The experience of the locally-created credit, and savings institution in Fandene, Senegal, is shared in this note. Its structure grew essentially out of local responses to the problems of drought, and diminished farm fertility throughout central Senegal, and, it is the product of historical...

Nomgana is the hub community of a very active inter-village federation in Burkina Faso. In recent years, a local association called Manegbzanga has launched an experimental program using Moore language literacy as the basis for learning French. The program achieved a good deal of success and was...

Forikrom, a community of 6,000 people in the Techiman District of Ghana, is located in an area of open grassland. The area once produced cocoa, but the practice ended in 1983 after some fires. Further deforestation resulted from inappropriate farming methods. Forikrom has now turned the corner...

In 1995, female literacy countrywide in Senegal was just over half of the rate for men, and the discrepancy was greater in rural areas. TOSTAN, literally means "breaking out of the egg" in Wolof, the language spoken by the majority of Senegal's people and is among a number of innovative and...

This study researched Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in agriculture in Zimbabwe's rural areas, focusing on crop farming in the Tonga of Binga District in Matebeleland's North Province, and livestock in the Kalanga tribe of the Plumtree District in Matebeleland's South Province. The study...

Recent reports document that the failure of projects in Africa over the past twenty years happened because local people's involvement and control were thought to be part of the goal of development, rather than the process of development. Many people and groups throughout Africa strongly believe...

Soil fertility never used to be a major constraint due to the age-old practices of recycling agricultural residues in several ways. However, in these days of inorganic fertilizers and quick returns, the problem of soil management and its related constraints are surfacing. In this context,...

In spite of the scientific advances made by modern medicine, 75-80 percent of the population turn to traditional medicine for health care. This medicine has evolved with the history of mankind, and traditional knowledge is a popular asset that is integrated into the socio-medical environment....

In Ethiopia, traditional herbal medicine is dominated by plant-focused work, which has been largely driven by an overriding interest in the specific therapeutic properties of individual plants. In search of information on the properties of various Ethiopian medicinal plants, researchers have...