Fundamentals workshop, Senegal

This year’s introductory workshop at the Ana Fonio farm near Dakar offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the principles of permaculture and food forests. In Senegal, where challenges such as climate crisis, desertification, biodiversity loss and food security are particularly tangible, our work focuses on solutions that benefit people and nature alike.
Our existing systems and plantations are inspiring and instructive examples that show how regenerative approaches can be implemented in practice. In the workshop, we want to work with you on the underlying theories and put what we have learnt into practice in the field. A guided tour of the project area, where you can get to know various food forest and garden models, as well as short, practical inputs on the use of a pyrolysis oven for the production of biochar, the creation of a compost system and the correct pruning of trees and shrubs will round off the programme.
The workshops are held in two languages: German and French – with some Wolof 😊.

Contents

Participants are taught both in theory and in practice about the solutions permaculture offers for the sustainable organisation of agriculture and coexistence. We learn how to design and maintain resource-conserving and constructive systems.

Special attention is paid to the soil, its cycles and functions and the basis of the web of life that it harbours and which is the foundation for all growth.

• Fundamentals, history and benefits of permaculture
• Ethics & principles: Cycles and sustainable methods
• Planning & design: from idea to realisation
• Various food forest designs on our premises
• Tropical systems & greening the desert
• Soil and the web of life: strategies for regenerative soil building
• Seeds, plants, seedlings and nursery: from cultivation to care
• Maintenance and succession: strategies to promote biodiversity
• Medicinal plants in the system: integration and utilisation
• Mulching and watering: Utilising water resources effectively

The objective is to develop the ability to plan and create your own plantations and to organise introductory events.

This workshop is aimed at

• Farmers, small-holders and people interested in agroforestry with little or no basic knowledge of permaculture
• Multipliers and agricultural trainers who want to deepen their knowledge of sustainable cultivation methods
• Anyone who wants to develop a deeper understanding of regenerative agriculture in a practical way
• Students, trainees, NGO employees without prior knowledge of permaculture

Your benefits

• Intensive exchange: Collaboration with experienced permaculture designers, trainers and local stakeholders.
• Practical experience: In-depth understanding of theory through practical application in the field.
• Replication: Planting planning to start implementing what you have learnt in your own project.
• Network: Exchange with the trainers and participants beyond the workshop.

Planting action

This workshop is part of a two-part series that can also be booked together. Interested people are welcome to stay between the two workshops and work with us on the systems. We will create new raised beds, continue planting the syntropic systems and carry out maintenance work on the plantings.

Learning centre

The Ana Fonio permaculture project was launched by Pape and Claudia in 2017. Since then, they and their small team have been working tirelessly to breathe life back into the 3 hectares of sandy, depleted soil and build a diverse, stable ecosystem. Food forest systems with varying degrees of cultivation and irrigation are being created and are gradually transforming the site into a biodiversity oasis.

We produce organic vegetables, fruit and medicinal herbs for the local market and practise integrated animal husbandry with goats and chickens for our own use.
Since the very beginning, the farm has also been a meeting and learning place that attracts interested people from near and far to learn, experiment and work together on a regenerative future.

Impressions