Solar Women Farmers in Mali

Agricultural solar equipment for rural communities in Mali

Important information regarding the status of the project: from 25’000 Fr. and 200 contributors, Wemakeit Impact Fund will pay the additional 25’000 Fr. So your contribution counts double!

Drying, husking, grinding - steps that you don’t necessarily think about when you buy your flour in Switzerland. This work is still sometimes done by hand. It is a very long process, often carried out by women. In some large families in the Sikasso regionin Mali, this represents up to 50 hours of work a day, employing up to 16 women (UNDP, 2005)* to produce the daily needed flour

In rural areas of Mali 3/4 of the population has no access to the electricity grid (World Bank, 2018).

Alternatives to manual labour are therefore agricultural machines, powered by polluting diesel generators. However, these generators are not available everywhere and women have to travel to neighbouring villages, sometimes over long distances, to hire the services of a miller.

With access to technologies to process crops, it has been estimated that a woman can saveup to 3 hours a day (UNDP, 2005). Within the framework of women farmers’ cooperatives, these technologies would enable energy and economic self-sufficiency through increased productivity.

OUR OBJECTIVE: To equip women’s cooperatives with 18 solar agricultural technologies adapted to their needs.

In order to increase their productivity sustainably and be eco-friendly, the farmers’ associations are seeking to acquire solar machines, adapted to their activities.

For example:

• Women members of COFERSA are looking for solar mills.
• The Union of Farmer Women of Mali (Unascop-fama) wants to invest in a solar pump and a solar dryer to produce fish condiment, one of their sources of income, more efficiently, which is one of their sources of income.

With your help, we want to provide access to these solar technologies and to foster women entrepreneurs!

An adapted and sustainable solution

For more than 30 years, the Antenna Foundation based in Geneva, has been helping to find sustainable solutions for the most disadvantaged in various fields (traditional medicine, water and hygiene, agroecology, nutrition, microcredit, renewable energy,…).

We are already working closely with associations throughout Mali with the distribution of solar kits since 2018. This has enabled us, for example, to distribute around 80 kits to women’s cooperatives. More than 760 people have thus had access to a means of recharging their mobile phones and lighting at night. Thanks to you, we want to go even further!

We are working with local solar companies for the implementation and maintenance of the technologies. In addition, the equipment we bring to Mali is robust and optimised for solar power and adapted to the needs of rural communities.

Our aim is to enable energy independence with a 3 step approach:

• Making solar technologies accessible through purchasing conditions adapted to their income.
• Raising awareness on the use of the technologies.
• Accompany the associations in the long term (adaptation of technologies to their needs, maintenance).

Thanks to you, we wish to

Make available the following solar technologies:

• 2 solar dryers developed by Antenna and produced by local artisans.
• 4 hulling machines to remove the husk from the grains.
• 4 mills (small and large) for the daily needs of the village and for sales on the market (hammer mills and disc mills) to grind cereals (sorghum, wheat, maize, fonio, millet, rice), dried fish and to produce peanut butter.
• 4 Ennos solar pumps to irrigate the plantations.
• 4 compressors for the local manufacture of solar fridges.

All this is thanks to you and the CHF 53,480 that we hope to raise in 40 days during this campaign! We are also fortunate to be supported by WeMakeIt’s Impact Fund 2020. This means that if together we manage to raise CHF 25’000, the Impact Fund will double this amount! We look forward to building this project together with you.