Farmers in areas of Uganda are being asked to plant tea instead of sorghum. The government will supply subsidized seedlings and will open a processing factory that will buy the leaves. The main motive is that tea earns double the income of sorghum. That may be, and diversification is a good thing, but I wonder whether the income from tea will buy as much nutrition as the sorghum it replaces.
Countries in Africa and elsewhere are in quite a bind when it comes to decisions like this. Poverty on the one hand, and trading off a feedgrain for tea on the other. I hope they are right about being able to produce a premium tea that fetches a high price.
I couldn’t agree more, and will try and keep an eye on the project. But I have to say I am not hopeful. A scheme in Tamil Nadu in India, which saw villagers growing cassava as a cash crop to feed starch-extracting factories, resulted in the loss of valuable millet diversity and poor nutrition. With help, the villagers eventuslly realized what they had lost and are now much better off, but it was touch and go.