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Posted April 13, 2006: Not far off the pot-holed
highway running east to Tambacounda, Senegal’s easternmost
regional capital, farmers in the village of Touba Fall are
slowly tapping into the world organic market by increasing
production of a traditional crop gaining a global following.
Thirty members of Kanbènkafo, a farmers’ organization
whose name roughly translates to “coming together to
save” in the local Maninka language, have been producing
sesame (Sesamum indicum) for the past three years
with the help of a local non-governmental organization (NGO).
GADEC, based in “Tamba,” has provided the group
with an early seed variety, as well as trained the group to
make and use an organic pesticide made from leaves from the
neem tree (Aradizichta incida) to control insect
pests. The NGO then brokers the sale of the sesame to a Senegalese
export cooperative, providing farmers with much-needed income
at the end of each year.
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Sesame, or bènè in the Maninka language, has
likely been grown in West Africa for centuries, imported from
North Africa via the trans-Saharan caravan routes that supplied
West Africa with salt and the rest of the world with gold.
In eastern Senegal and Guinea and western Mali, the Maninka
and neighboring Bambara people add pounded sesame seeds to
the staple peanut sauce, tigadègèna, or roll
the seeds into small sweet balls for sale on roadsides as
a snack food. Like so many other plant species in West African
agriculture, sesame fills a specific dietary niche while adding
to the biodiversity of agroecosystems.
More crops, less risk
In this semi-arid environment where highly variable rainfall
has steadily decreased over the past 50 years, integrating
a wide variety of crops is a means of risk management for
smallholder farmers. Intercropping staple crops such as corn,
peanuts and millet with secondary niche crops like sesame,
bisaab (Hibiscus sabdariffa, known as roselle in
English) and kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) helps to
stabilize the farming system against environmental shocks
and flux. An intercrop can act as a physical barrier, slowing
the spread of host-specific diseases and pests.
Additionally, farmers can guarantee a minimum of food security
for their households throughout the year by intercropping
species that mature at different times. By diversifying cropping
systems, smallholder farmers worldwide rely heavily on secondary
crops to alleviate the risk of losing everything to crop failure.
In short, crop diversity divvies out the proverbial eggs to
several baskets.
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“Bènè
sènè ka di. Sesame farming is
sweet. You can earn between twenty five and
forty thousand CFA [$50-80 U.S.] from this much
sesame.”
--Kekouta
Camara
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Now, thanks to the growing interest in natural products,
this tried-and-true form of risk management is paying off
economically, as well. Kekouta Camara, a 29-year-old farmer
in Touba Fall, proudly shows off his acre of sesame tucked
in between fields of recently harvested corn, and maturing
cowpeas, roselle, and kenaf. “Bènè sènè
ka di. Sesame farming is sweet. You can earn between twenty
five and forty thousand CFA from this much sesame.”
At about $50 to $80, this is good money in rural Senegal.
Kekouta, who also manages his late father’s family
fields with his brothers, is the liaison between Kanbènkafo
and GADEC. He has been teaching others in the village about
the neem pesticide. “We rotate peanuts, then sesame,
then millet,” he explains. “We don’t use
any fertilizer, just cow manure,” he says. Camara is
eager to expand his sesame production next year and is excited
to try intercropping cowpeas in with the sesame to improve
soil fertility.
Scarlet hope for high-value export
About 370 miles to the northwest, farmers in the village
of Keur Banda, are also expanding production of an underutilized
species. Abdoulaye Niang, shows off a field of bisaab plants,
tucked amongst the expanse of millet, cowpea, and watermelon
fields that surround the village situated a roughly a mile
off the main highway, 16 miles east of the regional capital
of Thiès.
“The locusts have eaten everything this year,”
Abdoulaye observes with the familiar, somewhat lighthearted
and matter-of-fact tone that marks the speech of so many Sahelian
farmers when confronted with disaster. He points to the eviscerated
stubble of peanut plants poking up from the sandy soil. “Wantè
bëguñu bisaab bi! But they didn’t like the
bisaab!” he laughs, pointing to the healthy stand of
green plants with reddish stems and pink and yellow calyces
or seed pods.
Bisaab is widely intercropped in the peanut, millet, and
cowpea rotation of the Peanut Basin. It is often used as a
border crop to delineate the boundaries between fields, and
its sticky calyces may attract beneficial insects that control
pests. The calyces, rich in vitamins and antibiotic properties,
are widely used in sauces and beverages throughout West Africa,
and post-harvest value-added processing has traditionally
been an important source of revenue for farmers, especially
for women.
More recently, West African roselle has attracted the attention
of food processors in Europe and the United States, eager
to find a natural red coloring agent for herbal teas. Pick
up your favorite brand of organic or natural tea and you may
see “hibiscus” listed in the ingredients, usually
imported from Sudan, Egypt, Mexico, and China.
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“The locusts have eaten
everything this year. Wantè bëguñu
bisaab bi! But they didn’t like the bisaab!”
--Abdoulaye
Niang
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Now, with the help of ASNAPP (Agribusiness for Sustainable
Natural African Plant Products), a USAID-funded project designed
to promote organic production of traditional herbs for export,
Senegalese farmers like Abdoulaye Niang will soon profit from
the more gourmet, cosmopolitan taste of consumers in the West.
(For an excellent description of the ASNAPP work with bisaab
farmers in Senegal, see: www.asnapp.org/country-progs/senegal.html.)
Like GADEC does with the sesame farmers in the Tambacounda
region, ASNAPP is helping to pair Senegalese farmers with
export buyers. In Keur Banda, 30 farmers are participating
in the project. The Rodale Institute also worked in three
villages in the Thiès region and several in the Matam
region to provide technical training for the farmers in the
project. ASNAPP is also starting to package teabags of roselle
and other traditional herbs from several African countries
under the Ubuntu label, cleverly sold in recycled cardboard
packages decorated with enough Africanesque doodling and exotic
descriptions to whet the palates of organic-minded internationalistas
in the U.S.
While they would probably be proud to see their sesame and
roselle on display in supermarkets abroad, Kekouta and Abdoulaye
are well satisfied that these previously underemphasized crops
have attracted outside attention, increasing their revenue.
To them, the shift from commodity cash crops such as cotton
and peanuts to traditional species they can grow with low
inputs and sell into a high-value marketing niche is a welcome
change. 
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