finished stable with 14 head

Our beef stable is finally complete and in full operation.  During the first week of May we had delivered 14 head that we had purchased in Payar.  These animals came to us very thin obviously as this is near the end of the dry season and feed and water are very scarce for these traditionally nomadic livestock.  Fortunately we have ample feed and water and have seen some excellent conditioning already this past week.  This is a very exciting addition to the project for many reasons.

Work began on the stable last summer to house our animals for the cattle fattening project.  It is a simple open air concept stable.  There is a 10m by 15m covered section with a concrete floor that will be the feeding area for the animals.  Daily cleaning of the stable will provide the animals with a clean environment and provide us with much needed manure for our compost requirements.  Each animal will provide us with nearly 10 tons of manure per year, so when our requirements for upwards of 5 tons/Ha per crop are taken into consideration, this stuff is like gold to us!  We strongly feel that raising livestock is a very vital component in a holistic agricultural project, with manure production as vital, and also with the margins for profit after fattening, it is also a key for income generation.

The site for the stable is located adjacent to our 7Ha cropping area.  This cropping area is outlined with a 3 row leucaena hedge that not only provides shade and wind protection, but it is also a nitrogen fixing tree and its leaves are excellent cattle fodder.  Connected to the covered portion of the stable will be an outdoor fenced area of 8m by 15m where animals can exercise and enjoy the shade from the acacia trees we have left there and from the above mentioned leucaena hedge.

feed bunk

free range area

]]> http://beershebaproject.org/2012/05/stable/feed/ 0 http://beershebaproject.org/2012/03/intern-class-2012/ http://beershebaproject.org/2012/03/intern-class-2012/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:42:11 +0000 Joell http://beershebaproject.org/?p=1016

Our interns have arrived!  What a blessing they will be to all of us at the Project, and even more so, what wonderful ways God will use these young men to be agents of change in their rural communities and all of Senegal.

A key component of our vision to provide holistic training to young Christian farmers is our Intern Development Program.  We have launched this program on 05 March 2012 with 14 young Christian farmers from the surrounding areas.  Each of these students comes with a recommendation from their respective pastors, and each of the interns were already engaged in agricultural activities.  These 14 interns are now living on the Project in temporary housing and will be directly involved in all aspects of operations.  Each student will be assigned a certain segment for a 3-4 month period.  The expertise they gain in the areas of forestry management, livestock husbandry, cropping and literacy training, (all within a Christian worldview), will equip them as they expand and later apply their knowledge at the village level.   At the end of their yearly training, we want to provide some start-up assistance to the top achievers so they can head back to their village with the capital resources they need to start their own profitable farming venture.

Class of 2012

Ablaye Diouf

Benoît Gueye

Ernest Ndiouma Dieng

Jean Noel Faye

Mamadou Dione

Mamadou Faye

Moïse Diouf

Nicolas Faye

Pierre Badou Fall

Pierre Gning

Pierre Sène

Raymond Dierry Sène

Richard Djiby Diouf

It is with great pleasure that we officially announce that we have entered into a formal relationship with Samaritan’s Purse Canada.  We are excited for the commitment they are showing to The Beer-Sheba Project and we anticipate that the joint partnership will enable and further both of our organization’s goals and interests.

Samaritan’s Purse Canada has provided the funding for two buildings, one dormitory for students, and another multi-purpose classroom building.  In addition, there is also funding for the installation of an irrigation network, water tower, and a generator so that we can begin pumping water.   We are very grateful for this level of involvement and we look forward to working together.

We have already begun some preliminary work as part of this funding as the water installation will be the first priority.  In addition, next week, we have a project engineer coming out here to Senegal from the U.S. to provide some professional advice on these building projects and then he will return early 2012 to oversee the construction.

In a related note, Canadians wanting to donate to the activities here at Beer-Sheba and get a tax receipt can now do so through this relationship with Samaritan’s Purse.  Donations can be made online on their website, just select “Senegal Agriculture” on the drop down menu.

Eric and Dr. Ben Tura exchanging gifts

The new Israeli ambassador, His Excellency Dr. Eli Ben Tura, has followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by supporting The Beer-Sheba Project with his presence. The ambassador spent the morning of 17 November at the Project to gain an understanding of the vision as he viewed the different areas of interest within the Project. Local village chiefs were present to welcome him as he arrived.

The reforestation of the Project area being obvious, the ambassador was then given an explanation how eco-charcoal is produced as part of our forestry management plan by using the selective cuttings of a single variety of mature trees. The process is then completed using a new method of carbonization from the Casamance (south Senegal). He was even invited to partake in some pruning himself, as part of some active Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration.

After his visit to Beer-Sheba, the Israeli ambassador went on to see two other TIPA projects in the region.

The market-gardening area at Beer-Sheba which is now being established will use the Israeli TIPA irrigation system, with technical support from the Israeli Embassy.

Israeli ambassador visits Beer-Sheba from johannesnorg on Vimeo.

The Tabaski festival in Senegal is a big Muslim event, comparable in importance to our Christmas celebrations. Every family (or often every person who earns enough money to be able to afford it) buys a ram as a sacrifice for their sins. It is related to the story of Abraham sacrificing his son (for us Isaac, for muslims Ishmael). With the whole country busy with their Tabaski rituals our Christian young people decided to organise themselves with a sleep over and a day’s work at Beer-Sheba. The aim was to earn some money to use for future evangelistic events.

The team at Beer-Sheba expected some 20 youngsters to stay overnight, and about 40 to work for the day, the actual numbers were around 40 and 80 respectively!!

Jambaar meeting in the village

The Beer-Sheba Project in partnership with Peracod/FASEN has undertaken an extensive village tour in the Sandiara area, visiting women’s groups to introduce the improved cooking stoves. The representative from Peracod/FASEN has extensive experience in promoting the stoves, and she was assisted by the President of the Sandiara women’s groups as well as a former nationwide president. The aim was to make the women aware of the advantages of the stoves, and the launching event at the Sandiara market on the Saturday of that week.

Some of the women were so pleased just to see the stoves, that they did a little dance of joy. This same reaction we also encountered at the market, when one of the women’s groups came to buy four stoves. We even had one of the women singing at the microphone. (Sorry, we enjoyed that so much, we failed to take a photo in time.) The sale of stoves didn’t fill up the bank, but then again we probably should not have had such high expectations, because in a week or so the Tabaski festival requires muslim families to buy a ram and prepare it for the feast. You can easily buy four or five or twenty Furno Jambaars (stoves) for the kind of money they need to spend on a ram!

The village groups were encouraged to organise a system whereby each household pays a small amount each week, from which they can buy a stove en distribute it to one of the members of the group. This means it will take a little while before all the households have their own furno jambaar. We will have regular sales at the Sandiara market, as well as from the Beer-Sheba office/guest-house in town.

Sandiara market event

Pastor Jokel, Mr. Binoua, and Eric in front of beef stable

Worldwide connections led the Minister of the Interior of the Central African Republic, Josué Binoua, to take time in his schedule to visit Beer-Sheba and learn all about the vision of the project from Eric Toumieux. Having spent time in France to study business as well as theology, Mr. Binoua has kept close contacts with the pastor of the church in Mulhouse, who in turn encouraged him to meet Eric and Jokel (the pastor of the protestant church in Mbodienne) during his visit to Senegal.

Mr. Binoua expressed a great enthusiasm for the Project, as development, training and prayer are close to his heart. As a result there was a great sense of connection as we took a tour around the Project, finishing at the building site of the cattle stable.

There was more connection happening later in the day, at a meeting with the pastors group of Mbour. They meet about once a month to encourage each other, and were able to come at short notice to praise God together, and listen to Josué. He compared himself to the donkey in Matthew 21, and spurred his listeners on not to take any of the acclamation meant for Jesus, the rider, to themselves. God’s glory is like VAT, you receive it only to pass it straight back to the authorities.

Earlier in his visit to Senegal, the minister met with President Wade, as well as other dignitaries of the government as part of his fact finding tour of electoral processes.

Church leaders of Mbour

]]> http://beershebaproject.org/2011/11/minister-from-central-african-republic-honours-beer-sheba-visit/feed/ 0 http://beershebaproject.org/2011/05/international-year-of-forests-2011/ http://beershebaproject.org/2011/05/international-year-of-forests-2011/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 17:18:39 +0000 Joell http://beershebaproject.org/?p=856 2011 is the Year of Forests!!! Here are some interesting facts from http://www.fao.org/forestry/iyf2011/en/

Forests and air

• Over 40 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced from the rainforests.
• Forests contribute to the balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and humidity
  in the air.

Forests and water

• A tree releases 8-10 times more moisture into the atmosphere than the
  equivalent area of the ocean.
• Forests protect watersheds which supply fresh water to rivers.
• Loss of forests could affect rainfall patterns globally, especially in food
  growing regions in Latin America, the American mid-West and Central Asia.
• Deforestation leads to soil erosion and rivers being silted, which reduces
  access to clean wate

Forests and biodiversity

• Forests are home to over 80% of terrestrial biodiversity.
• In the Amazon basin alone, more than 1,300 species of forest plants are
  used for medicinal or cultural purposes.
• 12% of the world’s forests are designated for the conservation of biological
  diversity (FRA 2010).
• Deforestation of closed tropical rainforests could account for the loss of as
  many as 100 species a day.

Forests build resilience to natural disasters

• Nearly 330 million hectares of forest are designated for soil and water
  conservation, avalanche control, sand dune stabilization, desertification
  control or coastal protection. (FRA 2010)
• Mangrove forests act as a barrier against tsunamis, cyclones and
  hurricanes.
• ‘Green Wall for the Sahara’ The European Union and African Union are
  implementing a project to build a ‘green wall’ of trees across the Sahara
  to push back desertification and to secure agriculture and livelihoods in
  the sahelo-saharan zone.

Forests and land

• Forests cover 31% of global land area
• Forests and tree cover combat land degradation and desertification by stabilizing soils, reducing water and wind erosion and maintaining nutrient cycling in soils.

Forests are a key part of the climate change solution

• The carbon in forests exceeds the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere.  FRA 2010 estimates that the world’s forests store 289 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon in their biomass alone.
• 17.4% of global greenhouse gas emission resulted from deforestation and forest degradation.
• Forests offer the quickest, most cost-effective and largest means of curbing global emissions. It would save the world approximately $3.7 trillion between 2010 and 2200 if we halve greenhouse gas emissions (The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, 2006).

Healthy forests, healthy people

• Tropical forests provide a vast array of medicinal plants used in healing and healthcare, worth an estimated $108 billion a year.
• More than a quarter of modern medicines originate from tropical forest plants.
• Forests curb infectious diseases. Undisturbed tropical forests can have a moderating effect on insect- and animal-borne disease:
  • 40% of the world’s population lives in malaria infested regions. Heavily deforested areas can see a 300 fold increase in the risk of malaria infection compared to areas of intact forest.
  • 72% of emerging infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans come from wildlife as opposed to domesticated animals. Deforested areas increase contact between wildlife and humans and affect pathogen transmission.

Forests are our livelihoods/wealth

• 1.6 billion people around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods and daily subsistence needs.
• The global gross value-added in the forestry sector is US$ 468 billion.
• The global trade in primary wood products is US$ 235 billion.
• Tropical forests provide pollination services to agriculture valued at US$12 billion per year.
• Given that more than 1 billion hectares of degraded areas throughout the world are suitable for forest landscape restoration, community-based forest management could be woven into other existing rural economic activities.

You can download the report here.  Beer-Sheba is mentioned on page 21 and then the case study is at Appendix C4.