Food Security • In Focus

 

Poverty and hunger are complex ― and therefore require multifaceted assistance to be overcome, substantially and over the long term.

Tara Village: "Well Fed,
Healthy, Prosperous"

Africare and host country partners in Niger pioneered an "integrated rural development" program model, combining multiple activities and applying them to a single setting. The first such project began in 1975 in Tara village, in the Dosso department of Niger. The goal was to strengthen all types of food production, from rice and vegetables to fish and poultry; but irrigation, rural roads, health, literacy, credit and marketing also had to be addressed to reach that goal.

By 1981, "people appeared to be well fed, healthy and 'prosperous' compared to those in neighboring villages," stated an independent evaluation.

  • Per hectare, Tara's fields were yielding 4.2 tons of rice: an unusually high result for small-holder farmers, as opposed to large commercial farms.
  • And Tara's average annual household income had increased to three times that of most people elsewhere in Dosso.

In 1985, amid the severe Africa-wide (and Niger-wide) drought, Tara's farmers to continued to produce ― 440 tons of rice, 16,000 pounds of fish and much more. Concluded later in the 1980s, the Tara program proved that poverty and hunger are complex and therefore require multifaceted assistance to be overcome, substantially and over the long term.

 

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(Updated, Dec. 19, 2007)