Basic course in agriculture and gardening

The basic course was developed in exchange with women’s cooperatives in the area and is adapted to their needs and local conditions. 50 participants live on the CAAS campus for six months at a time and are trained in the theory and practice of small-scale agriculture and horticulture. The training focuses on arable farming, horticulture, small livestock farming and the processing of agricultural products. The trainees also learn food processing and preservation methods. Trade in agricultural products and the use of modern communication media for marketing round off the curriculum.

Intensive contacts with national and international research institutes guarantee that the cultivation methods and cultivated plants taught are up-to-date and appropriate. The CAAS is advised by the National College of Agriculture in Katibougou, l’Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et de Recherche Appliquée, where the Malian project management and the CAAS teachers were trained, the national Institut de l’Économie Rurale (IER) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT), among others.

Preparatory course

Many schoolgirls in the region leave school before reaching the compulsory ninth grade of primary school. For this reason, the women who apply for an apprenticeship often do not have the necessary French and subject knowledge to successfully participate in courses on agriculture and horticulture.

The CAAS therefore offers courses to prepare them for lessons in French. Trainees also receive tutoring in basic arithmetic and learn the basics of Mali’s local history and culture.

Further training courses

In addition to the basic course, the CAAS offers agricultural training courses. These are designed to last three to four days and are dedicated to specific topics such as plant propagation techniques, composting, methods of soil improvement and the cultivation and processing of manioc.

These courses are particularly aimed at women who are already working in cooperatives or independently in agriculture and horticulture. They are an important target group for CAAS, as it is through them that new ways of thinking and methods of cultivation or processing find the desired social dissemination.

Up to four hundred women are to be trained in such courses each year.