To fight against crop pests, the States of CILSS countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, have implemented centralized purchase of large quantities of pesticides intended for cotton sector. These centralized purchasing policies have led to massive use of dangerous chemical pesticides constituting real dangers for health of populations, animals and environment. Faced with this situation, the GCP/INT/147/GFF project decided to implement, between January and April 2019, a program of Farmer Field Schools (FFS) among market gardeners, in cotton zone of Burkina-Faso Mali and of Senegal. The implementation of this FFS Program was made with the help of consultants specializing in Integrated Pests and Production Management (IPPM) under the technical supervision of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Chief Technical Advisor of the Project. Thus, twenty-eight (28) Farmer Field Schools (FFS) have been set up in the three (03) countries.

Plant-based biopesticides, SOLSAIN (organic fertilizer + conidia of the beneficial fungus Trichoderma harzianum), PIOL (extracts of chili, garlic and onion), Plantsain (flavors of Trichoderma harzianum), Limosain (orange extracts (DLimonene)) and entomopathogenic fungal and viral biopesticides including Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae and the Helicoverpa armigera nuclear polyhedrosis virus (HaNPV) were compared to Neem Leaf Extracts + Black Soap in cabbage and tomato fields.

A total of 574 producers participated in this program, including 204 women (35.6%).

In general, the trained producers are unanimous on the relevance of the FFS and its content insofar as they have acquired new knowledge, especially on good pesticide management. Yields wer satisfactory and sometimes reached values above 30t/ha for both tomato and cabbage.