Ouedrago Albert and Brothers is a member of Association Jeunessse Solidaire pour le Developpement Veritable (AJSDV), from Ouahigouya commune in Burkina Faso.
AJSDV was established in 1997 and employs a total of 13 people with ten of those being men and three women.
The vegetable production sector in northern Burkina Faso is facing storage difficulties leading producers to sell their harvest at low prices. The type of production is unsustainable due to the increasing use of chemical fertilizers leading to the continuous change of production areas.
Through SWITCH Africa Green's project started to support businesses to convert household waste into agricultural fertilizer (TRADEMFA), the enterprise has created green jobs by turning household waste into products like compost, fertilizer and clothes.
“The government has created a lot of green jobs especially centred around the new green economy,” says Ouedraogo Odile, a member of AJSDV. “We are one of the beneficiaries leading projects driven by the green economy.”
AJSDV addresses integrated waste management, the appropriation of adapted waste composting techniques, replacing chemical fertilizer with compost, and creating green jobs through waste recovery.
Since its involvement in capacity building with AJSDV and SWITCH Africa Green Programme, Ouedrago’s enterprise has halved its use of chemical fertilizers from 20 bags per year to 10 bags. There has also been a 20% reduction in pesticide use which is attributed to a reduction in disease prevalence.
“One of the projects we lead, TRADEFA, focusses on the transformation of household waste,” Odile adds. “We use waste to create jobs.”
A total saving of 30 bags of fertilizer has been realized from the production of compost between 2016 to 2018. Additionally, more than XOF 450,000 was realized by the enterprise. Ouedrago Albert and Brothers has purchased a motor pump and a plumbing kit for watering their crops. The enterprise sells 50% of its potatoes, one of its products at harvest and the other half four months later, due to enhanced conservation capacity (organic potatoes have a longer shelf life).
Ouedraogo Albert and Brothers has created two additional direct jobs and five indirect ones for women who are involved in the farming of potatoes and okra due to the profits generated,
The enterprise acquired three bicycles at a cost of XOF 150,000 for its employees. This has seen an improvement in the living conditions of its staff as well as an improvement in their financial independence.
“The impact on our organization after working with SWITCH Africa Green is the great amount of knowledge, we gained especially when it comes to ecology,” Odile points out.
The project implementation did not come without challenges. These included non-differentiation of prices between chemical laced and chemical-free products. There was a lack of raw materials because the project does not provide any material support. There was also a general concern on how to protect staff from diseases linked to the daily handling of waste and the safe management of hazardous waste including pile and medicine.
The company has started negotiations with micro finance institutions with a view to obtaining credit in order to produce larger scale. The company is also developing a new production site which will exclusively produce compost in the coming years, while a compost production unit to sell to other producers is being set up.
Elsewhere in Ouagadougou, a group led by Yassia Savadogo—the Association of Young People in Solidarity for Development and Sanitation, also supported by SWITCH Africa Green—works with 300 women to transform plastic into fabric, suits and hats to augment their income. The group has been doing this since 2008. This has not only improved their income but also greatly increased the need for waste collection and segregation.
