At myAgro, we introduce our vegetable farmers to a nursery technique which helps seedlings grow faster and makes it easier for the farmer to manage. Using this technique, farmers have all their young plants in a 2mx2m space and can easily water them and weed them. Nurseries are usually put in places where they will get some shade and can easily be protected from insects and other pests with netting. A nursery allows the farmer to control the environment of the small, fragile plants much more easily than if they planted all the seeds in a 10mx10m space. After about 4 weeks, the plants are big and strong and must be transplanted. There is enough room for the small plants to grow in the nursery only for a few weeks and then they must be transplanted to get more room to grow stronger root systems.
This picture is of Bakary Tangara, the supervisor of the vegetable program and one of our farmers, Aminata Diarra. Here, the cabbages are 4 weeks old and it is now time to transplant them into a bigger, more spacious area. To transplant, the farmer uses a knife to cut a circle around the ground next to the plant and then lift it up, making sure to keep as many roots intact as possible. The plant is then replanted in a new bed with at least 20cm of room from any neighboring plant.
