Farmers in Mali endorse climate-resilient and high-yielding crop varieties

Farmers in Mali, who volunteered to grow climate-resilient and locally adapted varieties of sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut and cowpea crops under the UE-APSAN-Mali project, demonstrated the superior features of their crops during a field visit by other farmers, seed producers and local officials. Small groups of selected highly motivated farmers identified through project implementing partners had carried out testing trials and demonstrations on their pilot plots. In front of her sorghum demonstration plot, Mrs Baro Coulibaly from the Local Union of Cereals Producers (ULPC) is happy to explain the qualities of Soubatimi, a sorghum variety, saying, “Soubatimi is very productive; good for both human consumption and animal feeding.” “The varieties demonstrated here are better compared to our local varieties,” says Mr Amadou Diallo, a cowpea producer. Another woman farmer, Ms Awa Konaté from Diarani village in the Commune of Wakoro, Dioila, tested three varieties of groundnut, of ...