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The Centre Régional d'Excellence en Fruits et Légumes (CRE-FL) was visited by Dr Ayoni OGUNBAYO, coordinator of the Agricultural Technologies and Innovations for Increasing the Resilience of Production Systems and Family Farms in West and Central Africa(TARSPro) program. The visit took place on September 29 and 30. The visit was part of the program's follow-up tour. The aim of the visit was to see at first hand what activities are being carried out, and to identify challenges with a view to finding solutions.

During the visit, the TARSPro project coordinator learned about the activities of the Parc des Technologies et Innovations Agricoles (PTIA), highlighting crops such as FBT 1 tomato seeds, soybeans, sesame, okra, amaranth, millet, forage crops, legumes, orange-fleshed sweet potato and cassava. He also explored the park's mechanization workshop to understand all operations.

" Setting up the plots has not been a smooth ride. Among the difficulties encountered were pests, delays in acquiring PDCO seeds, the safety of the showcase (animals, bush fires), irrigation problems, etc. However, it has to be said that the park is doing well. However, we have to admit that the park is doing well," emphasized PTIA's monitoring manager, Dr Etienne Sodré, 

Another feature of the visit was the Community Innovation Platforms (PICs) set up in Banfora, in the Cascades region. Also part of TARSPro's activities, these PICs aim to enable users to learn about the best technologies and techniques, so that they can appropriate them. The Intensive Rice Cultivation System (SRI) was one of the innovations on show, and was visited by over 300 farmers on the Karfiguela plain. The aim was to show them how to produce a lot of rice with very little means. According to the person in charge of monitoring these PICs, this necessarily involves choosing the right varieties, preparing the plot by adding organic matter and fertilizer, setting up the nursery, improving the density of seedlings, managing water and weeds, and so on. The rice seeds promoted included the KBR and ORYLUX varieties, with productivity ranging from 8 to 10 tonnes per hectare.

At the end of the visit, the delegation saw another PICs system inINERA's Feed Lot, with a bonus of pannicum, brachiaria and cassava varieties.

Earlier, before the Bobo-Dioulasso stopover, the coordinator was able to get a first-hand look at the activities carried out in the Village Climato Intelligent(VIC) in the village of Ouda, some 100 km from Ouagadougou.

SRI sowing demonstration on the Karfiguéla plain

For the record, the TARSPro project, launched in Burkina Faso in April 2021, is being implemented in four (04) other countries, namely Benin, Mali, Niger and Chad. Funded by the Swiss Cooperation over a 4-year period, it was born of the desire of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation to support the food and nutritional security of fast-growing populations. The project aims to improve the deployment of cutting-edge technologies and innovations (T&I).