The villagers of Atti-Apedokoe in Togo love their couscous. For generations, they’ve made it with maize (corn). But maize isn’t terribly resilient to all the challenges that Mother Nature is throwing at our farming systems these days.
So scientists at the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture – ICBA suggested the villagers try making their couscous with sorghum. They weren’t familiar with the crop but they were game to give it a go. After all, sorghum is a pretty tough crop and can tolerate the rising levels of salinity that the villagers are seeing in the soils better than maize.
Two women of the village, Emefa Ahatefou and Adjo Akana, started making their couscous with sorghum. Nutritionally, there’s not a whole lot of difference between the two crops but the women loved sorghum as they got more ‘volume’. Sorghum simply has better yields in marginal environments. The sorghum provides them a welcome alternative when the maize yields may be down.
And the taste? After sampling Emefa and Adjo’s couscous I can attest that sorghum couscous is mighty delicious.
