When Tirko Agne was a pupil who was happening for a profitable profession, he instructed his professor of agriculture that he was contemplating breeding strawberries in Senegal.
“You’ll fail,” he remembered the professor’s warning.
He didn’t hear, however now at 36 years previous, lamb manages one of many largest strawberry farms within the nation.
He did not even need to be a farmer. He had begun his larger schooling by learning regulation. However then he shocked his household by transferring on to agriculture when he realized that there have been already extra of the regulation in Senegal than there have been jobs.
But, regardless of the freezing of authorized graduates, his change in focus was an uncommon transfer for an formidable younger man in a rustic the place agriculture is thought to be work for previous, uneducated or poor folks.
Nonetheless, Mr AGNE confirmed that agriculture generally is a career that requires schooling, instructions as a lot respect and remuneration as a lawyer and requires as a lot innovation as any high-tech entrepreneur is anticipated to indicate.
Not too long ago, on his farm within the morning, simply outdoors Dakar, the capital, Mr. Agne quietly tingles the ranks of dwelling strawberry crops, checking how his delicate tradition is doing.
This harvest will probably be bought in Dakar’s supermarkets and highway suppliers – a part of the mission of G -N AGN to show what was not too long ago a luxurious deal with into each day fruit.
“We need to demistify the concept strawberries aren’t for the Africans,” stated G -n agn on his farm. “That they are often raised right here, they promote right here, and the locals, particularly our kids, should take pleasure in them.”
His mission simply acquired tougher. Till not too long ago, he acquired assist from the US Company for Worldwide Growth to rent seasonal employees and practice folks to increase the manufacturing of strawberries in Senegal. This help was terminated in February as a part of the upbringing of the Trump administration administration.
However the college students are nonetheless coming to the farm in Bayah, a village within the TIES area.
Strawberries are the favourite fruit of the 16 -year -old Rama Diane, a Dakar pupil who not too long ago visited one among Mr. Agne’s farms. However she hadn’t eaten her all yr lengthy. Standing on the sting of a area filled with them, she and her classmates had been impatient to style. D -Jan Diane jumped into his mouth and instantly started to check the one he had final yr.
“It wasn’t so candy,” she instructed Berry final yr. “I suppose it was imported.”
The distinctive style of his domestically grown strawberries is a degree of pleasure for Mr. Agne. He hopes will finally finish the import of strawberries, which at the moment represents about 80 % of Senegal’s consumption. However he’s additionally decided to show that agriculture generally is a supply of excellent jobs in a rustic the place they’re scarce – 20 % of younger persons are unemployed in Senegal.
Agriculture also can maintain younger folks at house, he stated as a substitute of pouring out the country from thousands each year, There have been usually harmful routes for alternatives in Europe and america.
USAID helped with objectives like these.
In Senegal, the place the company spent $ 27 million final yr, dismantling such assist will make younger folks really feel hopeless and nourish unlawful migration, in response to G -N AGN.
A number of younger folks he was mentoring had been contemplating migrating to america alongside a series route via Nicaragua, however he was capable of change his thoughts. A lot of his pitch was the success he was capable of finding in Senegal – and that he had a legitimate American visa, however he was too busy and happy at house to need to cross the Atlantic with him.
Lamb grows outdoor and round agriculture, taking care – and infrequently sang – his father’s mango. However he by no means thought his future can be within the manufacturing of fruit.
“It was enjoyable,” he stated, smiling as he remembered his emotional connection together with his father’s bananas and crops.
However he noticed his profession path away from the fields of his hometown, Tambacunda. He needed to be a lawyer and observe within the footsteps of his grandfather, a revered Muslim lawyer and colonial period.
After finishing his second stage schooling, he jumped by practice to Dakar, which he knew solely from the tales of magnificence, life life and the lure of alternatives.
“For the primary time, I left Tambacunda,” he stated. “I misplaced myself and did not manage to pay for.”
A couple of days later, AGNE appeared at Cheikh Anta Diop College and enrolled in a authorized program.
However when one among his academics instructed him that greater than 2000 current graduates of the College of Legislation nonetheless haven’t any job, he was bitterly dissatisfied.
Deted, he returned to his hometown, worrying about his prospects. However on this journey to house, he discovered for the primary time that his beloved grandfather was not solely a lawyer but in addition an excellent farmer who delivered millet and corn to the French powers throughout World Battle II, successful medals and French citizenship.
Upon his return to Dakar, he deserted his authorized program and registered to check agriculture.
The choice cut up his household. “Some suppose I am loopy,” he stated.
Not too long ago within the morning, the lamb welcomed over 60 college students from a Senegalese faculty, and whereas explaining the science he utilized to lift strawberries towards the possibilities, the biology instructor who introduced the scholars, started to nod.
The instructor Alieu Bah stated his college students current agriculture as one thing the poor do. “I need them to vary this notion,” he stated.
It was the season of harvest and comparable organized visits to the farms of G -N lamb had been frequent.
With the softened floor from current watering, the admiring college students had been unleashed via the fields, selecting up ripe strawberries.
“I’m so excited that I’m right here,” Rama stated, including that this was her first go to to a farm and much more thrilling, it was a strawberry farm.
Earlier than the G -n AGNE begins – the identify of his firm, which is brief for Fraise Sénégalaise, or Senegalese strawberry – Berry manufacturing on a industrial scale was unprecedented in Senegal. The new and humid local weather and chaotic rains of the West African nation had been merely not appropriate for it, many thought.
Mr. Agne himself was 22 when he first noticed strawberries on a college alternate in France.
Till then, the primary harvest he has seen is the peanuts, the primary export tradition of Senegal and millet, grain grown for native consumption.
So what made him embrace such an surprising tradition?
“It is attractive,” he stated, as he moved between a rows of berries on his farm, shuddering with the solar. “It is totally different.”
He started his experiment by planting a number of strawberries on his balcony in Dakar they usually had been flourishing. He then employed a $ 2,150 sq. meter plot for $ 250 to start out industrial operations. He gained practically $ 6,000 together with his first harvest in 2015.
His second yr, after scathing to only over 5,000 sq. toes, he gained round $ 13,000. This gave him the boldness to increase to 2.5 acres additional. However then his crops broke in the course of the rising season.
“I suppose I used to be extreme,” he admitted. “Now, I do issues step-by-step.”
Eight years after this tough lesson, a lamb now cultivated a complete of 12 acres in three flights, producing 50 tonnes of strawberries a yr. His plan is to amass a area of fifty acres subsequent yr, which can carry him right into a small circle of enormous -scale farmers in Senegal, the place 95 percent The farms are small, primarily upkeep farms.
Through the years, he has skilled lots of of younger folks, a few of whom have develop into farmers and others who course of strawberries into juice.
“Now they’re 50 of us,” he stated, citing an Affiliation of Farmers he created. “Collectively we produce 180 tonnes yearly.”
With this house manufacturing, strawberries are actually costlier in Senegal meals and are even bought by hockers on the streets. However at $ 9 to $ 11 per kilogram (simply over two kilograms), they’re nonetheless inaccessible to many.
Because the visiting college students left, everybody was holding a strawberry field, lamb inspected their crops, which miraculously survived after the step.
“I am pleased with what I’ve achieved,” he stated. “I put my nation on the map of strawberry producers.”
