When USAID began working with communities in 1998, they drew all the active parties into the project: the mayor’s office, the perimeter’s general assembly, and the regional bodies responsible for the agricultural development. Each party had a voice in the final contract to irrigate the perimeter.

To ensure sustainability, the contract specified that the farmers of the irrigated fields must pay back, to the perimeter’s governing board, the cost of the seeds, manure, and gas. These funds, along with the yearly fees collected for irrigated land use, are used to buy gas and replacement parts for the irrigation pumps. Since 2002, the Dongome and Koissa perimeters have become fully autonomous.

Fondo earns more from his investment in the perimeter than he did in Niger. He lives near his family, and can help support his elderly parents. Most importantly, all his kids go to school, are vaccinated, and receive regular health care. Living in his hometown, Fondo takes an active part in the local government and in the community’s development.

Fondo says that his newly found personal sense of prosperity extends to the entire village. He knows that a majority of the young men who now live in the area and work in the irrigated fields have, like himself, returned from abroad to settle again in Mali. Now that his community feels a sense of economic security - they can begin to plan and develop for the future.

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