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With a gesture of his hand, Jean-Pierre Kamara shed a handful of small seeds on recently plowed land near his village at the foot of a mountain in southern Senegal. A youth team in front of him releases more clay soil to be sown, while the older villagers accompany, scratching the earth back into seed.

Just breaking at noon to refuel on beans and palm grapes, the village works methodically as a unit to grow fonio – a precious grain crucial to their diets that only takes days to germinate and can be harvested in as little as six weeks. Although laborious, growing fonio, one of the oldest cultivated grains in Africa, is simple and reliable, says Kamara’s Bedik.

Women prepare the evening meal, with fonio as the main ingredient

Growing naturally, they insist, where major crops such as wheat and rice are more difficult to cultivate. They are well adapted to climate, nutritious, taste good and can be stored longer than other grains.

“If you put in front of me some fonio and also those made from corn, I will get rid of the others because fonio is healthier. There are no chemicals that work; it just grows naturally and then we harvest it. We don’t add anything,” he said. Kamara.

The field is full of young fonio plants

Farmers plow the fields and prepare the soil to spread phonio seeds, which can be planted in rough and dry soil.

The benefits of fonio are so marked that academics and policymakers are now calling for wheat – and other indigenous foods, such as Ethiopian teff, as well as cassava and various millet and beans – to be embraced more widely across Africa to improve food security.

The move was when the UN warned that countries in the Horn of Africa were starving badly, while many others were greatly affected by the rise in wheat prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Makhtar Diop, managing director of the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, said last month that these crops are not working and need greater investment, research and marketing.

Prepare a meal with fonio (top), mixed with chicken (bottom left), and okra (bottom right)

These ancient foods, with greater nutritional benefits and resistance to drought, could change the continent’s dependence on imported wheat, rice and corn, which are often not readily grown in Africa but now dominate people’s diets.

The African Development Bank’s proposal to improve food security by investing $ 1bn (£ 840m) in growing wheat in Africa has been met with skepticism because few continents are suitable for crops.

What other crops could replace wheat?

Fonio is grown throughout west Africa but other parts of the continent have their own “orphan crops” (which are not often traded internationally). It offers nutritional benefits beyond simple calories, but is often overlooked as a possible solution to food insecurity on a larger scale. To see also : Are you traveling to Germany? Here’s what Americans need to know..

Millet Finger The grain nails on the head of Eleusine coracana resemble an open hand, giving the crop a more common name of millet fingers. Popular in east and central Africa, it is considered one of the most nutritious major crops, offering essential amino acids and fiber. They also contain more calcium than milk. In general, millets are considered a nutritious grain, grown in semi-arid climates, where the soil can often be inhospitable to other crops.

Cassava is an important source of calories, providing a reliable source of carbohydrates. In some African countries, it provides people 25% of their daily calorie intake. And yet grain is still neglected when it comes to research. Cassava is produced mostly by small farmers. Annual species, can grow in less fertile soils and can be left to be harvested only when needed.

Teff Known mostly for its use in injera, sour flat bread popularly eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea, teff provides protein, fiber and calcium and also has five times the levels of iron found in wheat – potentially making it useful for tackling anemia caused by iron deficiency. Researchers show that it can be beneficial for diabetic patients because carbohydrates are digested more slowly than other grains.

Senegal imports about 70% of its rice, which is a key ingredient of the nation’s modern diet. 436,000 tons of domestically produced are cultivated in four regions. Wheat, which is not grown in Senegal, will account for 2% of imports in 2020.

Senegal only produced 5,100 tonnes of fonio in 2019, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, with most growing in the southeastern Kedougou region. However, there is a movement to increase production, with neighboring Guinea producing 530,000 tonnes of wheat.

Women pounding fonio before sieving it (top) and cooking dinner (bottom). The woman on the right is separating the water from the newly absorbed fonio

Michel Ghanem, the agronomist who founded the Forgotten Crop Society, called for more investment in this neglected food.

“In sub-Saharan Africa, diets aren’t based on wheat. They’re shifting; they’re becoming wheat-based, unfortunately, which causes non-communicable diseases, obesity and all sorts,” said Ghanem.

“You have a lot of indigenous crops – such as teff, fonio, sorghum – that are still eaten by people today but have been ignored by funding agencies, international research organizations, but certainly not by consumers. And now we need to invest in these because they can close the gap [ food] that.

Researchers noted that these neglected foods had several nutritional benefits, often with a lower glycemic index rating than processed flour and white rice, while also containing important micronutrients. Research in the 1990s on African crops that were ignored by the U.S. National Council of Research found that phonio and finger millet are rich in the amino acid methionine, which is often deficient in western diets, while high teff of protein, amino acids and iron.

Fonio has long been misinterpreted by western researchers, who labeled it “hungry rice” because it is eaten more during food shortages due to its rapid and dependable growth.

However, Kamara says fonio not only satisfies hunger more than the dominant grains but also has a nuttier taste and texture that they savored.

“During the festival, when we have a lot of guests and want to honor others, we give them fonio – it’s a privilege,” said Kamara.

Edie Mukiibi, vice president of Slow Food International, whose campaign to protect threatened local food cultures, says imperialism imposed “monoculture” of agriculture in Africa and other colonial regions of the world, destroying biodiversity in agriculture.

Shops in the Kedougou area sell local cereals and fonio

Mukiibi says that under colonialism, large tracts of land were taken over for plantations to grow cash crops for export, such as sugar, tea and cocoa, while in the 20th century the “green revolution” introduced the idea of ​​high yield grain farming to tackle. starvation.

“Plantations continue to grow, supported by colonial governments in the global south, and they do not contribute to biodiversity. They clean large areas of a wide variety of lands, which were initially covered by traditional African trimmed farming systems or ‘milpa’ systems in Latin America. such as in Mexico, ”he said.

This, Mukiibi added, changed diets because people could no longer forage in land cleared for plantations.

He stated that indigenous grains are better suited to survive when grown with other crops, not such as mainstream imports, which need ecosystems adapted to ensure appropriate conditions.

Fonio has recently become more fashionable, appearing on restaurant menus in richer neighborhoods in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Recommended by doctors for diabetics, and also promoted by aid organizations and health food brands. Supporters of exports hope it will encourage farmers to grow more fonio by making it more profitable.

Farmer Aissatou Ndiye 75, planted Fonio and other crops on a 50 -hectare farm sold from a local shop in Kedougou

New York -based Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam is one of the most vocal supporters for fonio, founding the Yolélé brand to buy from small farmers and market wheat as a “superfood” in the west. Yolélé works with SOS Sahel, an aid organization that tackles unemployment in the region by helping farmers improve their land and increase fonio production. The NGO wants to increase production by 900 tonnes by 2024.

Aissatou Ndiaye, 75, who planted fonio on 50 hectares (124 hectares) of land near Kedougou and imported it from neighboring Mali and Guinea for sale, said he benefited from NGO support and funding but he was concerned that some new interests. is to take crops away from people in the area.

One of the communities that grows fonio in southeastern Senegal

“There are European buyers who come here carrying big containers, fill them with harvest from their local partners and sell them all abroad. They have to feed the population here. I can’t support them to take it all and sell it outside. It’s not fair. It’s not fair. does not help the farmers, ”said Ndiaye.

“There is huge potential to grow fonio, you can grow as much as you want, produce better than rice or corn – the only problem is that we have to help improve processing for harvest.

“I want bigger than me, but I don’t have a machine to harvest anymore,” he said.

Ndiaye acknowledged that research would be needed on how the technology could reduce the toll of manually cutting fonio grass and removing husks. But he is concerned that researchers can also focus on changing wheat to ensure higher yields.

“We need more research, but they shouldn’t spoil or damage; they shouldn’t add anything to it,” he said. “It seems good for improving results but not good for nutrition. Natural phonio – I want it to be protected and not damaged so that it becomes like no other food.

Count about 150 g feed 4 people. Grind the grains in a small fine grill sieve (a bit like quinoa). Dip it in cold water (1 volume of fonio to 2.5 volumes of water), evaporate and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

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Does fonio raise blood sugar?

Phonio has a very low glycemic index, so it is absorbed into the body slowly and does not cause a spike in blood sugar levels like other processed grains. On the same subject : A state food preparation class was offered at Coffee Co..

Why is fonio a carbohydrate? Carbohydrates. There are 39 grams of carbohydrates in a serving of raw, a quarter cup of fonio.

Can diabetics eat fonio?

3. Friendly DIABETES. According to the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP), another reason that phonio is a suitable option for diabetics is because it contains a greater amount of insulin -releasing amino acids (valine, leucine, isoleucine) compared to other cereals such as rice, corn or. This may interest you : EPA issues health advisories for PFOA, PFOS GenX and PFBS chemicals | Knowledge. gedangâ µ.

What is the glycemic index of fonio?

The Phonio Glycemic Index was considered an intermediate GI at 66; in comparison, short-grain white rice, high-GI wheat, has a GI of 83. Fonio fits into most diet plans, but is not gluten-free.

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Qui mange le millet ?

Main SPECIES gourmandes de MILLET: pinson des arbres, pinson du Nord, chardonneret élégant, tarin des aulnes, bruant jaune, bruant zizi, moineau domestique, moineau friquet, tourterelle turque …

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What is fonio called in Ghana?

In Ghana, fonio is cultivated mostly in the eastern region of Yendi, specifically in the Saboba-Chereponi and Zabzugu-Tatali Districts in the Northern Region by the people of Anufus alias Chokosis and Konkomba who call nvoni and ekpui respectively.

What is fonio in English?

Is fonio processed?

Processing â € œdreamingâ € The challenge with fonio is processing. The grains in the millet family, have very small seeds, which makes every step in processing difficultâ € ”from the beginning of harvest to hulling to hand cleaning. “It’s extraordinarily labor intensive to process,” says Carlson.

Where is fonio grown in Ghana?

In Ghana, fonio production has reached as far east as Yendi in the administrative districts of Saboba-Chereponi and Zabzugu-Tatale. The crop is especially popular among Anufo, Bassare, Kabre and Konkomba.

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