National Cooperative Business Association

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 9, 2013

Contact: John Torres
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202.383.5452

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Ambassador Williams Lauds NCBA CLUSA International’s ARZIKI Project as an Example for Women’s Empowerment in Food Security In Niger

(NIAMEY, NIGER) – NCBA CLUSA International hosted Ambassador Bisa Williams, U.S. Ambassador to Niger, on Friday, April 26 to tour the work being done in food security and women’s rights by the CLUSA-implemented USAID-funded Niger Food Security Project, ARZIKI.

 

Ambassador William’s visit, focusing largely on innovative Climate Change Adaptation techniques implemented by ARZIKI, included stops in Tahoua, Zouraré Sabara, Ibarogan, Nagaro, and Awilikiss in the Tahoua region of Niger. Since 2010, ARZIKI, a local Hausa word meaning “prosperity,” has been working across multiple sectors to increase food security across the drought-stricken Sahelian belt of southern Niger. The project focuses on rehabilitating water sources, grant application literacy, mirco-finance linkages, reclamation of bio-degraded land, livestock, and improved agriculture techniques. ARZIKI is one of the first USAID-funded projects to see success in its implementation of Climate Change Adaptation activities such as using contour stone bunds to retain rain water and natural run-off, and providing women with long-term land lease contracts to turn the reclaimed land into productive space for income generating crops.

 

Ambassador Williams spent much of the day praising this technique and the villages partaking in it saying, “I commend the initiative to provide land access to landless women through the ARZIKI project, whereby women can now rehabilitate barren land by building contour stone bunds and produce food for themselves and their families.”

Women of Niger have struggled historically for a right to their own land. This particular success is a two-fold win as bio-degraded land is being rehabilitated while simultaneously providing a space for women to grow crops to feed their families and animals, as well as for income generation.

ARZIKI Chief of Party, Tom Gardiner says of this duel success, “These women are working hard to gain secure and long-term land use tenure documents, and they are tirelessly laboring to make these lands productive once again. By constructing contour stone bunds and digging zai planting pits, they consciously engage in two water harvesting technologies proven to guarantee production of food and cash crops. The men in their villages are seeing the impact of their efforts; some are even copying the technologies on their own farming plots; others are supporting them in their work.”

Before concluding her visit, Ambassador Williams said of NCBA CLUSA International’s ARZIKI project, “You are proof of success in Environmental Management. Keep doing it and share your knowledge and skills with others.”

Headquartered in Washington, DC, NCBA CLUSA International is a trade and international development organization with programs in 10 countries including Senegal, Niger, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, El Salvador, Indonesia and Timor-Leste providing sustainable community development in agriculture and food security, community based healthcare, democracy and governance, and natural resource management.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 26, 2013

Contact: John Torres
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
202.383.5452

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCBA Echoes Congressional Concern on USDA Consolidation Proposal

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) echoes the concerns voiced on April 24 by a number of bipartisan committee members in a budget hearing with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, regarding USDA Rural Development’s “sweeping” proposal to consolidate agency programs including the Rural Cooperative Development Grant program through the Congressional appropriation process.

“NCBA is very concerned that USDA has overlooked the importance of rural cooperative development in its budget and is pleased that Rural Development officials faced many questions from members of Congress, including Chairman Robert Aderholt, about the Administration’s plan to simply merge funding of many crucial activities together without a clear strategy,” said Michael Beall, president of NCBA in a statement. “This plan removes the one funding mechanism for rural cooperative development, and we call on the Administration to rethink this important priority.”

On April 25, NCBA sent a letter to Chairman Robert Aderholt and Ranking Member Sam Farr expressing their deep concern on this matter.

In his opening statement of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies on April 24, subcommittee chairman Congressman Robert Aderholt (R-AL) said, “As noted in the testimony, USDA is the sole federal department charged with serving the needs of Americans who live in the rural parts of this nation… As the only federal department dedicated to rural America, I have to wonder if this budget request is truly in tune with its needs, especially the needs of rural Americans with the lowest incomes.”

In an earlier statement, NCBA expressed concern that the proposed consolidation of a number of unrelated rural development programs will diminish USDA’s focus and mission of supporting the advancement of cooperatives.

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Our Water is Our Water

Ibarogan is a parched, dusty village nestled upslope from a small ephemeral waterway in the Tahoua Region of Niger. Low annual rainfall forces farmers to rely on subsistence crops such as millet and cowpeas. With poor soil quality and little access to irrigation, Ibarogan’s farmers struggle to produce enough food to feed their families. Furthermore, Ibarogan’s population has limited access to more nutritious foods and vegetables, subsequently facing widespread malnutrition.

Recently, however, Ibarogan’s famers have begun to see significant changes in their ability to produce more and better-quality crops as a result of joining the USAID-funded Arziki Project implemented by NCBA | CLUSA International. “Arziki” means “prosperity” in the local language, Hausa, and is quickly proving to be aptly named. The project focuses on the promotion of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), finding methods to reclaim degraded land while subsequently providing more fertile areas for farmers to plant crops.

With the help of Arziki, Ibarogan’s community is building stone check dams along the water course which passes the village. Each check dam is buttressed at the peak flow point of the structure to reduce powerful stream flows during high-intensity storms. Along the streambed, the villagers have built rock walls to reduce soil erosion and improve water infiltration. On the improved, moisture-laden land, a result of the check dams, farmers now plant Dolique, an annual edible legume crop used for humans and livestock with a cash value of $1,000 for each hectare produced.

Ibarogan’s chief says “There is still much more to be done. Most women in our village don’t have anywhere to plant. We need to reclaim more degraded land so that women have access to cultivable plots.” USAID Arziki is helping the village do just that. Through the project’s innovative CCA program, the women of Ibarogan gain long-term land use titles and access to abandoned land where they are building contour stone bunds. Furthermore, with the help of USAID Arziki, the villagers are also building a well along the treated water course so that women can produce irrigated crops.

Ibarogan has inherited a long history of struggle facing droughts, malnutrition, and limited-to-no natural resources. With the help of USAID Arziki, the villagers are turning their lives around. The farmers’ crops are improving, and women are gaining agency to reclaim land and create fertile garden plots, reducing malnutrition and creating income-generation. With innovative CCA technical assistance, USAID Arziki is assisting Ibarogan, among many villages, in beating the odds it inherited and reclaiming its right to food, nutrition, and livelihood.

Originally published in Rural Cooperatives March/April 2013

Organic Valley, the nation’s largest cooperative of organic farmers and a leading organic brand, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in March. The La Farge, Wis.-based co-op began in 1988 with a group of Wisconsin farmers who shared a love of the land and a belief that a new, sustainable approach to agriculture was needed to help family farms and rural communities survive. Frustrated by the loss of nearly 2,000 family farms each week, these farmers set out to create a solution: organic agriculture.

“The success of Organic Valley proves that organic agriculture can be a lifeline for America’s struggling family farms,” says George Siemon, the co-op’s CEO. “In an era of rising and falling agricultural prices, Organic Valley farmer-owners can count on a stable, living wage to stay in business on their land. We are humbled and extremely thankful that the original spirit of our founding farmers, and the co-op model, has sustained our organization for 25 years.”

Organic Valley turns 25 | Rural Cooperatives