the end of the first cycle. This prompted the women to ask very good questions when they finally did get the training. funded by ASA/WISHH. After learning some about the feeding habits of the fish, and with their experience in trying to attain fingerlings, they decided to raise only tilapia for the next production cycles, mainly because they could produce their own fingerlings, the tilapia were easier to feed if they could not get pellets, and the growth rates were acceptable. Three more cycles have now been completed.
The “fish water” allowed the women to increase production of fast-growing high value crops such as lettuce, and mint, the latter of which was able to produce 3 cuttings per month compared to 2 cuttings previously. Other crops such as aubergine, tomatoes, and cabbage also showed faster growth and overall healthier plants. Women who had previously quit the group now wanted to re-join. All of the fish are sold to women within the groups. The intent is to sell at a favorable price that still allows the group to purchase inputs for the next cycle. The improved garden yields provide the most benefit, so even if the women only break even on the fish, they have access to fresh fish for their families and their garden production has benefited. Two fish crops per year produce 20 to 25 kg of market size tilapia per crop in each of the 5 cubic meter tanks and usually enough fingerlings to re-stock. Fish tanks have been constructed at Andando’s new Keur Soce High School garden, which will start production in October, making this the first High School in all of Senegal with an aquaculture program.