When the use of chemicals bring soil infertility
1999 - 2005. Area of Siné Saloun, village of Latmingué, Sénégal.
The sandy soil around Kaolak faced a decline in fertility.
Within a period of 15 years, the peanut production fell from 1 ton/ha to 150 kg/ha.
The area faced a massive rural exodus ; an aging population stayed to cultivate soils that were becoming more and more eroded.
The millet, the basic food of the local population in rotation with peanut, was also affected.
As part of a programe to boost peanut production and therefore increase the export of peanut oil and therefore export revenue, the State facilitated the access to chemicals for producers, depending on the cultivated surface they had.
To get more chemicals, producers increased their cultivated surface by destroying all the forests, woods, hedges.
The strong wind during the dry season– the Harmattan - no longer encountered obstacles, and therefore started eroding the lands, brooming all the fine clays that kept the land fertile.
Millet production was not enough to feed the families and peanut production created negative results.