The Micro-Gardens Project in Dakar was initiated in 1999 within the framework of a Technical Cooperation Programme between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Senegalese Government.  A Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) of FAO allowed its extension in 2001 to other regional capitals of Senegal.  This project introduced new technologies for out-of-land horticultural production on yards, roofs and vacant places, and it became a programme in 2004, with its main objective being to participate in poverty reduction by providing fresh vegetables to poor families, thereby improving their food supply and nutrition. 

The project facilitates access to urban and peri-urban horitucultural production for city-dwellers who do not have access to farmland because of urban land pressure; promotes income generation through the sale of production surplus; and contributes to the improvement of the living environment, both by recycling agricultural waste and by greening houses in Dakar and in other regional capitals.  The micro-garden technology has been adopted across all social sectors: poor, wealthy, men, women, young, old and physically handicapped and more than 4,000 families have been trained on the same.