Mali Plan
Note: For background and periodic progress reports, see Project Updates
The Moringa Farm
Mamadou Dia has managed a farm in Mali for many years, mostly from his home in Arlington, Virginia. His longtime objective is to improve the local breed of livestock.He learned about the benefits of Moringa in 2010 and started a grove on his farm. The entire crop was wiped out when a neighbor was burning his fields to prepare to plant. The fire spread to Mamadou's farm despite having cleared a wide firebreak zone around his farm.
New Plan
The new plan calls for constructing a firewall around the Moringa fields to protect the plants from catching fire when his neighbors burn their fields in preparation for planting.
Unlike in Congo, Mali has relatively few birds to attack the Moringa leaves. So far, Mamadou has experienced no problems caused by birds.
Mamadou has already completed most of the first step of the project to get seeds from healthy local Moringa plants. He will experiment with a succession of small densely planted plots to be harvested in three to four month rotation periods. He will continue to select seeds from the most healthy and productive plants for propogation.
He has several hand operated grinding machines for processing leaves and seeds that he will use for demonstration. Local shops will make larger and improved machines.
Curing Malnutrition
To demonstrate the powerful health benefits, Mamadou will work with the
local Centre de Santé de Manabougou medical
facility to cure the rampant malnutrition among children under five.
The health center supports the community of Manabougou and the
surrounding small villages. The health center is staffed by qualified
nurses and midwives. The head nurse, Mr. Diarra, said malnutrition is
very rampant among the children from birth to five years old. According
to Mr. Diarra, 15% of the children are chronically malnourished. Since
the Centre de Santé does not have resources to treat the children, they
must be sent to a health clinic 15 kilometers from Manabougou to receive
help. This is a hardship for most villagers because adequate public
transportation is poor and costly.
It is our goal to grow and distribute Moringa leaf powder to the
Centre de Santé in Manabougou and surrounding villages. This will
demonstrate the many benefits of Moringa in treating malnutrition in
children. Many case studies have been conducted in Senegal, Niger and
Ghana all with exceptional results in treating children with
malnutrition.
Our vision is to educate the people of Mali on the benefits of
using Moringa. This will be accomplished through educational programs
that demonstrate how Moringa can improve their health and nutrition by
incorporating it into their daily diet. Moringa for Health will also
encourage the growth and cultivation of the trees by local farmers.
Moringa plants ready to transplant, July, 2012.
We would like to thank Mr. Baba Baaby of Westco S.T., Inc. for shipping a tractor and tools to Mali. Westco, located in Montgomery Village, Maryland, ships to west African countries.