To enable Malagasy canteen managers to take responsibility for the nutritional improvement of the meals served to children, Esperanza Joie des Enfants has handed over to the congregation of the Filles du Cœur de Marie a spirulina farm developed at the end of 2014. In 2021, the production benefited 10 canteens and 4,350 children and adults, with a small surplus sold locally to ensure the farm’s long-term autonomy.
In order to reach more beneficiaries and strengthen the farm’s capacity to assume the cost of renewing its equipment, a major programme to extend the farm was undertaken in the second half of 2021, aimed at increasing the number of harvesting basins from 14 to 22, building numerous infrastructures (including the creation of a new process building, a retention basin and a drying tunnel) and installing numerous pieces of production equipment (electric pumps, agitators, etc.).
Now with a usable area of 1320 m², the farm, which is entering its eighth year of existence, is the second largest spirulina farm in Madagascar.
The extension of the farm was inaugurated on the 30th of December in the presence of the Esperanza Bureau, the 14 employees of the farm and a large number of our local correspondents and partners, including the STAR Madagascar company, which generously contributed to the financing of the work, as did the EDF Group Foundation. To date, the new solar panels and electrical equipment have yet to be received and connected to the network in order to increase the farm’s electrical power, whose energy will now be entirely of renewable origin, making it possible to eliminate the use of charcoal for drying.