posted by Marylyn Barnett, NTV News Anchor-follow on facebook and twitter @ntvsmarylyn
"Their farming is real primitive, with a mule and plow. They farm in clumps instead of planting in rows," Ryan Nickerson, Senior Agronomist with Servi-Tech out if Doniphan, explains what he saw while on a two week trip to Senegal. It was a soil fertility mission for the National Cooperative Business Associations farmer to farmer exchange program. He traveled to remote villages in Senegal to teach the farmers about soil fertility.
"I talked to farmers that haven't even heard of that before," Nickerson says, "Most of these farmers have much less never seen an "American" before, and don't even understand the importance of fertilizer. Their whole goal in farming is not to raise enough crop to sale for profit, but to raise enough food to sustain their families throughout the year. The crops they grow are corn, peanuts, and millet."
The trip has it's challenges. Nickerson said political riots were rising as he stepped off the plane, but the people there took really good care of him, "One obvious barrier is the language barrier. Most of these people speak French. I basically go to a village, teach for 4 hours, then eat a meal that usually includes rice with the group I teach. Then I travel back to my hotel here in Kaolack Senegal."
Nickerson is passionate about agriculture and says going on trips like this is important, "I think it's the right thing to do-spread the word about agriculture."
Nickerson is originally from a family farm in Cambridge NE, and now lives with his wife and 2 kids in Doniphan.
