Project participants receive training on how to cultivate vegetables using micro-garden techniques. - - Introduction of New Technology for Micro-Gardens in Urban and Suburban Areas: TCP/SEN/8823(D). Over the last 40 years in and around Dakar have experienced increased population growth and high levels of unemployment. Agricultural land has been depleted and areas available for cultivation have become scarce. Fruits and vegetables are imported and costly. Small, urban markets sell their produce at high prices, and families with little or no income can ill afford to buy them.

Through FAO's Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP), new technology for low-cost vegetable cultivation in micro-gardens has been introduced. This enables the most affected population groups to grow their own vegetables in containers, on roof terraces, in courtyards and on any small, collective parcel of land available.

The objectives of the project are: to make available to urban and suburban dwellers a simplified, alternative method of planting vegetables without the use of land; to demonstrate the technical, economic and sociological feasibility of vegetable cultivation on small surfaces without the use of land; to reinforce the national capacity within the field of new technologies for micro gardens. The project will also contribute to the development of Dakar s green belt, and provide for marketing fresh, home grown vegetables.