Category: Mainstream

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Nigerian farmers do their own research

From allAfrica.com, an astonishing story of what farmers can achieve, with a little assistance, when they start investigating their options.

Abdul Malik, a farmer aged 30, says he gathers 15 to 17 100kg bags of millet using improved varieties, where he used to gather only 10. With his increased income, he bought two new soil tilling machines this year, where before he had just one. “I’m satisfied at this level [of production,]” he says, “but I continue to hope for more improvement.”

The improved varieties were gathered from 16 African countries and trialled by the farmers on their own land in northern Nigeria. The project, supported by IFAD, also examined fertilizers and methods to control weeds, and promises to deliver benefits beyond the farmers and their immediate families to middlemen and others. There’s a lot more in the article and an accompanying photo essay. ((Slightly worried that allAfrica.com may put articles behind a paywall at some point in the future, so here’s a link to a site scraper that perhaps will keep it available. Hard to understand, though, where they got the “hybrid” in their title from, or why they tagged it “biotechnology” and “IITA”.))

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Agriculture illuminates Art illuminates Agriculture

Artists do the darndest things. From WorldChanging, a report on several art projects that involve agriculture as their theme. I was particularly intrigued by three of them. The Acorn Pig asks how long a region famed for its bacon can live on its laurels. Milk maps the movements of links along the chain that turns milk into cheese. And F.R.U.I.T. uses fruit to open the eyes of urban consumers. Each is great fun and a fine time waster, if that’s what you need. But each also has serious points to make about the nature of agriculture and eating today. I just wish artists would do their art and leave writers to write; things might be a lot easier to comprehend.

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Ethiopian farmers beating pulses

Reuters has a video (about 7 minutes long, and you’ll need a fast connection) about farmers in Ethiopia turning to beans and other pulses as a replacement earner for coffee, which has been buffeted by global production shifts. The hero of the story is Hailu Worku, who does indeed seem to be a pretty impressive farmer. But he has 20 hectares. How typical is that of the “smallholder” farmers that a government spokesman says are the ones growing all those beans for export? And I wasn’t clear from the video whether the farmers are growing beans as part of a rotation with their grain crops. The story mentions an Italian company that is buying up lots of beans for export and a farmer cooperative, which returns 70% of profits to the farmers. Hailu Worke sells to both; now that’s diversity as insurance.