Mango Grafting

My job description has a season in which "work" is done. It started in March by preparing tree nurseries. Throughout that month, I encouraged people to make their own tree nurseries while I maintained my own. Once the rains come, then you can out plant the trees in the nursery and hope for good survival rates. However, with mangoes the process can be a little bit more involved if one wants to graft. Grafting is great because you can have the root stock of a variety that is adjusted to local conditions (soil, weather, etc), but fruit of a more preferred variety (sweeter, bigger fruit, smaller seeds, etc). In order to do this, you keep the mangoes in the nursery, ideally trench them, and then wait until the following year to graft.

Trenched mangoes to be grafted next year

In coordination with the NGO Trees for the Future, Peace Corps volunteers in Kedougou organized a regional tourney to teach people how to graft. For my area, we held the training in my town with villagers from Diara Pont, Dar Salam, Salemata, Epingue, Etchilo, and Nangar attending. The two day training went really well with translation done by Robert's host father, Weliba Dialla, and Karumba, coordinator for Trees for the Future. The first day we were fortunate to have Cherif Djitte come down from Peace Corps to train as well. The first day was primarily instruction [introduction (why graft, etc); scions (selection, storage, etc); rootstock (how to prep); cuts (different techniques); ties (how to protect the graft); follow up] and the second day the villagers demonstrated what they learned the previous day. Everyone also got to go home with two grafted mango trees! It was great too since three womens' group presidents came (yay for more equal gender representation)! My host mom did a great job cooking and we lucked out with weather (no rain). The attendees were so excited about the training they they formed a "group" and elected a board for Salemata Regional Mango Grafters.

Djitte and Weliba Training

Roots stalks and scions

Grafting

Villagers Presenting

Walking back from the Mango Orchard

Group Photo!