Interview with the village chief of Bougarilla
“In your village, what difficulties have you encountered in the area of agriculture over the last 10 years?”
“In our village, here, the difficulty we encounter in the field of agriculture is the poverty of the cultivable soil: if the soil is not fertile the yield will not be satisfactory. And if you are also behind, insects and birds will destroy your camp. Every year many people here fall victim to these pests. But our biggest problem is the poverty of our soil because if the soil is not fertile, no matter how big the field is, the yield is not at all satisfactory.”
“You have just mentioned your difficulties, what help did you ask for and how did you ask for help to solve these problems?”
“The difficulties linked to agriculture cannot be solved without financial means. Our role is to provide fertiliser for our fields, but even fertilising the soil is not without expenses. So we have asked the government for help, they make promises, but from the creation of this village until today the government has not played any role in the development of agriculture here, even though from our observations it appears that agriculture cannot work well without expenses, even if it is only for carts or the purchase of fertiliser. All this requires money, and we don’t earn anything. So we cultivate like this and we manage with what we harvest and we have a lot of losses.”
