Hidden treasures

By Prosper Mondé

Prosper Mondé, an agro-economist from Benin, believes that countries of the South will never be able to develop unless they make better use of the knowledge of the rural communities who account for the greater part of their population. Identifying this indigenous knowledge and harnessing it for development should be a priority and a mission for countries seeking to lift themselves out of poverty.

Many countries that are labelled as poor harbour extraordinary treasures of which they themselves are barely aware. When I say 'treasures' you may perhaps think I mean oil or other mined resources. No! I am talking about indigenous knowledge and the fact that farmers are living librarians of it.

Let me give you an example: the rural communities of southern Benin traditionally plant citrus fruit trees and keep vegetable gardens around private plots of land and Vodun centres. Aside from its ecological importance, this cultural practice also contributes to food security by guaranteeing a close supply of food. I have drawn on aspects of this tradition to develop my 'Nourishing Home' concept, something that I have been practising for decades. The idea is simple - contrary to what most people think, a house is not just bricks and mortar. It should also provide the people who live in it with vegetables and a few basic food products.

Environmental education begins at home

Take my house, for example: I have planted a hundred or so vegetable crops, including fruit plants (banana and avocado trees, pineapple, etc.) as well as vegetable and medicinal plants that you can no longer find easily at market. This sparks ideas in everyone who visits me. Education about the environment and the fight for food security must start at home. In the neighbourhood, when I am out in the field, wherever I go, I plant trees. I buy seeds and distribute them freely. Call me and I will be there!

Here is another example: the people of Benin love aklui, porridge made from fermented maize paste and served with sugar or honey for breakfast. Developed by rural communities, it can take hours or even days to prepare. To make it easier to produce and consume this dish, about 12 years ago researchers from Benin managed to convert mawê, the fermented maize paste, into dry granules, which are packaged and easy to keep.

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have also drawn on this improved technology and are selling small sachets of mawê granules at FCFA300 to 500 each (€0.45 to 0.75). All you have to do is pour the contents into boiling water and in 5 min, the aklui is ready! This product is now being marketed in several West African countries and even further afield. Think how many more SMEs and new jobs could be created, and the vast market that could open up, if we recorded each example of traditional culinary knowledge and put them to use!

Fighting collective ignorance

For some 20 years now, I have travelled throughout Benin as an official of the Ministry for Agriculture, and I have noticed that producers have developed and conserved a great many recipes and agrifood processing techniques. The same is true of other sectors such as traditional medicine and livestock keeping. Identifying and modernising this knowledge is crucial for cultural as well as socio-economic reasons. It is a way of conserving our biodiversity, encouraging local production and guaranteeing our food security.

Identifying this traditional knowledge and putting it to good use is more important than ever, given that our economies remain geared towards outside markets and that people, especially those living in towns, do not have any viable way of feeding themselves. You only have to look at the quantities of frozen meat from the West and rice from Asia being imported by a number of West African countries, products that are widely acknowledged as less nutritious than their local counterparts. Sorghum and millet are disappearing in some parts of southern Benin, though these crops play an important role during lean periods.

How can we reverse this trend? By fighting collective ignorance. In this respect, governments, national and international civil society organisations, researchers and journalists all have a major role to play. That is what I am trying to do, in a modest way, by spreading the word about my 'Nourishing Home' concept, developing and distributing leaflets on the nutritional role of cereals such as sorghum, and, since 1997, organising meetings from time to time between producers and processors to facilitate direct purchases of seeds, agricultural and other products. Everyone needs to contribute to this process; that is the price of development.

monde_prosper[AT]yahoo.fr