Tag: Liberia
On assignment in Liberia for ICBA for the RESADE project from 4-5 September 2023
-
SMILES FROM THE POOREST OF THE POOR
I travelled to four countries in West Africa … four which are listed among the 20 ‘poorest’ nations in the world by various economic indicies. I have travelled to many ‘poor’ countries in my life but never this poor. I saw major cities that had not been electrified. I saw towns without mains water or sewage. I saw shacks serving as homes. I saw city roads that were nearly impassable. But I didn’t see malnourished people and I did not see misery. I didn’t see beggars. At least I didn’t in…
-
RISE AND SHINE WITH COWPEA FLOUR
The members of the Rise and Shine multipurpose cooperative in a village near Buchanan, Liberia have been growing cowpeas for as long as they can remember. They eat the peas and the greens and may also use it to feed their livestock. But they have never used cowpeas as a substitute for wheat flour. Most wheat is imported and yet cowpeas grow in their backyards. And cowpeas are rich in protein. So the team at Liberia’s Central Agricultural Research Institute taught the Rise and Shiners how to make cowpea flour and use…
-
IRON-TOLERANT RICE FOR LIBERIA
There are two types of rice. I’m not talking of basmati and jasmine and brown rice. There are two species of rice. The one most of us eat is Asian rice. The other is African rice. They’re both rice, but quite different genetically. In West Africa they plant both, but the African is the local. African rice has a slightly nuttier taste than Asian rice. West Africans eat a lot of rice and prepare a dish called jollof rice, which became my food of choice whenever we ate out. In the…
-
MULTIPLYING COWPEA SEEDS IN LIBERIA
You may not think you know what cowpeas are but by another name they may sound familiar. It’s thought the slave ships that departed from West Africa for three centuries carried not only slaves but also cowpea seeds. Some say the slaves brought that which is dearest to them and hid cowpea seeds in their hair. Others say the slave traders filled their hulls with the cowpeas as food. Regardless of how they arrived, they became an important food for slaves in the Americas where they are better known as black-eyed…
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.