Once the seeds have been harvested and mixed, they are sown on plots made available by the land families.
This activity is done together, as a family or in a group. There’s a lot of energy and laughter during this stage of reforestation:
Part of the group makes small holes with the hoe (taba in Malinké) and the other part of the group places the seeds in them:
Making these holes (known as “poquets” in specialist language) allows the rootlets to establish themselves easily in the loose soil, and the small cavity retains rainwater for longer. This makes it easier for the seeds to germinate. To go faster, some families make furrows with an ox-drawn plough. This is even more efficient. But not everyone has these luxurious tools.
It’s all done in good humour:
Over 500 hectares were sown with 5,000,000 seeds from 40 local tree species. Thank you to GUIDRE for your kind coaching of the process!
And now it’s up to Mother Nature to help the seeds germinate. Of course, not all the seeds will germinate immediately: some species are pioneers and adapt to all types of terrain, while other species are more demanding and need specific conditions to germinate.
