Dry Season Farming

Traditional agriculture in Africa revolves around the rainy season.  When the rain starts, people plant their seed. After harvest, the ground is unused until the next rains – often for 6 months of the year.  In the dry season without rain, nothing grows. Unless you water the ground.  If you can give the people a water source such as a bore hole, the ground can be used to grow vegetables and fruit all year round.   People have to be taught first how to irrigate the ground and how to cultivate the soil to minimise evaporation in the extreme heat. Once learned, a wide variety of nutritious food can be grown quickly all the year round.  

Jacob’s Well has been setting up dry season farming projects, which involves providing a water source, education, provision of seed and monitoring for many years, particularly in the North of Ghana and Burkina Faso.  This is one of the projects that furnishes the most long-term transformation to a community for a limited initial expenditure.