On May 14, the NGO organized an open day at the CRDE (Regional Center for Economic Development) of the Domoni prefecture, in Salamani, in the eastern zone of the island of Anjouan.
Inzou Ali, agricultural technician at Dahari and organizer of the event, tells us.

 “The point of the day was to raise awareness among the villagers around Domoni. It is important to inform them of Dahari's actions, so that they understand how we can help them. This is why we organized an open day.

For this demonstration day organized with the director of the CRDE and his technicians, the center was open to everyone: the inhabitants of the area, the beneficiaries of the NGO, also the students of the annexed college of Domoni and the town hall of Ngandzalé. We are quite happy with the number of participants, which is approaching a hundred.

During the morning, we showed visitors our demonstration plots: these are the lands used by Dahari to carry out training and present techniques or seed varieties.

Emphasis was placed on demonstrating onion cultivation using the mulching technique. This technique consists of covering the earth with straw just before planting or transplanting the seeds.

During the session, we explained to the public the multiple advantages of mulching:

• First of all, this technique allows you to keep the floor always protected against sunlight.
• Straw also helps maintain humidity in the plot.
• With the mulching technique, you don't need to water a lot
• Straw prevents weeds from growing, which reduces the need for weeding
• Finally, the mulching technique makes it possible to increase the volume of the harvest.

I told the guests two anecdotes about growing crops using the mulching technique.
The first concerns an experiment carried out in Ouzini in 2013. We planted the same onion seeds on two plots, one with mulch and the other without mulch. The mulched plot, with an area of ​​48 square meters, yielded a harvest of 92 kg (i.e. 1,91 kg/m²). The unmulched plot, with an area of ​​88 square meters, yielded a harvest of 62 kg (i.e. 0,70 kg/m²).
The second experience concerns the cultivation of peanuts at the CRDE of Salamani in 2014. The harvest was measured in numbers of buckets because there were no scales available. We used a 10 liter bucket. With an unmulched area of ​​20 square meters, the harvest was 1/4 of a bucket (i.e. 0,0125 bucket/m²). With a mulched surface of 80 square meters, the harvest was 3,75 buckets (i.e. 0,0468 bucket/m²).

These two anecdotes are successful mulching experiences, with yields multiplied by 3 or 4. Not to mention the water and energy savings brought about by mulching.

The morning ended in a festive way: at the end of the session, we handed out diplomas to the beneficiaries of the village of Ngandzalé who participated in more than 50% of the training for the 2013 market gardening campaign. »We took advantage of this open day to explain to participants the various demonstrations that Dahari has set up with the CRDE team. Several techniques were explained, including the use of liquid fertilizer, market gardens, the improved beef yard, recently imported improved varieties of banana and fodder, as well as legumes such as the Stylosanthes plot.