MALI / AGRICULTURE

The President of the World Bank Group visits Mali this week. More than 70 percent of Mali's people depend on agriculture for a living. A project financed by the World Bank is helping diversify and improve crops, as a means of improving farmers' lives. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:47
• Production Date: 13 December 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FINANCING; DEVELOPMENT
• Geographic Subject: MALI
• MAMS Id: U101213d

Description

STORY: MALI / AGRICULTURE
TRT: 1.47
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: BAMBARA / FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: OCTOBER 2010, BANANKORO, MALI

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Mamadou and other man inspecting fruit trees
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Mamadou Diallo, Farmer:
“I would still be cultivating but not producing as much if I had not received help.”
3. Tilt down, from Mamadou to fruit
4. Wide shot, Mamadou and other walking through fruit orchard
5. Tilt down, from Mamadou gardening, to irrigation system

OCTOBER, 2010, SANAKOROBO, MALI

6. Wide shot, Boubacar inspecting fruit trees
7. Close up, face
8. Wide shot, Boubacar gardening
9. Wide shot, gardening
10. SOUNDBITE (French) Boubacar Sanojo, Farmer:
“With what I now plant under the trees I have food and have made enough extra money to buy another hectare.”
11. Pan left, garden
12. Wide shot, Habib opening storage place and entering
13. Close up, Habib’s hand on onions on shelves
14. SOUNDBITE (Bambara) Habib Traoure, Farmer:
“They gave me a plan to build this storage room, and I provided the bricks.”
15. Wide shot, Habib walking from storage place and out of shot
16. Wide shot, women picking up tin of beans
17. Close up, beans pouring and pan up to woman worker’s face
18. Wide shot, woman sifting grain
19. Wide shot, Coulibaly pushing shelves of grain into oven
20. Zoom in, shelves of grain
21. SOUNDBITE (French) Madame Coulibaly, Agri-Business Owner:
“We now have eight women employees who do the washing, before we had two. We have a guard, a driver, the publicists and me, so now we are fourteen”
22. Wide, Coulibaly and workers inspecting bags of grain

Storyline

More than 70 percent of Mali's people depend on agriculture for a living. A project financed by the World Bank is helping diversify and improve crops, as a means of improving farmers’ lives.

To provide for his family, 55-year-old Mamadou grows fruit on a plot of land he owns. He’s recently boosted his produce-and profits-thanks to government aide.

SOUNDBITE (French) Mamadou Diallo, Farmer:
“I would still be cultivating but not producing as much if I had not received help.”

The help Mamadou received were seedlings for this new type of papaya, from Burkina Faso, which produces more fruit, in less time. The new plants and technical advice on how to raise them are part of a government agriculture project aimed at helping farmers and agri-businesses.

36-year-old Boubacar also received help to better manage his hectare of land, through the new papaya seedlings and technical advice on how to care for them. He also got advice on better ways of irrigating and what else to grow.

SOUNDBITE (French) Boubacar Sanojo, Farmer:
“With what I now plant under the trees I have food and have made enough extra money to buy another hectare.”

Close to 80 percent of Mali’s 14 million people depend on agriculture production for their livelihoods.

The Agriculture Project is helping them improve and diversify their production, as a means of bettering their conditions. The project helped 50-year-old farmer Habib Traoure construct an environment-friendly place to store his crop of onions.

SOUNDBITE (Bambara) Habib Traoure, Farmer:
“They gave me a plan to build this storage room, and I provided the bricks.”

Habib now sells onions whole-sale throughout the year, instead of just seasonally.
In addition to helping thousands of farmers, the agriculture project-backed by the World Bank-has given financial and technical support to 125 of the country’s medium-size agri-business investors.

It helped Madame Coulibaly, an agricultural engineer, turn a small store into a booming grain business by facilitating government permits and bank loans.

SOUNDBITE (French) Madame Coulibaly, Agri-Business Owner
“We now have 8 women employees who do the washing, before we had 2. We have a guard, a driver, 3 publicists and me, so now we are 14.”

Increases in sales, says Coulibaly, have led to increases in her staff.

The President of the World Bank Group, Robert B. Zoelick, visits Mali this week. One of his concerns will be agriculture.