A Casamance farmer who organised women around seeds and soil
A woman farmer from Niaguis, Senegal, helped build a West African movement of rural women promoting agroecology, local seeds and women's access to land.
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The small thing
After moving to Niaguis on marriage, Mariama Sonko began growing vegetables and joined a women's farming association. With other women she leased a few hectares and worked the land together.
The problem
In Casamance, rising salinity, mangrove loss and drought have hurt rice paddies and fish catches, and women farmers often have insecure access to land. Sonko argues that reliance on bought inputs and imported seed threatens fertile soils and indigenous seed varieties.
Why Mariama Sonko started
According to The Guardian, a landowner ordered Sonko's women's group off land they had farmed for five years, just as the trees began bearing fruit; she disputed it and was shunned in community meetings for almost two years. She went on to lead a federation of women's organisations in Ziguinchor and, in 2011, co-founded Nous Sommes la Solution with 12 rural women's organisations.
What they did
Sonko farms around three hectares in Niaguis and trains women in agroecological methods. Women in the movement make bio-fertiliser from cow dung and sell it to other farmers, have developed a herbal seasoning as an alternative to stock cubes, and maintain seed stores to rebuild farmers' own seed stocks.
The movement campaigns for laws that favour local seed and production, and runs training camps; the fifth, in September 2026 in Niaguis, focused on low-cost poultry rearing.
What changed
According to the movement's own figures reported by Slow Food in 2024, Nous Sommes la Solution has over 800 member organisations and more than 185,000 members across West Africa (another 2024 account gives about 175,000 women farmers). The Guardian reported in 2021 that in Senegal the network had nearly 10,000 women in more than 100 local associations. Effects on yields, soils or incomes have not been independently measured in the sources found.
What they learned
Sonko describes ecofeminism as respect for everything around us, and says women do much of the farming work without recognition.
“Ecofeminism for me is the respect for all that we have around us.”Mariama Sonko and Nous Sommes la Solution, as quoted by The Guardian (reproduced by the Pulitzer Center)
Copy this idea
Practical guidance written by our editors from the sources below. Adapt it to your place, and check local rules and safety first.
- Problem addressed
- Costly inputs, declining soils and loss of local seed varieties
- What to do
- Form a women's farming group to share seed, make organic fertiliser and learn agroecological methods together
- Materials and resources
- Local seed, manure and crop residues, simple storage containers
- Approximate cost
- Very low
- Skills
- Composting, seed selection and storage, group organisation
- Time
- One season to start; years to build a seed collection
- People needed
- A small group, ideally linked to a wider network
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Risks and limitations
- Insecure land tenure; poorly stored seed losing viability
- How to adapt it
- Start a seed swap or community compost heap in your neighbourhood or school
- Lessons learned
- Secure, written land agreements protect the work groups put into land
Why it matters
A network of women farmers cannot by itself change national seed laws or reverse soil decline. But it shows how sharing seeds, making fertiliser locally and training one another can lower farmers' costs and keep traditional knowledge in use, while giving women a stronger voice in decisions about land.
Policy connection
International commitments this kind of action contributes to. Listing a framework does not mean the person or group was working towards it.
- SDG 15.3: Combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, and strive for a land-degradation-neutral world.
- UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality: The framework countries use to set voluntary land restoration targets.
What didn't work
Sonko's group lost land it had farmed when the landowner ended the arrangement; she was then ostracised, silenced in town meetings for almost two years and, by one account, removed from a town council position. Limited access to land and resources remains a challenge for family farmers, according to the movement.
Editor's note
Active in 2026: in September 2026 Le Soleil reported her leading an international training camp on peasant agroecology in Niaguis.
Sources: how do we know?
Evidence level: Documented. Supported by reliable published sources such as UN agencies, award bodies and reputable journalism. Not yet independently re-verified by our editors. What the person says and what independent sources establish are attributed separately in the text.
- reputable journalism
'Ecofeminism is about respect': the activist working to revolutionise west African farming — Ricci Shryock, The Guardian (reproduced by the Pulitzer Center), 22 September 2021Supports: Land eviction and two years of ostracism; bio-fertiliser and herbal seasoning; seed-law campaign; Senegal membership figures; quotes - reputable journalism
À Niaguis, des femmes rurales sèment les graines du changement — Gaustin Diatta, Le Soleil (Senegal), 15 September 2026Supports: Current status: fifth international peasant agroecology training camp in Niaguis, September 2026, led by Sonko - organisational
Rural Women are the Solution – Nous Sommes la Solution and Mariama Sonko Work for Food Sovereignty in West Africa — Slow Food, 24 September 2024Supports: Founded 2011 by twelve rural women's organisations; 800+ member organisations, 185,000+ members; seed huts; Sonko from Niaguis - organisational
La lutte de Mariama Sonko pour l'agroécologie et les droits des paysannes — Nous Sommes la Solution (reproducing El País, Planeta Futuro), 11 November 2024Supports: Moved to Niaguis on marriage; joined women's association; leased land; led Ziguinchor federation; three-hectare farm; removal from council post
