A major goal of the "Gardens for Tuna" project is to enable women groups to purchase properly registered plots of land that they can administrate and cultivate together to provide their families with fresh and healthy food.
In case of a good harvest, any surplus fruit and vegetables can be sold by the women on the weekly market.
Any earnings from fruit and vegetable sales go into the budget cashboxes of the women, who are also responsible for paying the school tuitions, school uniforms and books for their children.
The project is being coordinated locally by our project partner Lucilla Dayouri, who was schooled and certified in leading women groups during a three year course held by the local bishop.
Lucilla Dayouri currently leads 23 women groups with up to 110 members. These groups are part of the society of catholic women.
Up until now, two large gardens have been created. One towards the north of Tuna, situated just across a large water pond, and one in Naafa, in the west of Tuna. Both gardens have been surrounded by large fences.
The garden in Tuna is being watered via a large water tank that is in turn being filled with water from the fish ponds with help of a solar-driven pump.
This is one of the results of our follow-up project on drip irrigation and aquaponics. Since June 2020, the watering of the gardens happens via a drip irrigation system that enables a more efficient water distribution. The water is sourced from the new fishery. This way, the nitrogen from the fish excrement is being put to good use as a fertilizer for the plants in the garden. Additionally, the water of the fish ponds is being recycled that way and does not contaminate the streams or the groundwater..
The garden in Tuna is located exactly along the main road towards the nearest bigger town by the name of "Wa". Therefore, a lot of people are passing by and many have expressed their astonishment on the abundant green that can be seen even during the dry season, when everything else is brown and dried up.
With this project, we achieved together, that an additional harvest is possible in this garden - something that was not possible before during the dry season.
The women are very happy that they can now cultivate food for their families even during the frugal dry season.
Current pictures on our projects can be found in our media gallery (external link to the site SmugMug)
Media Gallery Aquaponics Tuna