I passed my first two weeks in Benin at the Centre Songhai in Porto Novo. Named after the powerful Songhai empire, the center is a remarkable project with progressive agriculture techniques and a school for young Beninese farmers. They’ve got a circular farming system that incorporates poultry, fish, pigs, vegetables, and fruits into a network that fertilizes itself. It reminded me of Joel Salatin’s Polyface farm in Virginia – with a tropical twist.
fields of cabbage, corn, shallots, tomatoes
tomaters
chicken houses – the poopoo drops to the ground and gets mixed into compost to enrich soil nitrogen
students do the gritty work
animal waste sits in buckets above the talapia pond; maggots feed off the nasties and fall through holes in the buckets to feed the fish
while the Songhai students worked the fields, the Peace Corps Environmental sector discussed accronyms
