Walking a Mile in Their Shoes

(Sorry about the delay, but my computer has had problems with the display screen.)

 

written around June 20, 2014

With the rainy season having started, albeit slowly, planting season has arrived.   As I observe and participate in helping the communities get their crops in the ground, it is evident that I have much to learn, as well as to teach.  But when you are in Africa, you do as Africans do.

 

Most farming in Africa is small scale, subsistence farming.  Guineans, even if they do not consider themselves a farmer, sow a crop of some kind each rainy season.  The major cash crops that are typically planted in my region include peanuts, corn, and millet.  Also planted, but on a smaller scale, include okra, hibiscus, eggplant, and piment.  Because there is no electricity in my region, and (gasoline powered) machines are expensive, everything is done by hand.  This includes shelling the corn, pounding the millet, and shelling all the peanuts that are grown.  Some individuals or communities have been able to upgrade to a machine that processes the grain/nuts mechanically, but again, that requires money that not many people have right now.

 

Shelling peanuts with the ladies groupement in my village.

 

When the rainy season officially began back in May, most farmers began clearing their fields of weeds, saplings, and last year’s post harvest waste (typically corn and millet stalks.)  Unfortunately, they do this by burning the debris piles.  Ordinarily, these weeds and plant materials can be plowed into the soil, to slowly decompose over the next year.  But, when you are using a single blade plow pulled by a donkey or two young bulls, clearing the land of last year’s debris makes the work a lot easier.  Burning does add potassium and phosphorous to the soil.  But this generally is only short lived, and plants may not be able to completely access this sudden flush of nutrients.  Burning is detrimental to soil health for a number of reasons.  First, you lose precious nitrogen and carbon that are necessary for plant growth.  Second, you kill beneficial microbes that live in the soil and aid in a crop’s growth.  Lastly, you lose precious plant matter that creates humus and improves the soil’s overall health.  With sand being a primary component of the soil, the fields definitely could use some enrichment.

 

As for tilling the earth, using animals is the only option when you can’t afford to buy and maintain a tractor.  (I have seen tractors being used in Koundara, but they are rare.)  Initially, the young bulls must be trained to pull a plow and walk in a straight line (follow someone walking in front of them.)  Young bulls are used because they are much easier to handle.  Training involves a lot of whipping, which can lead to open sores on the bull’s back.  It is definitely an inconvenient truth about plowing with animals.   The animals endure suffering in order to be trained to do our work.  There is not an easy answer to this “problem,” except to help to develop the region so that people can afford to use tractors.  One option that I have thought about is to use a double blade plow with mature bulls which are accustomed to pulling a plow.  Once I’ve established some success, perhaps my community will be receptive to this idea.

My counterpart and his brother training 2 young bulls to plow.

My counterpart planting corn.

 

 

Another disadvantage to using the animals is that they can only be worked for 2-3 hours each day, so it is not possible to spend a couple of full days sowing your fields and be done.  At the moment, most crops in the region have not been planted due to the lack of consistent rain.  Yes, it is already well into the rainy season, and the rain is still inconsistent.  Villages here are getting a bit anxious, and just last night, my community spent several hours doing rain dances in an effort to affect a complex meteorological event.  Perhaps the lack of rain will remind the community of the pressing need to plant more trees,… many, many more trees. 

 

Because when you take, you must always replace!