Rice remains the most popular staple in Guinea, but the high price of imported rice is pushing many consumers in this West African country to change their diet. Farmers have responded by rapidly expanding the land area planted with an alternative food crop: cassava.

According to statistics from the country’s National Agency for Food Security (SNSA), the cultivated area more than doubled, from 58,424 hectares in 2004 to 122,550 hectares in 2011. Some 775,500 tonnes of the crop was harvested last year as it became the second most commonly eaten food in the country.

Guinea produces only limited quantities of rice domestically, and imports 200 to 300 thousand tonnes of rice from Asia each year to meet the needs of its 10.6 million-strong population, according to the ministry of agriculture. The rising cost of these imports in recent years has pushed strong growth in demand for cassava as an affordable alternative.

“Cassava is truly a vital crop for food security because it provides both its leaves and a starchy tuber to low-income consumers,” explained Kandia Traoré, an agricultural advisor, who also pointed out to IPS that cassava leaves are rich in vitamins A and C.

El-Sanoussy Bah, head of the cassava programme at the Guinean Institute for Agronomic Research, welcomes increased interest in the improved varieties of the crop his institute provides to smallholder farmers.

“Cassava is both a staple and an accompaniment for our people. It is also a source of income for farmers,” he told IPS.

Roughly 10 percent of the country’s cassava crop – 73,000 tonnes – is harvested in the Kouroussa prefecture. At the beginning of October, IPS visited farmer Mamadi Condé on his family plot in the Babila district. The 54-year-old is growing cassava on one hectare.

“I harvested nearly six tonnes of cassava last August,” Condé said. He told IPS that his family ate some of the crop and sold the rest, earning the equivalent of 700 dollars to cover household needs.

“The cassava trade is flourishing in this region,” Makoura Camara, a cassava vendor in the Kouroussa market, told IPS,” and we created a cooperative in 2010 to sell our produce in Conakry, the capital, to benefit even more.”

But she complained about the dilapidated state of the roads which isolate many villages with strong agricultural potential. This isolation makes processing and preserving the crop essential.

On Condé’s farm, freshly harvested cassava is peeled, then soaked in water for at least 24 hours before being dried in the sun for several days. This traditional method of processing allows the cassava to be stored for nearly a year without spoilage.

The cassava can then be further processed before reaching consumers – for example, by pounding dried slices into a fine flour used to make “too”, a cassava fufu commonly served with a sauce made of okra. Kouroussa farmers have also begun making attiéké, a pungent, tasty dish with origins in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire made by peeling, boiling and fermenting cassava.

“We are using manual methods to process dried cassava tubers into flour,” said Saran Camara, one of Condé’s two wives, whose only tools are an old mortar and pestles.

Condé and his fellow farmers dream of having a factory to process cassava like the one that once operated in the region, at Faranah. According to officials at the Programme to Support Food Security (PASAL), from 1978 and 1984, this industrial unit processed up to 50 tonnes of fresh cassava per day, producing six to 10 tonnes of gari – a coarse, lightly fermented cassava.

But, they say, the factory failed because its promoters didn’t understand their market. At the time, gari was an unfamiliar food to most Guinean households, and there was no demand.

“Guineans would benefit if investors or donors financed a project for industrial processing of cassava in the region. A factory could contribute to creating added-value and strengthening food security,” Karamo Sidibé, from the Sabougnouma association in Kouroussa, told IPS.

Kafoumba Koné sounds almost smug. “Our first rice harvest is in, and we’re getting ready to plant again,” he says, surveying his farm in southeastern Guinea. “Other farmers who have not yet tried NERICA are still preparing for their only harvest of the year.” Along with 24 younger associates, Koné harvested nearly 700 tonnes of an improved variety of rice from their 140-hectare plot in the Beyla prefecture in the southeastern corner of this West African country at the beginning of August.

The group earned 294,000 dollars from their crop of NERICA, the New Rice for Africa, an improved variety that’s proving to be well-matched to the low soil fertility in the region.

Roughly a third of their revenue has gone to pay off various creditors, but the balance, banked in their new account at a rural credit union, represents a handsome profit as they return to the fields.

Rice production in Guinea presently falls well short of the needs of its 10 million strong population. According to a report from the agriculture ministry, the country’s rice deficit is around 240,000 tonnes a year, forcing Guinea to import roughly a fifth of its annual consumption of 1.26 million tonnes from Thailand and Vietnam.

“It is time we begin to re-evaluate our dependence on imported rice. We need to increase our local output,” said Agriculture Minister Jean-Marc Telliano.

This year, Guinea’s National Agency for Rural Promotion and Agriculture Extension has made 500 tonnes of NERICA rice seed available to smallholders as part of a one million dollar project to increase output.

“This rice variety is a cross between African and Asian strains of rice. Rich in protein, it is prized by Guinean consumers, for whom rice is a staple,” said Ali Condé, director of the agency.

Farmers in Beyla and neighbouring Kérouané have enthusiastically adopted the improved variety.

IPS visited a farm in Kérouané at the end of August, where a group of 17 farmers are growing NERICA on 130 hectares of land. There is no shortage of arable land in this part of the country, and the local community readily granted the group access to cultivate this large area.

“We harvested around 645 tonnes of (unprocessed) paddy rice,” said Mohamed Dioubaté, head of the Kérouané collective. Some of the crop will go towards the farmers’ own use, but most will be sold to buyers from all over the country.

Dioubaté told IPS that a 100-kilo sack of rice sells for about 300,000 Guinean francs – 42 dollars – which means the group made a gross income of roughly 270,000 dollars from the past three months of work.

“The introduction of this variety of rice here in 2012 has been a blessing for us,” he said. “Now we can have two harvests a year which wasn’t possible before.”

“It’s even possible to get three harvests per year since the growing cycle for this rice is actually 90 days,” said Abdoulaye Sangaré, an agriculture extension worker in the region.

According to Sangaré, the new rice is perfectly adapted to conditions here, where farmers lack the resources to irrigate their fields or apply fertiliser and pesticides. NERICA is doing well despite low soil fertility and a dependence on rain for water.

The benefits of increased production are already being felt in the local marketplace.

“With the coming of NERICA, the price of rice has fallen in our region,” said Sarata Keita, a rice seller in Kérouané. “Now a kilo of rice costs between three and four thousand francs (less than a dollar) while the price was between five and six thousand in the past.”

However, the farmers complained about a lack of equipment and agricultural machinery that would let them work even more quickly and efficiently.

“We harvested the rice with sickles,” said local farmer Samouka Kourouma, “and threshed and cleaned the rice by hand. We would be happier if we had mechanical rice hullers and other equipment.”

Market gardening in the peri-urban areas of Conakry, the Guinean capital, is growing quickly, bringing in income for groups of women and giving them some autonomy.

IPS visited one group of 14 women who are working a low-lying parcel of land at Kobaya, just outside Conakry. The women have leased the fertile three-hectare plot for the equivalent of 130 dollars a month.

“We’re growing tomatoes, potatoes, onions, lettuce, peppers and cucumbers,” said Fanta Camara, president of the association.

Most of the group’s members have their own gardens to grow vegetables for home consumption, but they got together in 2007 with a view to getting into commercial gardening.

The group has put up a makeshift shed in which to store farm implements – hoes, rakes and watering cans – as well as sacks and boxes for transporting their produce to market. Two wells were dug, in 2007 and 2010, to provide water for irrigation.

“Market gardening has both a social and an economic role. It provides jobs and it constitutes a source of income,” said Moïse Koundouno, an agriculture extension worker in Conakry’s Ratoma commune. He added that this activity makes up more than 50 percent of the income for half of peri-urban gardeners.

But the Kobaya association has not adopted any modern techniques to increase its production in the off-season, instead relying on manure to produce vegetables year round.

“Our vegetables are grown and harvested naturally, without any artificial techniques,” said Ramata Touré, who is in charge of sales for the group.

“With the help of an extension worker, we have divided our plot into different crops according to the seasons,” she said.

“We’re seeing good harvests from each 10 by 10 metre block dedicated to a particular crop: a tonne and a half of onions, two tonnes of tomatoes, two and a half tonnes of cabbage, as well as large quantities of aubergine, carrots and okra,” said Dramane Fofana, the agricultural extension worker who has volunteered his time to help the women.

For the market gardeners in areas around Conakry, bringing vegetables to market during the dry season from November to April is crucial, particularly in January and February. At Kobaya, the women are making vegetable growing their principal off-season activity.

Their greens reach the market in the simplest way possible, via direct sales from their farm, or through a community wholesaler called “Bana-bana”.

Abdoul Karim Bangoura, who manages an extensive fruit and vegetable market in the Conakry neighbourhood of Madina, told IPS some 370 groups bring fresh produce to this market, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.

The prices paid for vegetables in the city varies greatly, with fresh produce bringing in up to three times as much during times of relative scarcity. Ramatoulaye Touré, the group’s treasurer, estimates their annual profits at around 10,000 dollars.

“The income is shared among the group’s members after the deduction of costs, mostly to cover the rent of the land and the purchase of inputs,” she told IPS.

Many of the group members IPS spoke to are happy with the results. “I got around 500 dollars at the end of 2011. That money’s allowed me to look after my children and support my husband who’s unemployed,” said Hawa Dabo, a mother of five.

One challenge the women have faced has been post-harvest losses, with unsold produce rotting and going to waste. Since 2010, the group has addressed this by processing some of their harvest on site, turning a problem into added profit.

“Now we make a purée out of peppers and carrots. They’re preserved in a jar and then sold during the dry season when the price is higher. We get twice the usual price for it,” Dabo said.

According to a 2009 report from Crédit Rural de Guinée, a micro-credit institution, “The Guinean population is essentially rural, with around 30 percent in the urban areas against 70 percent in rural areas, but 64 percent of agricultural operations cover less than two hectares.”

In the outlying areas of the capital, customary title to land is still in force. Under customary law, land is generally acquired through inheritance or as a loan, with outright sale forbidden, restricting access for market gardeners.

“Urbanisation is a threat to vegetable growers, because land is in short supply,” said restaurant manager Taliby Sako. “They are increasingly forced to move further from the capital. The added distance to the fields leads to an increase in the price of fresh produce. A kilo of tomatoes today costs eight times what it cost five years ago.”

The Kobaya group also faces other challenges. “Despite putting up living fences (such as thorny, inedible rows of cactus) we’re not happy with animals allowed to graze unsupervised. We also lack equipment and phytosanitary products, which affects the quality of our produce,” said Camara.

The agriculture ministry leads Guinean government support for market gardening in Guinea. With assistance from international partners, it is financing several projects which support poverty reduction.

One of these is the seven million dollar Social Development Project, which attracted five million dollars in backing from the African Development Fund.

This two-year project, which will end in December 2012, aims to develop the productive capacity of the poor, particularly women, by supporting income-generating projects including market gardening.

“Our group has not yet benefited from this programme. But we plan to register ourselves with the Ministry of Agriculture to see what we can gain from this project – or any other programme which is interested in promoting market gardening,” Camara told IPS.

Like many rural youth, Abdoulaye Soumah spent a few years in Conakry, trying his hand at various jobs in the big city. But he has since returned to his home village, transforming a seven-hectare plot of land inherited from his parents into a model of success.

“I produce about three tonnes of rice per hectare, and harvested a total of 20 tonnes in November. I keep a small part to feed my family and sell the rest,” Soumah told IPS during a tour of his fields at Somayah, 50 kilometres from the capital.

“A 100-kilo sack of rice sells for 650,000 Guinean francs (around 100 dollars). My harvest is generally bought up by rural traders and some from the city. They buy unprocessed rice, which they store before reselling it in markets in Conakry,” he said.

Soumah doesn’t own any agricultural machinery. Since setting up his farm in 2008, he has relied on relatives and locals hired on an occasional basis – paying each worker less than a dollar a day – for labour-intensive tasks like planting, weeding and harvesting.

He also enjoys support from local agricultural extension workers like Sékou Mansaré.

“Even though there is abundant rain in the region, we’re practicing irrigated rice cultivation here,” said Mansaré, explaining a system of small embankments and trenches that channel water through the rice fields.

“We sometimes use pumps to adjust the water level as needed during the different stages of growth, or to drain the water before the harvest,” said Mansaré, who also advocates the use of organic fertiliser.

He advises farmers to use locally-available resources wherever possible. He makes fertiliser from agricultural waste like cow dung and chicken manure, and the water for irrigation comes from the nearby Mériyéré River.

Rice is the staple food for Guineans, with national output ranging between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes per year, according to statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. But the country’s rice harvest is not enough to feed its population of 10.6 million, and Guinea imports between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes of rice per year.

An initiative launched by the government in 2011 is aimed at reducing the dependence on imports by increasing domestic production by farmers like Soumah.

“I grow a local rice variety called ‘Djoukémé’, which is prized for the way it expands when it’s cooked,” he told IPS.

With his rice farm providing him with an income of roughly 20,000 dollars a year, the 29-year-old has been able to send his children to school, build a house for himself, and even reinvest some of his profits in a small flock of sheep and a motorcycle, which he operates as a local taxi.

“The Soumah farm should be an example for other youth who balk at working the land for a living. They should be inspired by his success,” said Koleya Bangoura, a prominent personality in Somayah.

“Farming is difficult,” he conceded, “and young people don’t always have access to credit to finance their projects.”

Bangoura also noted a growing scarcity of land for aspiring farmers due to urban sprawl from the capital.

In May 2011, Guinea and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed an agreement providing 31 million dollars to support the country’s national investment programme in agriculture. The overall objective of the programme is to sustainably boost income and food security for poor rural people in Guinea.

“IFAD, working with Guinea, is investing a lot in response to the challenge of food insecurity,” said Jean Marc Telliano, Guinea’s agriculture minister, in Rome in February.

Visiting Somayah, IPS noted that there is a lack of information among potential beneficiaries as to how to access the new support.

“I heard that the conditions for selection for loans are very rigorous,” Soumah told IPS. “In any case, I don’t want to become dependent on support like this.”

Ibrahima Bangoura, from the Association of Youth for Agricultural Development, based in Conakry, said: “We have to improve the perception of financing amongst role-players in the agriculture sector. This is a key responsibility for the government and donors.”

Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country’s economic development. A major project to address this is now under way, but some Guineans are sceptical of its promises.

Guinea enjoys more rainfall than any other country in West Africa; the country is known as the water tower of the sub-region, with the headwaters of the Niger, Senegal and Gambia rivers all found within its borders. The country’s many rivers and tributaries should be valuable assets for the provision of fresh water, extensive irrigation agriculture, and large-scale hydroelectric power generation.

But despite its natural resources, this country of 10.6 million people faces problems providing adequate electricity and access to clean water for its development. With support from international lenders, Guinea is working to improve the potable water supply and to refurbish and extend the electricity network in the capital, Conakry, and beyond.

Successive regimes have promised water and electricity for all, but problems persist. In May 2009, the then-military government launched a campaign to drill boreholes throughout the poorer neighbourhoods of Conakry, and, in the words of a former government official, “put an end to the sorry spectacle of hundreds of women and children, basins and buckets in hand, in a perpetual search for water”.

But that project has not yielded the expected results due to a lack of external financing. Corruption, which has plagued the management of the water and electricity sectors, has also contributed to the failure of the programme, according to analysts.

A current report from the Energy Ministry shows that Guinea’s electricity supply is still characterised by decrepit equipment, high production costs, a high level of debt, and a lack of managerial capacity amongst officials.

Guinea’s new government, elected in a close contest at the end of 2010, is making fresh efforts to provide the country with better facilities to put an end to both frequent power cuts and long-standing water shortages in this country where half of the population lives in poverty, according to a 2010 report by the United Nations Development Programme.

“We have drawn up and initiated Guinea’s Fourth Water Project,” said Energy Minister Papa Koly Kourouma.

The project aims to improve infrastructure for production, bulk transfer, storage and distribution of water, including the refurbishing of 15,000 existing public water points. In the Kakimbo neighbourhood of the capital, four boreholes with a total capacity of 4,000 cubic metres per day will be drilled.

Kouroma said the project will cover all 33 urban centres in the country by 2015, increasing the supply of clean water in Conakry from 40 to 63 litres per person per day, and to 55 litres per person in other urban areas.

The project will cost 15.7 million dollars, with funding from the Islamic Development Bank. “Considering all the efforts being made here and there, there is good reason to be hopeful,” the minister told journalists in February.

In the energy sector, work on rehabilitating and extending the electricity network in Conakry is in progress, co-financed by the IDB and theAfrican Development Bank at a cost of around 265 million dollars. New thermal power plants for the capital will also be built.

But Guineans have expressed reservations about the work in progress.

Ramatoulaye Barry, a sociology student at the University of Conakry, wants to see the projects actually carried out.

“I hope that these efforts will be successful and that people will no longer be provoked to demonstrate their frustration violently. An armed officer was killed recently during protests against a power cut that occurred during the broadcast of the first match of the national football team at the African Cup of Nations (in Gabon in January).”

Mamady Touré, from the non-governmental organisation “Guinée Is Back”, questions the plans themselves. “Boreholes are a temporary solution,” he told IPS. “But generally in our country, temporary becomes permanent.” Touré’s group wants more permanent solutions, like a water supply network that is truly modern, from production to distribution to households.

Rachid Sylla, an engineer specialising in borehole drilling, cautions that the current plans for urban water supply also have some drawbacks. “If there is major, localised pumping (of underground water reserves), it could lead to buildings cracking,” he told IPS.

“Boreholes were drilled across Conakry with abandon by the military regime, which didn’t bother with the necessary technical studies. I hope that the current government will take careful account of these parameters in its water supply project.”

For Alpha Camara, a retired official of the public water utility, Société des Eaux de Guinée, “It is imperative to begin a programme to build hydroelectric dams. And in rural areas, while waiting for the construction of micro-dams, we need to drill modern wells for potable water and to install equipment to capture solar energy.” (END)

By Moustapha Keita and - -
CONAKRY, Mar 1 2012 (IPS)

Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country’s economic development. A major project to address this is now under way, but some Guineans are sceptical of its promises.

Guinea faces acute problems in the supply of clean water and electricity to its citizens, slowing the country's economic development. Credit: Soman/Wikkicommons

But despite its natural resources, this country of 10.6 million people faces problems providing adequate electricity and access to clean water for its development. With support from international lenders, Guinea is working to improve the potable water supply and to refurbish and extend the electricity network in the capital, Conakry, and beyond.

Successive regimes have promised water and electricity for all, but problems persist. In May 2009, the then-military government launched a campaign to drill boreholes throughout the poorer neighbourhoods of Conakry, and, in the words of a former government official, “put an end to the sorry spectacle of hundreds of women and children, basins and buckets in hand, in a perpetual search for water”.

But that project has not yielded the expected results due to a lack of external financing. Corruption, which has plagued the management of the water and electricity sectors, has also contributed to the failure of the programme, according to analysts.

A current report from the Energy Ministry shows that Guinea’s electricity supply is still characterised by decrepit equipment, high production costs, a high level of debt, and a lack of managerial capacity amongst officials.

Guinea’s new government, elected in a close contest at the end of 2010, is making fresh efforts to provide the country with better facilities to put an end to both frequent power cuts and long-standing water shortages in this country where half of the population lives in poverty, according to a 2010 report by the United Nations Development Programme.

“We have drawn up and initiated Guinea’s Fourth Water Project,” said Energy Minister Papa Koly Kourouma.

The project aims to improve infrastructure for production, bulk transfer, storage and distribution of water, including the refurbishing of 15,000 existing public water points. In the Kakimbo neighbourhood of the capital, four boreholes with a total capacity of 4,000 cubic metres per day will be drilled.

Kouroma said the project will cover all 33 urban centres in the country by 2015, increasing the supply of clean water in Conakry from 40 to 63 litres per person per day, and to 55 litres per person in other urban areas.

The project will cost 15.7 million dollars, with funding from the Islamic Development Bank. “Considering all the efforts being made here and there, there is good reason to be hopeful,” the minister told journalists in February.

In the energy sector, work on rehabilitating and extending the electricity network in Conakry is in progress, co-financed by the IDB and the African Development Bank at a cost of around 265 million dollars. New thermal power plants for the capital will also be built.

But Guineans have expressed reservations about the work in progress.

Ramatoulaye Barry, a sociology student at the University of Conakry, wants to see the projects actually carried out.

“I hope that these efforts will be successful and that people will no longer be provoked to demonstrate their frustration violently. An armed officer was killed recently during protests against a power cut that occurred during the broadcast of the first match of the national football team at the African Cup of Nations (in Gabon in January).”

Mamady Touré, from the non-governmental organisation “Guinée Is Back”, questions the plans themselves. “Boreholes are a temporary solution,” he told IPS. “But generally in our country, temporary becomes permanent.” Touré’s group wants more permanent solutions, like a water supply network that is truly modern, from production to distribution to households.

Rachid Sylla, an engineer specialising in borehole drilling, cautions that the current plans for urban water supply also have some drawbacks. “If there is major, localised pumping (of underground water reserves), it could lead to buildings cracking,” he told IPS.

“Boreholes were drilled across Conakry with abandon by the military regime, which didn’t bother with the necessary technical studies. I hope that the current government will take careful account of these parameters in its water supply project.”

For Alpha Camara, a retired official of the public water utility, Société des Eaux de Guinée, “It is imperative to begin a programme to build hydroelectric dams. And in rural areas, while waiting for the construction of micro-dams, we need to drill modern wells for potable water and to install equipment to capture solar energy.”

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