Food Security Niger Project #21564

Women's Community Gardens in Niger

by Rain for the Sahel and Sahara

Project Report | Mar 27, 2025
Growing Together - from the Ground Up!

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Weeding the garden in Betarmatas

Desertification and unpredictable weather patterns have worsened agricultural production, leaving Nigeriens with insufficient food. Families are forced to sell assets and ration consumption while their storage bins sit empty. These lean periods underscore the pressing need to increase food production and incomes.

To this end, RAIN is working to support access to clean water and nutritious food for over 4,000 rural and nomadic Nigeriens. This year, RAIN is supporting two communities in the Agadez region to expand their gardens (over 6 acres of land) and increase nutritional variety and profitability by planting 300+ fruit-bearing trees. This program provides ongoing agricultural and entrepreneurship training to 84 women and serves as an added technical resource for an additional 180 community members. Participants learn how to turn subsistence agriculture into sustainable business through the application of economic principles, for example, how to store produce to ensure availability of food during the hunger season while also earning a higher rate of return.

Harouna, RAIN's Program Manager, has described the communities' investment so far as "colossal." Last year, they grew more varied produce and saw greater yields (over 14,000 lbs of produce). This year, we plan to outdo last year's results! So far, the next round of planting includes 87 beds of zucchini, 6 beds of onions, 24 beds of corn, 34 beds of tomatoes, and some squash plants. Beyond these daily efforts, there is also evidence of increasingly community-driven strategy: including the effort to incorporate composting. A critical piece of what makes these efforts impactful, beyond the timeline of RAIN’s intervention, is for community members to develop not only the skills and confidence to implement what they’ve learned but the autonomy and ownership for the project to evolve beyond what RAIN’s Field Agents initiate. The composting initiative is a sign that the community of Betarmatas is not only succeeding in implementing what they’re learning but that they are thinking critically about how to lead and manage the garden themselves.

We can't wait to see what other initiatives this year brings!

The Enmikras Women’s Group shares the impact of RAIN’s support:

“Everywhere in our village and the neighboring villages we speak of the positive things you have brought. The entire community is delighted, and we are all ready to do whatever it takes to conserve and maintain these gains. We will never forget all the good that you have done for the future of our children, for our women’s group, and for the entire village and community.”

Preparing moringa, after harvest

Trees bring economic and environmental benefits

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Aug 9, 2024
Moringa, Mangoes, Monkeys, and More!

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Greenery in the Desert

Over the last garden season, 70 women cultivated almost 28,000m2 and have successfully grown wheat, barley, tomatoes, onions, watermelon, squash, lettuce, peppers, cabbage, corn, and zucchini among other marketable products.

All the products (over 600kg/garden from the last harvest) are divided into 3 groups:

the majority (about 85% right now) is set aside for sale, which helps to cover ongoing garden-related expenses and to earn additional income for program participants;
a smaller quantity is set aside for consumption by the 70 women and their children; and
the remainder is used to harvest seeds for future gardening campaigns.

In the most recent harvest:

sales focused on cabbage, tomatoes, and watermelon
consumption focused on wheat, cabbage, barley, and watermelon.

Unfortunately, local monkeys also like watermelon! After they ate up a number of the watermelons in Betarmatas, we realized the terrain needs to be better secured. Fortunately, there was still plenty of food. In addition to what was sold, consumed, used for seeds, and eaten by monkeys, participants stocked approximately 6 sacks of zucchini and 6 sacks of dried cabbage.

Ongoing trainings included:

cash management,
water management,
composting,
use of organic manure,
management of nurseries,
transplanting, and
the manufacture and use of organic pesticides like neem leaves and tobacco.

We also offered trainings around trees and helped to layer this new piece into the community gardens through the planting of 285 trees.

In Betarmatas, we supported the planting of:

100 moringa trees,
14 mango trees,
14 citrus trees, and
12 cinnamon apple trees.

The program participants were so enthusiastic about this new development that when RAIN’s team arrived, they had already dug out the holes where the trees would go and composted the soil for planting them. The Village Chief encouraged the broader community to support the efforts and many of them showed up to help.

In Tchingrof, we supported the planting of:

100 moringa trees,
17 citrus trees,
10 cinnamon apple trees,
4 guava trees, and
14 mango trees.

Here, the women worked to dig the holes, compost the soil, and plant and water the new trees. They retired to the Village Chief’s house for a community-wide meeting where they expressed their gratitude for this project and reiterated their commitment to maintaining the garden and ensuring its smooth operations.

Now, the communities are actively preparing for the rainy season. So far, the next round of planting includes 87 beds of zucchini, 6 beds of onions, 24 beds of corn, 34 beds of tomatoes, and some squash plants. Both Communities will also work to foster their new fruit trees.

Program participants have grown more varied produce and seen greater yields than in the past but after a year of limited rainfall, the entire valley is facing a drop in the water table. The primary concern, for now, is around limited wheat production. While the women are still producing enough outputs for both consumption and sales, the reduced yields limit their ability to set as much food aside for dry-season stockage or to sell enough goods to establish a more robust financial cushion (for upkeep of the garden and to meet their individual families' needs). Continued training and support will help them to plan for and weather these unpredictable conditions.

Picking Cabbage

Processing Cabbage

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Apr 12, 2024
A Little Goes a Long Way

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

access to water changes everything

Earlier this week, hundreds of thousands of people gathered along the "path of totality" to witness the solar eclipse. Those who lived too far, or couldn't travel, gathered in local parks and town squares in order to look up, together. When we come together at scale, it's powerful.

Coincidentally, this week is GlobalGiving's "Little by Little" campaign, which focuses on how much we can accomplish when each of us does a little. Thank you to those who have contributed!

This is a critical time to support localized food production and access as Nigeriens are struggling with the compounding challenges of economic sanctions and limited harvest after last year's deficient rainy season. Together, these challenges have resulted in less money, less food, and significantly inflated prices for the food that is available.

Fortunately, RAIN's community partners are making headway. So far this year, we have worked with 62 women to provide the training and resources to establish and grow their community gardens:

In the new partner community of Tchinagrof Peul, we contracted with a local company and the regional hydraulics office to site and drill a 129m deep well, including a solar-powered submersible pump powered by 8,300w solar panels and a water tower with a 200L capacity. This system delivers 8m3/h of water, which is hooked up to 4 taps for community consumption and provides for watering animals and agriculture. Eight women have been elected to form the maintenance committee for this project and they will continue to receive training and mentorship throughout the year as they learn about this role. Further, we recruited 25 women for the new community garden in Tchinagrof Peulh which will be irrigated by this well. All in all, an exciting start!

In RAIN’s more experienced partner community of Betarmatas, participants have received training in topics including biopesticide, outplanting, composting, planting from seed vs seedlings, water management, transplanting techniques, use of manure, weeding, use of fertilizer, and harvesting techniques. We have also worked with them to hold broader community meetings discussing topics like dry season planting, water management, well upkeep, tree pruning, and cash management. Such meetings averaged 34 participants per meeting, which is just under 10% of the total population of 398 residents. Over 1,278m2 of land has been prepared, including planting wheat, watermelon, barley, onion, red pepper, squash, cabbage, tomato, lettuce, and eggplant. Of the 1,370kg harvested so far, just 8% has been consumed and the remaining 92% has been sold. During this challenging time, the local garden is succeeding in feeding AND funding the community.

When each of us does a little, the impacts are amplified. This is true of those who support RAIN's work, our dedicated team in Niger, and the women in RAIN's partner communities who empower themselves and one another when armed with essential resources and training.

From April 8th-12th, contributions of up to $50 through GlobalGiving will receive a 50% match!

If you haven’t yet, give today so Nigerien women can provide for themselves and their families. Better yet, ask a friend to stand with you too. After all, families shouldn’t have to choose between having enough to eat and meeting other critical needs.

little by little the whole community contributes

a new well and solar pump provide water for all

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