By focusing on natural farming methods such as permaculture, agroecology and agroforestry, The Ivory Foundation is helping to combat undernutrition in particularly vulnerable communities in Africa. It supports innovative approaches to encourage sustainable agriculture that can produce long-term livelihoods, and that is accessible to as many people as possible. Preserving the environment is also at the heart of its work, as is research and experimentation in the field of ecology and biodiversity.
The Ivory Foundation has also set up a programme to encourage the production of reproducible organic seeds to complement this approach.
Since 2017, The Ivory Foundation has supported a project for deaf and hearing-impaired young people in the Leribe region of Lesotho. In 2019, the fund supported the establishment of a pilot farm accommodating 6 young people in professional autonomy. Read more…
The Malanti garden is part of the “Garden of Skills”, an innovative project launched by Designing Hope in 2020, with the support of Bon Marché Rive Gauche. It consists of combining a “Garden Forest” on the same site, in the middle of which will be built a centre for activities and training in the fields of agroecology, agroforestry, crafts and the management of micro-projects. Read more…
The vegetable seed production sector in Africa needs to be better structured and professionalised. It is highly dependent on international seed companies offering a limited range of often non-reproducible seeds that are poorly adapted to the continent’s agro-climatic conditions and agro-technical level.
Seeds are also inaccessible to local populations, who at the same time have often lost the richness of their indigenous varieties that their ancestors knew how to reproduce and conserve. This is why, in partnership with French seed company Agrosemens and APAF Senegal, The Ivory Foundation wanted to encourage the production of reproducible organic seeds adapted to both climatic conditions and the local market, while developing, with the expertise of Agrosemens, accessible tutorials adapted to the countries in which it operates. Read more…
The Dawady school farm came into being in 2017, at the initiative of The Ivory Foundation with local expertise from Am Be Khoun and Kaicedrat. 134 women are involved in its management, and benefit from individual plots to feed their families. Since 2020, this work has spread to neighbouring villages. As a result, 5 new market garden areas have been associated with the project. Read more…
In 2021, The Ivory Foundation joined its seed production initiative with the Bala medical centre, which it has been supporting since 2015. The Ivory Foundation has combined this medical action with a nutritional component by promoting the establishment of collective vegetable gardens in several villages around the two health centres. So, in 2021, it seemed natural to combine this approach to promoting market gardening in rural areas with a seed production component, in order to make this project more autonomous and sustainable. A crop manager based in Bala has been recruited, and an agroforestry plot has been developed, with a greenhouse dedicated to seed production at its centre. Read more…
