Both genders within the farming community of Baie ste Anne Praslin are involved but men are pre - dominant.
Five other agricultural areas on the main island facing salinity issues have now been given a similar data logger purchased under the BSAFA CBA project to record information so the SAA can work with them to propose management decisions and use the information for national model.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
Helping community to use natural materials such as gypsum,gravel, charcoal etc , to reduce level of salinity therefore lessenning the amount of chemical component within the farming sector.This in turn helps on a global level to cut down on the amount of chemicals being discharge into the soil, sea and the atmosphere.
Planning non gef grant
IAEA is replicating some of the activities of the project on the main island and in partnership with the SAA and an Adaptation Fund project managed by UNDP.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
Promoting sustainable usage of natural methods Using Gypsum etc) to manage salinity level within the soil and promoting organic production of crops.It is a cheaper methods compared to other devices and can be produced and maintained easily by farmers .
Capacity - Building Component
Providing local farmers with knowledge on how to develop their own method of balancing the level of salinity within the soil using sustainable equipments and sources.
Project sustainability
Results from the project have been taken on board by the Seychelles Agricultural Agency (SAA) which maintains the data logger information for longer term so it can be used to develop a national model.
Policy Influence
The data from the sentek logger will now be part of a national database, which will be used soon for the development of national modeling system for irrigation management under saline condition (upscaling). The logger from the sentek sensor will record data for another year before we have enough data to develop the national model.
Project Results
It was clear at the beginning of the project that there was very little information about the status of salinity on Praslin island. Through the initiation of this project the farmers and partner Soil and Plant diagnostic Laboratory of SAA brought the issue to light; it was found that the Average EC was 3.5 which is above what was being recommended by the USDA and FAO. So the first step was to study the current status. Water sample was taken in all the borehole and soil of all the farmers concerned by the issue. Further to this a decision was taken to procure real time sensing equipment from sentek Australia to assess the real-time occurrences of salinity and correlate it with irrigation.
The project objective was 100% accomplished. The only challenge was the procurement of gypsum and the testing of saline tolerant seed. Despite the challenges the gypsum was procured in 2016 during extended project period and the crop response experiment has been successfully carried out. All plots having gypsum was found to perform better than the control.
We’ve gone a step further with the project by passing on information to the farming community on Praslin and the main island Mahé and the result have been very encouraging.
Benfits also include the real time monitoring and providing advisory services to the farmers in the area by SAA officer in order to prevent long-term exposure of plant to saline condition. The otheras well as the direct measurement of salinity and use of gypsum to improve soil calcium availability. The data from the sentek logger will now be part of a database, which will be used for the development of national modeling systems for irrigation management under saline condition.
We also experienced some challenges at the end of the 2013 season. Due to unexpected excessive rain fall in December that year, farmers used the opportunity to store excess water to maintain the garden, hence little interest in the use of borehole water and as a result salinity was not a concern for the most of 2014. However the problem is a recurrent one and we saw an increase in salinity in late 2015 and this year 2016. The problem is here to stay and farmers need to be actively engaged in the management of water resource and soil desalinization.
They now have a better idea of what kind of crops to grow based on the two seasons we have (South East and South West Monsoons) and the project results provide best practices for management of water and soil under saline condition.
